Secure letter of rec before leaving?

[alexgator]

Hi everyone, I'm looking to get some advice on whether or not I should try to obtain a letter of recommendation from my current employer before I move out of state. I'm not applying to vet school for three years.

I currently work at a two doctor hospital. One doctor, the owner and my direct boss, takes people leaving VERY personally. He is not a horrible boss, but whenever someone puts in their notice, he decides they hate him, he hates them, and proceeds to talk **** about them behind their back (with a smile to their face). Most recently, an old employee came in to visit him. It was all smiles and good times. When she left he confided in me that she "left him" because she had a baby and proceeded to spill a bunch of passive aggressive insults about how she had skills but "wasn't a very reliable employee" etc, etc. I don't know how much of it was true. He speaks poorly of past employees a lot, even if he liked them when they worked for him.

So I'm not sure I trust him to write a confidential recommendation for me at any point. Some days he's very happy with my work, other days he calls me lazy and tells me I don't ever get anything done. Would you risk a LOR from this kind of boss?

The second doctor is a very sweet man who truly loves his jobs and fosters the growth of his employees. I know he would give me a good recommendation. However, I'm moving out of state to go back to my alma mater to finish my prereqs. I'm looking at three YEARS before I apply. Is it worth it to have him write me a letter of recommendation? Would I even be able to use it for vet school? Especially since VMCAS is turning to entirely eLOR, I don't think that would really work, right?

I'm thinking I should just keep him as a reference for potential employers to call, but not worry about a vet school rec from him. Am I on the right track?

Thanks in advance!

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[Jess Monster]

Honestly, if you have three years to build new relationships with vets, advisors, professors, etc., I wouldn't worry about it. VMCAS requires e-mails and recommends people submit new eLOR's every year so collecting anything now would not further your future vet application. If you genuinely like these people, keep them informed of what's going on in your life. Maintain the rapport you have with them. When the time comes, all you can do is ask. If they say "no," you move on to your newer contacts. If they say "yes," that's great.

 

[Gwenevre]

Jess Monster pretty much took the words out of my mouth. You can keep this clinic and the nice vet in the back of your mind, but over the next few years if you keep gaining new experience and maintaining good relationships with those new contacts, you will have a good pool of people to pick your LORs from.

 

[alexgator]

Perfect. I'm glad to hear that. I've been stressing about it a little too much, I think. I will be continuing to work and hopefully taking an internship or two, so I think you are both right. Thank you for the input!

 

[Staffie]

It would be a good idea to mention your plans and timeline for applying to vet school to the vet you get along with now. You should mention that you would appreciate a recommendation letter from him when the time comes to apply. Giving him the heads up now is the best thing to do. That way he could even consider writing something now and saving it to use in the future when you contact him.

You can't guarantee that any vets you work with between now and when you apply will be willing to write you a great LOR. It's always better to have multiple vets from your past who can write you a strong letter. It's a required part of the application and if for whatever reason one of them falls through, it's good to have a backup.

 

[DogtorCK]

While I wish I had more vet experience, I crammed mine into a short period of time doing a post-bacc so I only had 1 mixed practice vet LOR and 2 professors. I've been very successful with my application this round and have received interview invites to 7 of the 8 schools I applied to (the 8th being UC Davis as an OOS and was totally not expecting to get in). Quality over quantity. If you're not sure what the guy is going to say, I personally would risk it.

 

[alexgator]

While I wish I had more vet experience, I crammed mine into a short period of time doing a post-bacc so I only had 1 mixed practice vet LOR and 2 professors. I've been very successful with my application this round and have received interview invites to 7 of the 8 schools I applied to (the 8th being UC Davis as an OOS and was totally not expecting to get in). Quality over quantity. If you're not sure what the guy is going to say, I personally would risk it.

That's great to hear! I think I'll have plenty of contacts by the time I apply... I know I'll have strong LOR from professors (I'm one of those students who goes to office hours and hangs out after class), so as long as I have one or two vets I've worked with, I'll feel good. I'm planning to work in another small animal clinic and at least shadow with a LA vet, so I'm feeling much better.

Are there any statistics on how many interviews lead to offers? 7/8 seems great!!

 

[DogtorCK]

I don't know if there are any statistics specifically for each school, but at all of the interviews i've been to, they've said they'll give offers to roughly 50% of the interviewees.