Question about applying for jobs/volunteer/shadow positions

Welcome!

Every time I've applied anywhere to volunteer/work, I ALWAYS go in in person with a copy of my resume (and class schedule when applicable). I've never actually asked to shadow somewhere, but I've had decent luck with applying for a job or volunteer position in person, with a phone call (or a few) to follow up. I've found a lot of places have new employees, especially those lacking in experience, start in the kennel. If you pay your dues, though, most vets will let you move up after some time.

I second going in person. Definitely bring a copy of your resume (the class schedule is an excellent idea as well) and dress professionally -- not a suit, but not in jeans either. And be super polite and friendly to the people in reception, as they might determine whether your resume will get passed on to the vet or filed and forgotten!

I have had a HORRIBLE time trying to get experience here in Orlando... Thus far it has taken me almost 3 months to get my first volunteer shift at the SPCA of C. Florida (which I completed this morning!!!)

I have applied to several Vet offices, I even got through the second round of interviews (a shadow) for a kennel assistant position and never heard back from them. I had to call to find out that they went with someone else. I will be spending most of next week driving to every kennel, clinic, animal hospital, etc in the area and dropping in applications, resumes and cover letters.... keep your fingers crossed everyone...

On a related note: if anyone used to work here in orlando PM me please...

If it is a relatively small clinic, I walk in with a resume, a letter stating my purpose and background, and a smile. I try to go at less busy times (not Monday or Friday, generally early afternoon.)

If it is a specialty hospital, a research center, or a zoo, I start with a letter stating my purpose and background and saying when I will call (ie I will call you on Tuesday morning to see if we can arrange a shadowing opportunity.)

Mobile vets (and lots of livestock vets) I contact via phone or mutual contacts.

Sometimes tracking a vet down to observe is easier through alternative paths. Stop by a commercial stable and see if they suggest anyone. Put out a call to family and friends asking what vets they know (even in passing) and/or the names/numbers/emails of anyone else they know who might know a vet. Talk to every animal related place/organization you can think of. Show up at events like dog park openings, competitions, etc. The vet I now work for I met at a canine fun day..I find vets that participate with organizaitons/events are often more willing to allow observations. I made one of my best contacts at a Panera's. I was eating lunch while working on VMCAS. A friend was with me who volunteered at a small rescue group. We were discussing animal behavior issues, when the guy at the next table interrupted and told us how much he admired volunteers, how his son got started in vet school by volunteering. He is now a vet at an emergency hospital. Hard to refuse to talk to someone whose father said you would. I mentioned it when I stopped by.

I always ask to shadow or observe. I mention in my intro letter that I am willing to sign a waiver of liability and that I have my own health and life insurance. If you have rabies vax or such, mention that. I also offer to assist in other ways if they have a need. Sometimes that means I help with inventories or such, but I am still learning a lot about the business. As positions open up, I have been offered them.

Hi Alley Kat! NH resident here....

Shelters & rescues are a great place to start for animal experience. I'm not sure what part you're from, so here's a link to get you going:
http://www.directorynh.com/NHAssociations-Organizations/NHAnimalOrganizations.html

As for veterinary experience, there are a couple of options. Some of the above shelters may have their own clinics, so you may be able to shadow there. Otherwise, I obtained a past job at a local clinic by showing up with a resume, asking, and filling out an application. Every clinic is different, though; at the very least, you may be able to get a foot in the door starting in the kennel & working your way up from there. It's how a lot of people on this forum seem to have gotten their start, by working hard, expressing a desire to get into vet med, and showing a genuine interest in what's going on. It may not be much hands-on in the beginning, but many vets pick up on those who are really into being there and show them extra things (see the thread on disgusting stuff). 🙄

Whatever you decide to do, good luck! Lots of great advice from other posters here too....And feel free to PM me with specific questions; I'll do what I can to help.

aspiringDVM said:

And be super polite and friendly to the people in reception, as they might determine whether your resume will get passed on to the vet or filed and forgotten!

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That reminds me -- whenever I apply for a job anywhere, animal hospitals included, I always go in and immediately ask to speak to a manager. The receptionists are a lot of times more willing to call up the practice manager (or similar position) if they don't know what you're there for...for all they know, you're there to file a complaint. The practice manager will be one of the people doing the hiring, so it's good if you can make a good first impression with him/her. If there's no practice manager, asking to speak to the/a vet will accomplish the same thing. As aspiringDVM said, a lot of times if you leave after only talking to the receptionists, your application will just be filed with the 9,000 other applications in a drawer that never see the light of day.

sumstorm said:

If it is a relatively small clinic, I walk in with a resume, a letter stating my purpose and background, and a smile. I try to go at less busy times (not Monday or Friday, generally early afternoon.)

If it is a specialty hospital, a research center, or a zoo, I start with a letter stating my purpose and background and saying when I will call (ie I will call you on Tuesday morning to see if we can arrange a shadowing opportunity.)

I always ask to shadow or observe. I mention in my intro letter that I am willing to sign a waiver of liability and that I have my own health and life insurance. If you have rabies vax or such, mention that. I also offer to assist in other ways if they have a need. Sometimes that means I help with inventories or such, but I am still learning a lot about the business. As positions open up, I have been offered them.

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Oh wow, good advice. I should have read this thread before I wrote a somewhat generic email to a few vet places wanting to shadow/ assist. I just thought it might be kinda awkard to walk in. Another hinderence to me is i work full time, and a lot if not all of the volunteer opportunities are during a work day! I'd quit my job to go back for my prereqs, but i wanted to get atleast a few hundred hours in at night or during the weekends to volunteer before i do that...

fanye said:

Another hinderence to me is i work full time, and a lot if not all of the volunteer opportunities are during a work day! I'd quit my job to go back for my prereqs, but i wanted to get atleast a few hundred hours in at night or during the weekends to volunteer before i do that...

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You could see if there is an emergency clinic near where you live. I know near my place there are a few hospitals that are open 24/7. I'm not sure if they take volunteers at night, but I'm sure if you were very open about your willingness to start out by cleaning cages and don't expect hands-on stuff right away, they might be more receptive. If you can get your foot in the door, even if you're not doing much cool stuff right away, slow nights would give you a good opportunity to talk with the vets on staff and get their insight on, you know, things.

Hey, an additional question that relates:
I dropped off a cover letter + resume to 2 different vets 2 weeks ago. I followed up one with a call (they told me they would give me a call yesterday or the day before that, and haven't), and the other one I haven't called back yet. At the one I haven't called back yet, they didn't have an officer manager listed, but I dropped it off with someone who looked to be older and more responsible than the rest of the people at the front desk, and she let me know that one of their veterinarians in particular has had people shadow before.
Should I ask to speak with "whoever the officer manager" is, or the veterinarian that they mentioned?
Sorry for a ridiculous question, but I have a lot of phone anxiety and hate this part of calling back to get an answer.

sumstorm said:

I always ask to shadow or observe. I mention in my intro letter that I am willing to sign a waiver of liability and that I have my own health and life insurance. If you have rabies vax or such, mention that. I also offer to assist in other ways if they have a need. Sometimes that means I help with inventories or such, but I am still learning a lot about the business. As positions open up, I have been offered them.

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Having your own insurance in no way takes the liability off the organization. If you are also injured while volunteering for an organization there is a possibility that your own insurance company will refuse to cover the incident.

To be seen at an ER for a cat bite you are easily talking about $500-$1000.

To be seen at an ER and getting post exposure rabies shots you are talking about $2000-3000

And if you have an animal bite get infected requiring hospitilzation (and possibly surgery) you are talking about huge $$$$

That is why places are very apprehensive about about taking volunteers into roles that involve animal contact.

On two occasions i had brought my cat to the vet (private clinic), and after chatting with the doc about my animal's health right before leaving the exam room I asked the doc if he had any open volunteer positions. Both times it worked, and this was in two different clinics. It gave the doc a chance to speak with me. And particularly the last time i did it, I made sure that the vet was someone that i respected and whose philosophy i liked before i asked to volunteer for him (which actually turned into an assistant job). I didn't bring my resume with be because asking for the position was half-spontaneous. Meaning i thought about bringing it and forgot 😉

But maybe that strategy can work out for someone else too?

Actually, if you are observing or volunteering and you sign a liability waiver, you are responsible for your own care unless your injury is due to gross negligence. That may vary by state, but in at least 7 states that I have lived in, that is the case.

It is different if you are employed...at that point, injuries are a work comp issue.

That is also why I emphasize observation vs volunteering. Observations still count as vet experience, but are much lower risk for the vet. If you aren't touching animals or equipment, you are less likely to damage anything or yourself.

As for asking to speak to the vet, I know at our clinic, we avoid giving anyone free access to our vet. At most, we will take a message and pass it on for our vets to deal with at thier convenience (and most of the time they give us a message to return to the client.) I find it easier if you are friendly and can convince the staff that you are interested and interesting. I swear half of my observations came from the fact that I bring in cupcakes shaped like animals on a regular basis. In our city, all the vets know each other...I found that some clinic had pictures of cupcakes before I ever arrived to start a series of observations (carrying a tray of cupcakes!)

A lot of emergency hospitals frown on volunteers or even observers due to legal risk if patients don't improve or die. The risks are just higher. Plus, since a lot of cases are emergencies requiring immediate attention, an observer can potentially get in the way, tripping up staff and such. At least, that's what was explained to me after I observed (due only to having an unlicensed tech position with a referring vet.)

Many vet clinics are open at least half days on Saturday. Could try for that. Our zoo never had a vet on the weekends unless there was an emergency or a major event (at which point we wouldn't have let volunteers work with him anyways.) Only a few places that I know of have regular clinics with evening hours.

If you are in southern NH, you might be interested in Nevins Farm in Methuen, MA. It's just south of the state line just off of I-93. I don't know what their vet schedule is now for shadowing purposes, but they always have open volunteer spots in which you would gain general animal experience.

Even if you are small animal oriented, I'd try the large animal folks if you are running into brick walls like I was. Even my own vet that I used before vet school couldn't let me shadow her because the office manager didn't allow it for some reason. It seems like the large animal folks are better about letting in general for shadowing since a lot of them are a little more old school and not so liability minded (not necessarily though). Plus if you're shadowing/volunteering, it's always helpful to have an extra clean hand to write down notes or grab stuff out of the truck for the doctor while he or she is doing rectal palpations and can't leave the head gate. Plus if it's ambulatory instead of haul in, you get the down time while you're heading back and forth in the truck to ask questions, get opinions, get advice, that sort of thing, where I didn't feel quite as comfortable asking questions back at the clinic in the middle of an exam with the owner right there. I felt like getting the straight talk and war stories about as helpful as the actual hands on work sometimes for keeping it all in perspective.

Also, network, network, network. Even if someone turns you down because they don't need help, just ask if they know anyone who'd be willing to help. Hopefully they all know about the official or unofficial requirements for shadowing and can at least think of a fresh lead to call. Then you can call the other doc and say "So I was talking to Dr. So and So at ABC Pet Hospital and they recommended that I give you a call..."