Internship vs Job

[pets2vets]

Hi! I am a freshman undergrad that has been offered two great opportunities for the summer after my freshman year. I am obviously pre-vet (posting on this forum) and have not been exposed to veterinary medicine before.
One is an opportunity to work as a kennel assistant at a vet hospital. The other is an unpaid animal care internship at a wildlife rehabilitation hospital. For the internship, I would get hands on animal experience with baby mammals, clean out cages etc. What would you guys recommend for a good first vet experience: kennel assistant (paid) or wildlife animal care internship (unpaid)?
Thanks

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[Felixor90]

I would take the paid position because moneys. Seriously though, both sound like good opportunities. There's no way you can do both? If I had to pick one I'd definitely go with the paid position since those are usually harder to get and you can usually find plenty of places to volunteer at during the rest of the year (from my experience, anyway).

 

[SocialStigma]

I would take the kennel assistant position unless you have an interest in wildlife.

 

[lailanni]

Ditto. Do you have a major interest in wildlife or small animals?

The kennel assistant is paid, you'll be working with DVMs (and you'll need their letters of rec to apply) and you can possibly work your way up to be a regular assistant which will give you even more experience.

The wildlife job sounds cool, but money is good and if you're intending to be SA it's a smart move to get some experience hours under your belt. Perhaps you can do the wildlife thing occasionally as a volunteer and not necessarily an intern?

 

[missdarjeeling]

This really depends on a couple of different factors. Which type of experience would be harder to get later if you turned it down now? How much does money matter? Are there many small animal hospitals in your area where you might be able to get your foot in the door or are there only a handful? Both types of experiences would be good, IMO, and if you've never been exposed to the field, then you might not yet know which one is more interesting to you.

In the places I've lived, wildlife experience has been pretty hard to come by, and small animal experience was easy to find. So in your shoes, I would've picked the wildlife position if I could afford it. But only you know the specifics of your situation. If there aren't that many small animal hospitals around, though, I'd be cautious about turning down a job offer.

 

[LetItSnow]

The wildlife position has more neato-cool factor in the short term, but the clinic position will carry more weight on the application (unless you're specifically looking to do wildlife work), and it's more likely to open other doors.

Bottom line is that I'd do both if it were me, but if I had to pick one or the other, I'd do the clinic position even though it probably won't be as 'fun'.

 

[jmo1012]

A large portion of the battle to getting paid for small animal experience is finding that 1st clinic that will train you. Places often don't want to train basics because it takes time, effort, and money that they could put towards something else. My 1st job was as a kennel tech, and even though I mostly fed, watered and walked, I was allowed to shadow/watch surgeries on my days off and it helped me get future jobs.

Also, are you really certain the rehab place is going to let you do more than clean/laundry/maintenance? Do you know someone who has done this internship before? Is it a formal internship with guidelines and goals? Wildlife people/liabilty issues can make it tough to really get to do much without spending months to years doing the grunt work to prove yourself.

And lastly, even if you want to be a wildlife vet in the future, it is very unlikely you will be able to support yourself and pay off loans on that salary (if you are lucky enough to even get paid). You will most likely need to supplement yourself with some other area of medicine. No time like the application to prove that you are aware of this reality by getting a paid position and doing wildlife work on the side.

 

[lailanni]

Also, are you really certain the rehab place is going to let you do more than clean/laundry/maintenance? Do you know someone who has done this internship before? Is it a formal internship with guidelines and goals? Wildlife people/liabilty issues can make it tough to really get to do much without spending months to years doing the grunt work to prove yourself.

+1. For one summer I volunteered at a wildlife place. It was basically just cleaning cages -someone else who worked there longer would get the one fun part of removing the animal from the cage. I also had a lot of time scrubbing poop off rocks. The most exciting thing I did was inject a fish fillet with vitamin B and helped bottle feed some raccoons. And that was only because they had a zillion baby racoons. There was no dedicated shelter vet and the one that did come was only there occasionally (and not on my shifts). They also did a great job scaring pre-vet me about raccoon roundworm. So while it was nice to have on the resume, it was kind of a waste of my time in regards to actually learning useful things or being inspired. This is just my experience at one wildlife place though, I'm sure there are many stories from people who had better times. But I would caution against jumping into something unpaid that may just use you as a poop scooper for months.

 

[Caiter92]

Does the wildlife rehab place also have an option for volunteers?

I'm volunteerimg at a rehab place on one of my days off, and honesty I get to do as much as the interns for the most part (ie: lots of cleaning, setting up enclosures, diet prep, and hand feeding baby birds and some small mammals).

The interns assist in some basic medical care, but volunteers are also allowed to after a few months. So, while the internship will be cool, it really won't be much vet experience most likely.

Oh, and I don't think the medical care is even under the vet most of the time. It's assisting the rehabers.

So, I'd take the kennel position and try to volunteer if that is an option.