Here is the page from the Occupational Outlook Handbook

I used to be a pharmacy technician, I got a regular job working on the shop side of a pharmacy, i shown some commitment, then when a vacancy came up I got the training and the job, you know its a more stressful job than you may think

@allen: how long were you at that job? did you not like it?

I did like it but we were only a small pharmacy and we were right next door to a large health centre, so it was very busy, you see when people are ill they become very hard to please, we would quite often have a two hour wait for prescriptions, don’t get me wrong, its a really good job, theres always new things to learn and a lot of needs to be met, I had a good three years as a pharmacy technician, now I’m training to be a psychiatric nurse, so I’m still using what I learned, plus I’m English, you might be an american, and I don’t know what pharmacys are like over, if you do go for it, good luck

I was a pharmacy technician for 5 years. I worked in a hospital though. You do not have to take any courses to be one. I just applied for a license through the state, paid $30 & poof, I was a pharmacy technician. I was trained on the job. You can study online and take a test to become a certified tech and make a little more $. Usually your employer will reimburse you for the cost of the test.

Many pharmacies require you to be certified or to get certified within a period of time after being hired. Get Mosby’s “Pharmacy Technician – Principles and Practice” by Teresa Hopper. Study metric/household/apothecary conversions, generic/brand names for drugs, side effects, etc. Learn all of the math involved. Alligation, drip rates, compounding, etc. Study pharmacy laws, like OBRA 90, Poison Prevention Act, etc. Being a certified technician will help you.