Job Description & Duties
What Does a CVS Pharmacy Technician Do?
CVS pharmacy technicians carry a number of important responsibilities. On a typical day, pharmacy techs collaborate with pharmacists to ensure customers receive quality care and meet all health and safety standards and protocols.
Additional Daily Duties
Specific job duties include sorting pills, creating labels, reviewing medication side effects, greeting customers, and ringing up purchases. Some CVS locations also contain drive-thru windows, which pharmacy technicians often operate.
Additional pharmacy tech job duties vary by location. Training for pharmacy technician jobs usually includes some relevant college coursework and up to a week of in-store training.
Salary and Compensation
How Much Do They Get Paid?
A full-time position by nature, pharmacy technicians generally work four to five eight-hour shifts per week. Pay starts around $11.00 per hour for CVS pharmacy technicians. The average pharmacy technician at CVS can earn up to $15.00 an hour.
Are There Any Other Benefits?
Time and experience may increase salary options. CVS also offers employment benefits to qualified pharmacy technicians, including healthcare coverage, paid time off, insurance options, and 401(k) retirement plans.
Next:
How to Become a Certified Pharmacy Tech
Review the CVS Application page.
CVS Pharmacy Technician Interview Video
Below are interviews with actual CVS Pharmacy Techs. These videos will help you get a feel for the job.
Video Transcript
Question: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Answer: My job title is pharmacy tech, and my job duties are to come in and fill prescriptions, put prescriptions in the computer, allow people to come and pick up their prescriptions, and also to make sure insurance companies and everybody’s insurance goes through perfectly well when they’re picking up their medicine.
Question: What was the work environment like?
Answer: It’s actually really fun. It’s very laidback. We do have our rules and regulations like any other company would. Most of the time because we get so busy, we stand up and eat. The pharmacist will treat us to lunch or… There is a dress code, but it’s also very lax. As long as you don’t come in there with jeans on or leggings or something or a super short skirt, clothes with holes in it, you’re fine in that regard, as well. It can get overwhelming at times, though it’s good to have people who support you and don’t actually push you farther into that stress zone. It’s really cool.
Question: What was your favorite part about working there?
Answer: I would definitely say my favorite part is the people. CVS is like a people kind of company. I don’t know if they do personality tests or something when they hire you, but I know that the people I work with are really good people. I can talk to them on a regular day basis even when I’m not at work. I would definitely say the people. Even the customers are really nice. They have their bad days like we have our bad days, but it’s the people.
Question: Please describe a typical day as an employee.
CVS Pharmacy Technician: When I first come in, I go to the back, drop my coat off because you can’t wear anything with a hood or anything with deep pockets in it. It’s just precaution measures because you’re working with medicine, narcotics, and stuff like that. Then, I go out and I go to clock in and everything. I go and look at a duty board. The pharmacy is set up with four sections: drop off, production, and pick-up.
Drop off is where someone will come up and be like, “Oh, I got a prescription from my doctor today.” That’s where you have to input all the prescriptions.
Production is where you would actually fill the prescription. That’s where you would put the medicine in the bottle, put the label on it. Then, you send it to verification, but only the pharmacist works there, to ensure that everything is okay.
Then, pick-up is where customers would come up and you ring them out and give them their prescriptions. I figure out which one I’m doing, I go to that, and then we rotate throughout the day. That’s pretty much it for the day.
Question: Did you experience any promotions or career growth?
Answer: Yeah, I actually started out as the cashier, and then I was promoted to a pharmacy tech. I applied, but in terms of the pharmacy tech, I’ve only been doing it for six months, so I’m not going to get promoted to lead pharmacy technician or anything like that. I wouldn’t even want to do that. That’s pretty much it in terms of that.
Question: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Answer: The application process from the transition from a cashier to a pharmacy tech – you still have to do the basic things. I had to go on the website. I had to apply to be a pharmacy tech, and then you call. I called the pharmacist and was like… You go and you do an interview. Usually your interview gets out in about a week. You go and do an interview. Then, you have to do these online trainings through this website called the Learnet. You have to do… they’re called modules. It’s basically teaching you about all the different stuff that you would have to deal with at the pharmacy, like I said the drop off and production and all that stuff. You take classes. It’s about a month. I would say like a month and maybe a week depending on how open your schedule is. I’m a full-time student, so my training took forever. That was on me; it wasn’t CVS. It’s really fast and efficient. It just depends on how open your schedule is. You can get it done if you have a really flexible, open schedule in about two or three weeks.
Question: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Answer: When you go in for an interview to be a pharmacy tech, they really like to know if you have any past experience.
- Have you ever been a pharmacy tech before anywhere?
- Have you ever dealt with medication?
- Your educational background: Are you graduated from college? High school?
- What are some of your past jobs? Your experiences?
- How well do you work with other people? Because, like I said, it’s a team project.
- How well do you work under a stressful environment? Because it can get stressful at times. This isn’t like all CVS’s, but sometimes pharmacies can get really busy.
- I would also say one of the other things they would ask you is: Are you available and a very time efficient person?
- Will you come in on time?
- Would you be able to stay if need be?
- If you’re supposed to be from nine to five, could you stay to six just in case we got busy?
- Would you be able to come in if somebody calls off?
- Are you flexible enough where you can come in maybe a Tuesday, but you only are scheduled to work maybe Wednesdays and Fridays?
Question: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Answer: Be open-minded. Like I said earlier, be willing to learn. Be willing to be flexible with your schedule. Step in if somebody gets sick or they have to leave during half their shift or anything like that. Just be open-hearted. Just be very sympathetic and empathetic to people who come in who maybe can’t afford their medications. Just be very willing to work with people because they’re going to be upset, and you have to know how to deal with all personality types who come in. They can be mad one day, or really one second, and then get really happy the next. Just be willing to work with all types of people and be flexible.
CVS Pharmacy Technician Interview Video 2
Video Transcript
Question: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Answer: Job title is pharmacy technician. Primary duties, there are different stations, so sometimes you had to count the pills, read prescriptions, take prescriptions over the phone from doctors, put prescriptions into the computers and sell the prescriptions to the customer.
Question: What was the work environment like?
Answer: The work environment on a busy day was chaotic, really chaotic, because sometimes stuff doesn’t get done and if it gets slow at one point, it just slows up the whole day. It’d just get more backed up and backed up. On a good day when everything gets done right, if you had a good team that day, it’s easy.
Question: Please describe a typical day as an employee.
Answer: I’d come in, look at the board. They had a board for stations that you go to. I might start off at Drop Off, so for maybe the next two hours, I’d be there. People would drop off their prescriptions, I’d write down their information. Then the next two hours, I’d be at another station, so I would count pills, type up labels, stuff like that. Then the rest of the day, I’d be at Pick Up, so I’d be selling it back to the customer.
Question: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Answer: It was like any other application. You apply and after you apply, you take the questionnaire. Once you take the questionnaire, if you do get called back for the interview, you get an interview. They ask you questions like, “Say an old woman’s hard of hearing and she can’t understand what you’re saying, how are you going to help her?” Stuff like that. If you do well in the interview, there’s a background check and drug screening process. If you do well on those, then you’ve got the job.
Question: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Answer: They asked questions like, “Have you had any experience with working with people?” Questions like, “Do you use drugs?” because you’re working in a pharmacy. What was another question they asked me? All the questions were about the same, just like that.
Question: What set you apart from other candidates?
Answer: In high school, I did a two year program for pharmacy technicians, so that’s probably what got me the job. That’s how I kind of already knew how to do everything before I even went. Drop offs, how to label prescriptions and stuff like that. I already knew how to do it when I got there.
Question: How were you notified that you received the job?
Answer: Once I applied, it took a long time. It took about two months for them to get back to me, but once I got through the interview, after that, about a week.
Question: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
CVS Pharmacy Technician: Try to go in with experience. When you’re officially hired, they’ll send you through a training process, so you’d go to a class for two days of the week. Pay attention in the class, because it’s important. They tell you what you need to do. You don’t want to go back on the first day after they’ve just told you what to do and you don’t do it right.
