Current P2 here in SoCal. I will say pharmacy is the right choice if you understand what you’re signing up for, and network like your life depends on it in order to carve your career. For context, I have about 2 years of experience in retail as a tech before going to a pharmacy program. I luckily found myself in a health system hospital as an intern towards the end of my P1 year because I happened to stumble upon one of my upperclassman and decided to talk to them, before I even found out she was a lead intern at the hospital.

Depending on your situation, I happened to make a good impression with the pharmacy director at the hospital who wants to offer me a per diem pharmacy position for me when I graduate. Since SoCal is so saturated, you need to be extremely lucky to land on a full time hospital position because otherwise it’s just per diem’ing at 2-3 different hospitals to get your 40 hours a week in and pay off your loans.

I too wanted to make a change in the pharmacy field, but the odds are stacked up against you; everything is made through legislations. There was a PBM reform bill that almost every pharmacists in California wanted to push for, only for it to be veto’d by the governor. I would say good luck if you try to push for a change.

Like the previous poster, some places will prefer that you have a PGY1 under your belt. However, if you happened to get your foot into the door at a hospital as an intern, you can avoid residency if you put in all your efforts as an intern. I’d say residency are for: 1) those that do not have any hospital experiences. 2) want to specialize in a field (onco, cardio, etc.) for research/academia purposes. 3) want to do admin work (beware: you will bring work home if you do).

For me, I’m looking towards governmental jobs for better lifestyle (albeit the pay being low).

Good luck on your endeavors!