How To

Sometimes changing jobs is inevitable. There are a myriad of reasons – your partner may have secured an opportunity of a lifetime elsewhere, you may need to move a little closer to family as they need extra care in these trying times or you decide that now is the time to step up, move ahead in your career and changing jobs is the most viable option. So, having made the big decision, it’s now time to start working on your Social Media Veterinary Career Strategy…

As the world starts taking puppy and kitten and duckling steps back toward some semblance of normalcy in varying degrees around the world, for many the challenges have been a wake-up call. Veterinary nursing is a calling and the passion and care that our Veterinary Technicians and Nurses display, often the front line of veterinary care, is to be admired. No practice can exist without your compassion, commitment and knowledge. The personal rewards are to be cherished, but the reality is that we all have to live in an ever-expensive world. It’s not until you step up a few rungs that your income starts to meet your lifestyle and gives you that little bit more to build a buffer for the unexpected be it car repairs, family support or yes, a pandemic. So to help you make that next step or three in your career, we asked some of the leading Vet Nurses and Technicians around the world who have achieved personal, professional and financial success, to share their advice on accelerating your career.

As a caregiver you are rewarded in your field in special ways. The ability to heal and help is virtuous and important. You dedicate your life to this work knowing that the magnitude of your efforts and the outcomes are genuinely rewarding at the most satisfying level. But you also know that it can come with great internal costs – vulnerability, occasional helplessness and that there will inevitably be a small number of failures, even if they are often out of your control. So, if you are finding that your days are not as sparkly as they one were, that kittens don’t make you smile quite as often or that a senior dog still vigorously wagging their tail doesn’t make you feel as warm inside as it once used to, you may well have Compassion Fatigue, the emotional and physical exhaustion that often leads to a diminished sense of satisfaction in both work and life generally.

We asked our worldwide network of over 220,000 Veterinary Professionals a simple open-ended question “If you were fortunate enough to have two job offers where the salary, benefits and location were similar, what other things would influence your choice?” and as you can imagine the answers were wonderfully diverse. For some it was cookies at morning tea, others could be persuaded by team massages and one very creative one had to do with the artwork in the practice. However, when we started to assemble the data we quickly began to identify five streams that stood out above snacks, kneading fingers and paint brushes…in this order of priority…

Like Liam Neeson in Taken, you have a very particular set of skills, acquired over your career, but unlike Liam, your skills make you a joy for employers and recruiters. But when they look for you on LinkedIn, as 77 percent of recruiters and employers do, you want them to find you and be impressed enough to reach out and connect. And when they do find you (and they will if you follow this advice), they will employ you…possibly not on-the-spot, but if you apply these tips, you will be well on the way to your initial interview…

Although you know that you are responsible for establishing a Veterinary Work+Life Balance that allows you to thrive, many of us don’t notice until it is nearly too late. So, it’s time for an Intervention. Here are 7 practical tips from Veterinarians, Veterinary Nurses, Veterinary Technicians and Hospital Managers from our Community that we approached for their advice and that may help you to get started on establishing your own Work+Life Balance…

Whether you’re a fresh-out-of-university graduate Vet, an experienced Emergency Veterinary Surgeon with decades of expertise or a Vet Technician with oodles of practical knowledge, when it comes time to make your next career step, your Resume* must include these 5 critical elements. Just like any form of advertising, you only have about three  seconds to engage your audience and get them to explore further, so your Resume has a lot of work to do in a very short time. Including these 5 key components will help you clarify your approach, ensure that you focus on your key skills and accomplishments, and craft a CV* that will make sure you stand out from the crowd…

Nobody really saw it coming…a pandemic…there were rumblings and mentions but it’s a shock to anyone’s system when it really happens…but once we get over that initial world-altering jolt, therein lies opportunity and optimism. Not the hand wringing, unscrupulous kind…more like the “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” kind. If you think, “well, I made my bed, so I guess now I have to lie in it,” think again – this pandemic, as awful as it is, brings with it the prospect of diversification and new opportunities in a post-COVID-19 world. You’ll find a host of interesting (and in some cases surprising) veterinary specialties that you may not have considered that may reinvigorate your veterinary career, including these…