Thanks for the tag rocky! Hold on to your butts, because I LOVE shelter med and am about to type a novel.
I had a really easy time finding shelter jobs. I had two unsolicited shelter job offers and a third spay/neuter place that was asking me to apply when I graduated, though I ultimately took a GP job (there was only that S/N only position in the town I had to stay in for my SO and I didn't want that at the time). I did have a very hefty shelter med resume though, as I completed UF's Maddie's Certificate in Shelter Medicine as a vet student, and also did externships at 4 shelters/volunteered at a couple others. There are a lot of shelters out there that desperately need additional vets, so even without as heavy of a shelter resume, you would probably still be able to find a job fairly easily.
Since you're a first year, I'd recommend just trying to familiarize yourself more with what shelter med would entail. For example, you could reach out to your local shelters to see about volunteering at some point. This will be good exposure so you can start to see more of what shelter vets do on a daily basis, and help start getting connections for later on when you'll be wanting more surgical practice/medicine practice. Not sure what Auburn has available, but you should also join your student shelter med club if there is one as they'll have plenty of opportunities, and then 4th year, definitely look into doing any onsite shelter rotations (google tells me Auburn has a S/N one) as well as some offsite shelter externships. ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance is a really popular S/N externship, and I'd also recommend trying to set up externships in shelters you're considering applying to in the future, as you'll learn a LOT about a place in 2 weeks that you won't see while visiting for short interviews. That might also land you some unsolicited job offers if they like you (that's where my two offers came from).
As a student, you should also be able to join the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (I did it at a very discounted rate, but not sure if that's changed) and they have a facebook group. There are other shelter vet fb groups that you can try to join (if they allow students) that might also give you some insights about the job.
The pay can vary widely. You won't make as much as you would doing full time ER for example, or in some high production/corporate GP, but the pay can certainly be comparable or better to some GP places. Benefits can also often be better than private GP. It really depends upon the resources of the shelter you end up.
@itsrocky is right that the more urban locations typically pay better, whereas if you're going out to a super rural shelter with less funding, the pay might suck (but cost of living might be way cheaper). If you're open to relocating you're definitely more likely to find a great shelter job, but there are shelters all over so you may be able to find an opening in most places you want, though the job may not tick all of the boxes you want. Another perk to consider is that shelter jobs typically also qualify you for the PLSF repayment plan which has tax free student loan forgiveness in 10 years, so that's a big financial component in the long run if you end up staying in shelter med long enough.
If you want to see some sources on median salary,
here's a salary study done (I think by VIN?) from 2011 and 2018:
If you know the general area you want to go, I'd recommend checking out some of the shelter med job boards to get a rough idea of salary. Don't be scared away by postings wanting a minimum of 3-5 years experience etc, a lot will still consider new grads especially if you gain some shelter experience as a student. The Association of Shelter Veterinarians job board is
located here, and the ASPCA also has a spay/neuter job board
located here if you were considering going that route.
So this also really depends upon you and the shelter setting. This is advice I give to all new grads, but I would strongly recommend working someplace that has other veterinarians on staff, and preferably enough so that you'll never get scheduled to work alone. If you go to any large municipal shelter or some of the larger non-profits, there will typically be a couple of vets on staff, and that way you'll always have someone to get a second opinion from, or have another set of hands to help you if something goes wrong in surgery. If the other vets like teaching, you might also get a good mentor who can walk you through new surgeries or more complicated cases, or even the simple stuff when it's early on and you're still learning how to be a vet.
In shelter med you will definitely get a lot of exposure to certain types of cases, and depending on the type of shelter you work at, you may see a wide variety of things. Open admission municipal shelters in busier cities tend to get tons of crazy stuff (like gun shot dogs, crazy wound repairs, more cruelty cases etc., amongst your normal variety of shelter things), which I liked because it kept things interesting. If you're going to be at a more limited admission shelter, odds are that you may not get some of these. You'll also be dealing with a lot more population medicine/management than you would as GP. The biggest downside to shelter med IMO is that you may not get thorough follow up on certain cases or get to treat certain conditions that may be more extensive or have poorer prognosis (but you still have some of those limitations in GP because of non-compliant owners, finances, etc).
As I mentioned - I started off full time GP at a corporate clinic for ~8 months before switching to part time shelter stuff and relief work, and eventually went over to full time shelter med. I don't regret the path I went down, though I was suuuper unhappy with my first full time job and am WAY happier and have better quality of life where I work now. I did learn some things in GP but ultimately feel like I could have gone shelter first and been just fine. I still do 1 day a week of GP to keep my skills and for some extra money for some big life expenses we had recently (though I'm cutting back soon to occasional saturdays only). Quite honestly, if you decided to switch to GP down the line, there are some big selling points you'll have for yourself (such as probably being a beast at surgery by that point). Conversely, you could also start GP and switch to shelter med like I did, but I wouldn't recommend it if you know you want to be in shelter med as you'll probably be unhappy like I was.
All in all, I LOVE shelter med. There are a lot of perks in it for me. I love that I don't have to deal with owners 24-7 and convince them into treatments, and I also love surgery and enjoy getting to do a lot of that. Though there's the flip side of needing to deal with shelter management/leadership which is another discussion I'm happy to have with you down the line once you get more exposure lol. I also find it fun to get creative and macgyver solutions when you don't have everything at your disposal, although that can also vary depending on where you go - I externed at one private shelter that was super well funded by an extremely wealthy family, and had a lot of items at their disposal (including ultrasound and dental rads), which is certainly not the case in most places.
Okay.. I should stop now haha. Seriously, feel free to shoot me a message or ask any follow up questions at any point in time, I'm happy to be very frank about the positives and negatives I've experienced, though ultimately I'm very happy overall right now.
