A high school job led Amanda Daniels to her career. After one day of working in a fast-food restaurant when she was a sophomore, she quit and took a job in a retail pharmacy.

"I had a chance to learn on the job, counting tablets and ringing up customers," she said. "I liked working in the pharmacy so much that I decided to become a pharmacy technician."

Today, Daniels works at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. She earned her bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Spelman College in Atlanta and worked in several internships to help determine her career path.

"I realized that pharmacy was where I wanted to be," she said.

Daniels continued to work in a retail pharmacy for about six years before joining the staff at Scottish Rite a little more than three years ago.

"I was looking for another challenge, but most hospitals wouldn't hire me without hospital experience," she said. "Scottish Rite gave me the opportunity to train here."

Daniels' job as a hospital pharmacy technician differs from the retail setting in several ways: She doesn't work a cash register and she doesn't deal with insurance companies, but she does compound more medicines.

"In the hospital setting, I've learned a lot more about drugs, how they interact with other drugs and how to compound medicines," she said. "There are more details about chemistry."

Daniels also gets to know her patients, making rounds each day to deliver medicines.

"After seeing their names on the labels, it's great to stop by and visit with the patients and their families," she said. "Some of our patients are 'frequent fliers,' who are in and out of the hospital, so they'll even stop by the pharmacy when they come back to tell us they're here."

Sometimes birthdays are celebrated at the hospital. "You can't not stop in and celebrate with them," she said.

Daniels prepares bags of electrolytes and minerals for young patients who can't take food by mouth.

"We prepare oral medications, intravenous medications, chemotherapy and perinatal nutrition," she said. "We do a lot more than count pills."

The average starting pay for pharmacy technicians is in the mid-$20,000s. Hours are flexible, depending on the setting.

The job can be emotionally draining.

"Sometimes we lose a patient, and that's really hard on everyone here," she said. "But what we do is generally very rewarding. It's good when we see the patients go home and grow up being able to do all the things that they couldn't do before."