Find The Perfect Locum Vet Job Here
Working as a locum vet in Australia is an ideal environment to strut your vet skills and build a network of friends and colleagues to keep you motivated and happy in your career.
Find Flexibility with a Locum Vet Job
Locum vet jobs are temporary positions that aid established veterinary practices in filling their medical practitioner needs. It’s very common for vet clinics to need to find temporary vets to cover maternity leave, holidays, and sick leave. Establishing yourself as a reliable locum vet can open up many doors for your career.
Locum vet jobs offer many advantages over working in one clinic. For starters, the pay for locum vets can be considerable. Based on a study performed by Recruit4 Vets in 2016, they reported a majority of locum vets were making between $220- $250 a day. In addition to great pay, there tends to be less stress when working as a locum vet. As you will be working for short periods in multiple clinics you are able to avoid office drama. It’s easier to ignore conflict when you know you are only going to be in one place for a short period. Since your stints will be short, you will also be able to network and establish friends and colleagues everywhere you work. These connections can lead to further job opportunities.
The biggest challenge for locum vets is getting started. Most positions require the vets to be experienced. As you will be staying for short periods of time in a variety of clinics you need to be able to perform basic veterinary medicine. You should have knowledge of vaccine protocols, common surgeries like desexing and wound repair, and treatments for common diseases. You may be placed in a situation where you are the only vet on duty or the clinic is too busy to interrupt another vet while they are seeing patients or in surgery. It’s very challenging to land a job as a locum vet if you are fresh out of school. If you want the flexibility that being a locum vet offers you will need to be willing to work for it. Many locum vets start by picking up random shifts while working full time in a vet clinic. Tap into your network of colleagues for opportunities to help fill in open shifts.
Once you have established yourself as a reliable and helpful locum vet the opportunities to work are almost endless. Spend summers in your favourite towns and winter in warmer climes, if you prefer. If you are struck by wanderlust, then being a locum vet is pretty much the best job you can have. You get the pleasure of treating animals, you provide stress relief for follow vets, and travel the country and world.
Working as a locum vet is a great opportunity for passionate pet professionals. With a little effort and luck you can be working in no time.