I wasn't able to upload my chart for last week, so here it is:)
I know its not clear, I took it from my phone and its the best out of all..
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Get into Action!
Exercise #1
I wasn't in class last wednesday but my two steps to reach my goal was:
1. Call neighborhood pharmacies to see if they are hiring
2. Meet with counselor, sign up for summer school and plan out rest of the classes I need to take, when I should take it and when I should take my PCATs.
I did my second step first. I met with my academic counselor during spring break and planned out the schedule with her. I'm also planning on taking PCATs next fall semester after studying for it this summer. I signed up for summer school today.
However, I didn't have any luck with the first step. I called 1 Wal-Mart, 3 Walgreens and 1 CVS and none of them are hiring. I was pretty disappointed after that so I didn't really call any other places. I guess I shouldn't have given up but I was discouraged with all the NOs!!
Exercise #2
I already finished all of my interviews. However, I e-mailed one of the contacts that I got from one of the person I interviewed and she've been giving me information about Pharmacy schools.
I wasn't in class last wednesday but my two steps to reach my goal was:
1. Call neighborhood pharmacies to see if they are hiring
2. Meet with counselor, sign up for summer school and plan out rest of the classes I need to take, when I should take it and when I should take my PCATs.
I did my second step first. I met with my academic counselor during spring break and planned out the schedule with her. I'm also planning on taking PCATs next fall semester after studying for it this summer. I signed up for summer school today.
However, I didn't have any luck with the first step. I called 1 Wal-Mart, 3 Walgreens and 1 CVS and none of them are hiring. I was pretty disappointed after that so I didn't really call any other places. I guess I shouldn't have given up but I was discouraged with all the NOs!!
Exercise #2
I already finished all of my interviews. However, I e-mailed one of the contacts that I got from one of the person I interviewed and she've been giving me information about Pharmacy schools.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
First Step
So my first step was to study over the weekend for my midterm on Thursday and I did! However, I went to Florida over the weekend so I wasn't able to get a lot done as I planned but I did get some stuff done on the plane and did hw there!!
More interviews:)
So this week I interviewed two people: Denisha Dade and Gloria Choi.
Denisha Dade is a Pharmaceutical Business major in Ohio Northern University. She likes the program so far matter of fact she used to be in the Pharmacy program and she likes this much better. There's only two schools in US that specifically focuses on Pharmaceutical Business. When i asked her about the program itself, she said its not easy because you still need to take science and math classes and combine it with business class but she likes it much better than the Pharmacy classes. She has a management concentration and still needs to take biology, anatomy and physiology and chemistry. She is really happy with her decision of switching to this because she is more confident that she could be better as a Pharmaceutical businesswoman rather than a Pharmacist. After talking to her, I am a bit interested in this field just in case Pharmacy doesn't work out for me. It seems interesting and challenging and also will be able to work with a lot of pharmacy corporations. However, I can still work for other companies even though I have a concentration for Pharmacy.
The second person I interviewed was Gloria Choi and she is a Pharmaceutical sales woman in New York. In college, she was a sociology major and didn't take any science classes. Upon graduation, she worked with Enterprise and then moved on to Johsnson and Johnson and after that worked for Glassy's McClient(i don't think i spelled this right) for three years in Manhattan and moved to a smaller company with a promotion and that's where she is working now. When I asked her how she got into, she said that you have to learn about different products by yourself and then you go to a training session where they teach you more. It is important that you have the drive to learn because it is pretty much like homeschooling except you are the teacher and student and it is very easy to slack but more important that you don't! The experience in this field really depends with individual company and the group of people that you work with and your management. I also learned that you would have to travel couple of times a year and the best part of the job is that your expenses are covered! You get a company car, bonuses, decent pay and expenses during traveling is also covered. There are also many factors that affect the selling which could affect your perspective about this job. She told me it could get very challenging depending on doctors, pharmacists, insurance company(which all play an important role in selling). However, overrall she've been with this profession for a long time and she likes the challenges that she faces. Yes there are days where she doesn't like it and wants to quit but then she likes what she does soo much to just quit in a day!
I interviewed these two people and got two more contacts from them to see what my options are if Pharmacy School doesn't work out for me and so far I like what's infront of me and I'm seriously going to keep this in my mind. Also, I have to be honest, I'm starting to like this interviewing process and starting to realize that reaching out to people is not soo bad:)
Denisha Dade is a Pharmaceutical Business major in Ohio Northern University. She likes the program so far matter of fact she used to be in the Pharmacy program and she likes this much better. There's only two schools in US that specifically focuses on Pharmaceutical Business. When i asked her about the program itself, she said its not easy because you still need to take science and math classes and combine it with business class but she likes it much better than the Pharmacy classes. She has a management concentration and still needs to take biology, anatomy and physiology and chemistry. She is really happy with her decision of switching to this because she is more confident that she could be better as a Pharmaceutical businesswoman rather than a Pharmacist. After talking to her, I am a bit interested in this field just in case Pharmacy doesn't work out for me. It seems interesting and challenging and also will be able to work with a lot of pharmacy corporations. However, I can still work for other companies even though I have a concentration for Pharmacy.
The second person I interviewed was Gloria Choi and she is a Pharmaceutical sales woman in New York. In college, she was a sociology major and didn't take any science classes. Upon graduation, she worked with Enterprise and then moved on to Johsnson and Johnson and after that worked for Glassy's McClient(i don't think i spelled this right) for three years in Manhattan and moved to a smaller company with a promotion and that's where she is working now. When I asked her how she got into, she said that you have to learn about different products by yourself and then you go to a training session where they teach you more. It is important that you have the drive to learn because it is pretty much like homeschooling except you are the teacher and student and it is very easy to slack but more important that you don't! The experience in this field really depends with individual company and the group of people that you work with and your management. I also learned that you would have to travel couple of times a year and the best part of the job is that your expenses are covered! You get a company car, bonuses, decent pay and expenses during traveling is also covered. There are also many factors that affect the selling which could affect your perspective about this job. She told me it could get very challenging depending on doctors, pharmacists, insurance company(which all play an important role in selling). However, overrall she've been with this profession for a long time and she likes the challenges that she faces. Yes there are days where she doesn't like it and wants to quit but then she likes what she does soo much to just quit in a day!
I interviewed these two people and got two more contacts from them to see what my options are if Pharmacy School doesn't work out for me and so far I like what's infront of me and I'm seriously going to keep this in my mind. Also, I have to be honest, I'm starting to like this interviewing process and starting to realize that reaching out to people is not soo bad:)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Interviews Pt.2!!
So for this week, I interviewed two more people who are working in a profession that I'm slightly interested in. Last week I interviewed my uncle and aunt who were both pharmacists and got their opinion about this field. However there were not able to answer some of my questions and since I knew both of them, I wanted to get a outside perspective about the Pharmacy field. So I decided to go the Walmart Pharmacy Department on Friday night and see if I can talk to the Pharmacist there. Fortunately, I was able to talk to the Pharmacy manager there and he told me to come in on Saturday so I can ask him few questions. Unfortunately, when I went in Saturday, I found out that he also went to school in India (I guess it was my fault for not asking him on Friday) but he still answered some of my questions. His name is Chirag Doshi and he is the Pharmacy Manager at Walmart Pharmacy in Niles. He have been working there for a year now since the store opened up and before that he used to work for Walgreens. What drove him to becoming a pharmacist was that he really likes helping people and he said he gets to help a lot more people at Walmart than Walgreens because the Pharmacy is bigger and some of the medicines are cheaper so a lot more people come to Walmart and therefore he has an impact on greater amount of people. And I saw what he meant by a lot more people coming by the Pharmacy because just in ten minutes, he had two phone calls and consulted a patient. He told me that school is really hard regardless to where you get the degree and you really need a passion for this otherwise you'll end up regreting it. Since he is the manager, his work also consists of paper work for the entire pharmacy department. I was not able to ask him a lot of questions since he was in a rush. But hopefullly next time, I can talk to someone that went to Pharmacy school in America so I can ask them about their experience while in school and job life after.
The second person I interviewed was my cousin's friend and she just graduated from Occupational Therapy and is studying for the board exam. She is planning on taking that sometime in April so she is currently not working but I was able to find out about how OT schools are like. She got her bachelor's in Biology at Purdue University, IN and then went to Midwester University,IL to get her Master's Degree in OT. After she passes her board exam, she is looking forward to working at small clinics like most Occupational Therapists. (You could work at Hospitals,health centers etc but she wants to work at small clinics and really get to know her clients) She said OT schools are not easy and there were numerous times where she just wanted to give up. But she kept fighting and was determined to become an OT. She said school was tough because she didn't really get a 2-3 month summer vacation like every one else. It was very fast paced and it is important not to fall behind because once you do, then it could be very difficult to get back on track and she actually knows someone that dropped out of the program. When I asked her what made her chose OT as a profession, she really couldn't think of a specific reason. She said she knew she wanted a professional degree and OT was the shortest since PT schools require Doctrate now and its four and she ended up really liking the profession and got lucky. OT school has a lot of science and study of motion and you have to pay close attention to small details because out in the real world, you'll need to use that as you work with patients and helping with their small joint movements. I asked her if she is planning on going back to school and she said as of now, NO!
The second person I interviewed was my cousin's friend and she just graduated from Occupational Therapy and is studying for the board exam. She is planning on taking that sometime in April so she is currently not working but I was able to find out about how OT schools are like. She got her bachelor's in Biology at Purdue University, IN and then went to Midwester University,IL to get her Master's Degree in OT. After she passes her board exam, she is looking forward to working at small clinics like most Occupational Therapists. (You could work at Hospitals,health centers etc but she wants to work at small clinics and really get to know her clients) She said OT schools are not easy and there were numerous times where she just wanted to give up. But she kept fighting and was determined to become an OT. She said school was tough because she didn't really get a 2-3 month summer vacation like every one else. It was very fast paced and it is important not to fall behind because once you do, then it could be very difficult to get back on track and she actually knows someone that dropped out of the program. When I asked her what made her chose OT as a profession, she really couldn't think of a specific reason. She said she knew she wanted a professional degree and OT was the shortest since PT schools require Doctrate now and its four and she ended up really liking the profession and got lucky. OT school has a lot of science and study of motion and you have to pay close attention to small details because out in the real world, you'll need to use that as you work with patients and helping with their small joint movements. I asked her if she is planning on going back to school and she said as of now, NO!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Interviews!!
So for this week, I interviewed two of my family members who are both pharmacists. However, both of don't live in Chicago, so it had to be a phone interview. First I interviewed my uncle who is working as a Pharmacist at a Walgreens in Tampa, Fl. He is the one who always told me look into Pharmacy career or at least try to see if I would like it because he loves what he does more than anything (well may be not his family..?). He got his Pharmacy Degree in India(where it is a masters course rather than doctrate). After he was done with school, he got married to my aunt and came to America to be with her and start a family. When he came here, he had to take more classes and an exam to fulfill the requirements to become a Pharmacist here in America. He fulfilled all of his credit hours and started working as a Pharmacy tech first to get some hands on experience before taking the exam because the whole drug making and different combination of drugs to treat diseases and stuff intrested him very much. After working as a Pharmacy Technician for almost two years and studying for the board exam in between, he decided to take the exam for the first time to become a licensed Pharmacist. Unfortunately, he didn't pass the exam the first time. But what I liked about him was that he didn't give up! The fact that he didn't pass the board didn't discourage him, instead it made him more motivated and pushed him to work harder and study more. I think my uncle was really unlucky when it came to taking the board exam because when he took it again for the fifth or sixth time, he lost it by a point which is very sad. But he was strong enough to keep trying and working as a pharmcy tech instead of giving up and moving on to a different career. After trying for numerous time, he took a break from taking the boards and just worked as a pharmacy tech. After moving to florida and trying it for almost ten years, he finally passed the board and he became a pharmacist and started working as one at a Walgreens. One thing that he learned throughout his journey is that not go give up on something that you reallly want. He also said that since he struggled so much to get to where he is right now, he appreciates what he has a lot more and enjoys it a lot too. From hearing his story, I also learned that I need to be more determined about what I want in life and fight for it if I really want it because not everything comes easy in life!
The second interview that I had was with my aunt who is working at a clinic in Indiana. Like my uncle, she also got her degree in India but when she came here, she had to go to school here for two more years. Unlike my uncle, she didn't work when she was in school, but worked as a pharm tech before she took a her board to become a licensed pharmacist. She worked at Walgreens too as a pharm tech before taking her exam. She was lucky enough to pass the exam on the first try and got her license. After she got her license her and family moved to Indiana and she started working at a private clinic, which she said is completely different from working for a big company like Walgreens. At Walgreens, she said they had many patients and every case or prescriptions were different from each other. However, at her clinic now, it is very small and few number of patients. She said it is also because she lives in a remote area and the population around there is very small. When I asked her which one she liked better, she said even though it has less benefits, she liked working at the clinic better than Walgreens because she felt like she had a biggern impact on her clients because she knows all of them very well!
After I interviewed these two, I think I want to give Pharmacy a real chance and see if I'm going to like it. However, I think I also need to get different people's perspectives rather than just family members. So I landed myself a intership/volunteer oppurtunity at the Pharmacy Department at Glenbrook Hospital and I'm going to be working there over the summer, so I'll get to know more about this field and what it is really like and why my uncle loves it soo much!
The second interview that I had was with my aunt who is working at a clinic in Indiana. Like my uncle, she also got her degree in India but when she came here, she had to go to school here for two more years. Unlike my uncle, she didn't work when she was in school, but worked as a pharm tech before she took a her board to become a licensed pharmacist. She worked at Walgreens too as a pharm tech before taking her exam. She was lucky enough to pass the exam on the first try and got her license. After she got her license her and family moved to Indiana and she started working at a private clinic, which she said is completely different from working for a big company like Walgreens. At Walgreens, she said they had many patients and every case or prescriptions were different from each other. However, at her clinic now, it is very small and few number of patients. She said it is also because she lives in a remote area and the population around there is very small. When I asked her which one she liked better, she said even though it has less benefits, she liked working at the clinic better than Walgreens because she felt like she had a biggern impact on her clients because she knows all of them very well!
After I interviewed these two, I think I want to give Pharmacy a real chance and see if I'm going to like it. However, I think I also need to get different people's perspectives rather than just family members. So I landed myself a intership/volunteer oppurtunity at the Pharmacy Department at Glenbrook Hospital and I'm going to be working there over the summer, so I'll get to know more about this field and what it is really like and why my uncle loves it soo much!
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