Job characteristics and factors influencing career choices of pharmacy graduates from UiTM / Nurul Ain Omar

Background: In 1996, pharmacy course was only started as a Diploma programme under the Faculty of Sciences, Institut Teknologi Mara (ITM). On l " August 2001, the Faculty of Pharmacy was established. The first batch was taken for the May-November 2002 academic session for Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) and consist only 29 students. Up to now, there are 13 batches all together and 9 batches already graduated. Objective: The aim of this study were to explore the job characteristics, education plan and also factors that could affect the career choices among the pharmacy graduates. Method: This was a quantitative study. Participants were among the pharmacy graduates in University Technology MARA (UiTM), Puncak Alam. The questionnaires were distributed through online survey using google form and after a month a reminder was sent. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. Result: More than half of the respondents were women and came in age range of 25-30 years old. Majority of the respondents are working in the government sector and only a few of them moved to private sector. Furthermore, most of them also preferred not to further their study and only some of them want to further studies. Many of the respondents who want to further studies still do not decide the location to study. Salary has been the top most aspect that affects their career choices followed by preferred field and job security.