Is it just me or is this a rejection? The area I live in have so few opportunities to gain clinical experience in the veterinary field and it’s getting pretty discouraging.
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I have been feeling so much pressure lately trying to maintain a high GPA and gain veterinary experience at the same time. It really boggles my mind how people are applying with a 3.9 gpa and 5,000 hours experience. I am trying hard not to take the hospital managers email so personally, but it still makes me feel bad. I will for sure take your advice and try to find opportunities for different experience types.I wouldn’t consider this a rejection even though I’m sure it hurts. As you mentioned, opportunities are hard to find in your area. I would take it as them not wanting to let one person monopolize one of those few opportunities. As hard as it is, there is no benefit to psycho-analyzing this. Take it at face value. You’ve had a chance to volunteer, but now someone else is also looking for the same experience and they want to help them too. As far as you know, you may never have gotten this chance either if they didn’t take this approach to volunteering. Volunteers can be helpful, but they also add to the burden of some employees and can be a potential liability. Someone needs to teach them and supervise and answer questions and make sure things are being done right. The more volunteers there are, the harder this becomes. It’s not as simple as taking on a second (or third, or fourth) volunteer to let anyone that wants gain experience.
Try to use it as an opportunity to look for different experience types. USDA or state vets nearby? Large animal vets? Shelter vets? Exotics? Research? It doesn’t have to be limited to standard vet clinics. Vet schools look at number of hours of experience, but they also consider variety of experience. Time spent in several different areas of the field is equally important to how long you’ve spent exposed to the vet industry. I’m sorry you feel rejected by this, but it may open doors you otherwise never thought to look for.