Changing careers for DVM

[vanmrm]

Hi everyone,

I am a Canadian who originally planned to become a veterinarian but ended up somewhere else along the way. I'm THIS CLOSE to finishing a masters degree in natural resource management and planning and I have a few years of work experience in the field, but I really feel like I am launching my career this spring. I find the issues in this field of work very fascinating and I am passionate about it, but I am finding doing the actual work does not fit with the lifestyle I want and does not fit my work style. Entry level jobs which are outdoors do not pay well, involve camp shifts, and you are working in all kinds of conditions. Jobs which are more desk oriented pay better ($60-90k), but also often require extensive travel, meetings, and you are tied to a computer.

After working in many different positions and feeling constantly dissatisfied, I'm coming back to vet med. I am looking for a career which pays well ($80k/yr+), is more 'task oriented' (i.e. I have tasks to complete each day and I feel accomplished at the end of the day), offers decent work life balance, and does not tie me to a desk. I'm interested in mixed practice but that could always change.

I have all the pre-reqs needed for veterinary school and a great GPA and I have years of work experience with horses. My plan for the next year is to start down my current career path, but work or volunteer at a vet clinic to get some experience in that setting and a reference for my application.

My questions for you:

Are you happy with your choice to go into vet med?
Did any of you change careers and are you happy you did so? (I'm only 25 but I've always wanted to be settled into my career before 30...)
Do you have any advice for someone who is wanting to shift into vet med from another career?
Do you find your work fast paced and have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day?

What originally scared me off of vet school was my fear of surgery (though I think I would like it now), the cost of school versus what you make after school, and the ethical dilemmas. Are these fears justified and worth not becoming a vet for?

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[DVMDream]

Hi everyone,

I am a Canadian who originally planned to become a veterinarian but ended up somewhere else along the way. I'm THIS CLOSE to finishing a masters degree in natural resource management and planning and I have a few years of work experience in the field, but I really feel like I am launching my career this spring. I find the issues in this field of work very fascinating and I am passionate about it, but I am finding doing the actual work does not fit with the lifestyle I want and does not fit my work style. Entry level jobs which are outdoors do not pay well, involve camp shifts, and you are working in all kinds of conditions. Jobs which are more desk oriented pay better ($60-90k), but also often require extensive travel, meetings, and you are tied to a computer.

After working in many different positions and feeling constantly dissatisfied, I'm coming back to vet med. I am looking for a career which pays well ($80k/yr+), is more 'task oriented' (i.e. I have tasks to complete each day and I feel accomplished at the end of the day), offers decent work life balance, and does not tie me to a desk. I'm interested in mixed practice but that could always change.

I have all the pre-reqs needed for veterinary school and a great GPA and I have years of work experience with horses. My plan for the next year is to start down my current career path, but work or volunteer at a vet clinic to get some experience in that setting and a reference for my application.

My questions for you:

Are you happy with your choice to go into vet med? Some days I am, I'd say the majority of the time, no, I wish I could find a way out of clinical medicine (general practice)
Did any of you change careers and are you happy you did so? (I'm only 25 but I've always wanted to be settled into my career before 30...) I was not a career changer, I spent 7 years in veterinary practice in various aspects prior to vet school.
Do you have any advice for someone who is wanting to shift into vet med from another career? If you are at all happy with the other career, especially if it pays like vet med does (60-90k is about a vet med salary) then stick with it, especially if you have minimal debt from that previous career.
Do you find your work fast paced and have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day? Depends on the day and how many dinguses I have dealt with that day since many clients want gold standard care for minimal cost and get belligerent when we can't provide that.

What originally scared me off of vet school was my fear of surgery (though I think I would like it now), the cost of school versus what you make after school, and the ethical dilemmas. Are these fears justified and worth not becoming a vet for? What ethical dilemmas? What are you afraid of about surgery? (I don't do surgery (much) anymore but that isn't a "norm" in vet med, most vets, especially in mixed practice will be doing surgery regularly). The cost of vet school should make you **** your pants because it sucks and living with that giant debt sucks.

See my answers in blue above.

If you are looking for a career with a good work/life balance.... run away from vet med. Fast. Especially if you are wanting to do mixed practice. Most mixed practice vets are on call 24/7 at least one week out of the month and some much more than that. Mixed practice vets also don't make as much.... $80k/year is highly unlikely in mixed practice and unlikely in certain areas of this country for small animal practice. If you live in a bigger city, you can definitely make more than 80k/year in small animal medicine but I wouldn't expect to make anywhere near $80k/year in mixed practice at all.

 

[vanmrm]

See my answers in blue above.

If you are looking for a career with a good work/life balance.... run away from vet med. Fast. Especially if you are wanting to do mixed practice. Most mixed practice vets are on call 24/7 at least one week out of the month and some much more than that. Mixed practice vets also don't make as much.... $80k/year is highly unlikely in mixed practice and unlikely in certain areas of this country for small animal practice. If you live in a bigger city, you can definitely make more than 80k/year in small animal medicine but I wouldn't expect to make anywhere near $80k/year in mixed practice at all.

Thanks for the feedback! Lots to think about...

Are you mainly working talking about the US? I'm asking because looking at local job posting where I am in Canada (BC), it seems that salaries even for new grads are in the $80-100k range and I wonder if this is accurate. The school I would attend in Canada is about $10,000/year and I currently have no debt so I am less concerned about cost of vet school than I know many US grads would be.

 

[DVMDream]

Thanks for the feedback! Lots to think about...

Are you mainly working talking about the US? I'm asking because looking at local job posting where I am in Canada (BC), it seems that salaries even for new grads are in the $80-100k range and I wonder if this is accurate. The school I would attend in Canada is about $10,000/year and I currently have no debt so I am less concerned about cost of vet school than I know many US grads would be.

Yes, I am in the US, I still don't know anyone in the US or Canada making $80-100k in rural (mixed animal) medicine. Small animal medicine, yes, for sure you can make 80-100k and if you can get into a Canadian school and graduate only $40-60k in debt, then it would be much more worth it, unlike in the US where most of us are $150-250k in debt and some in the $350-500k range.

I still probably wouldn't repeat becoming a vet even if schooling was free, but that is me, I know others love the field, I personally think we are bullied/harassed/have ****ty work/life balance/ aren't appreciated/ and have high/unrealistic expectations thrown onto us from multiple angles to make the actual enjoyment of medicine overcome all the negatives.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

I am a Canadian vet who started vet school (Ontario) when I was 34 years old. I am happy with my choice and don't regret it, but I would never have gone if I couldn't get into my local (subsidized) school. I would never take on the $200K+ debt that US students or Canadians going to school elsewhere do.

You are unlikely to get that type of salary in mixed animal practice, though you conceivably could start at $80K for small animal work in BC. Not only for that reason, you might want to reconsider being a mixed animal vet, where the work is often "outdoors, [does] not pay well,.......and you are working in all kinds of conditions." You will be on call for your large animal patients at least some of the time (no emergency clinics to call when the mare has trouble foaling), but you may find great advantages in where you live and the quality of life that offers.

is more 'task oriented' (i.e. I have tasks to complete each day and I feel accomplished at the end of the day),

Remember, veterinary medicine is medicine. "Task oriented" work isn't really the typical thing; many times, all cases aren't finished up by the end of the day and you will have cases that you are caring for and monitoring over weeks, months, or (frustratingly) longer. You will go home and research the case to learn more about what might help, or even stay awake worrying about your patient, what you did, or what you should have done. In general vets have a lousy work/life balance (especially if you are working in a place with limited access to emergency hospitals and have to be on call), though there are things you can do and choices you can make to improve the balance.

You really need to shadow or work with a vet to see what it's like.

 

[chickenlittle]

Hi everyone,


Are you happy with your choice to go into vet med?
Did any of you change careers and are you happy you did so? (I'm only 25 but I've always wanted to be settled into my career before 30...)
Do you have any advice for someone who is wanting to shift into vet med from another career?
Do you find your work fast paced and have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day?

What originally scared me off of vet school was my fear of surgery (though I think I would like it now), the cost of school versus what you make after school, and the ethical dilemmas. Are these fears justified and worth not becoming a vet for?

- Not happy with clinical practice, no. Recently I've transitioned to only working in practice 2 days/wk (15 hrs/wk) and doing freelance writing the rest of the time. For the first time ever, I'm no longer regretting my choice to become a vet.... but I still wouldn't do it again, because the practice years that it took to get to where I am now were too soul-sucking and unpleasant.

- I wasn't really a career changer. I spent a year after undergrad working in a biochemistry research lab before deciding to apply to vet school... I was planning to apply to PhD programs but then changed my mind to vet school.

- If you want to be a vet, you need to spend a lot of time AT A VET CLINIC. Ideally, try to spend time with newer graduates working in the types of practices you'd be likely to work with. Most of my pre-vet work experience was in single-doctor practices with one older doctor.... I knew a few younger vets and they were unhappy, but I dismissed them as an anomaly. I wish I had spent more time talking to them and less time talking to the old docs who had experienced a completely different career than what I'd be experiencing.

- Fast-paced? Yes, in that it's a customer service job in which there's a constant pressure to see as many customers as possible. Kinda like working retail or fast food in that sense. A sense of accomplishment? Every now and then there's a cool case where you feel like you made a difference, but I feel like those days are few and far between. Most days are a parade of vaccines, with the monotony broken up by the occasional efforts to convince people to actually work up their sick pets instead of just declining everything. If you've ever worked retail, that's basically what vet med is. I get a much greater sense of accomplishment out of my freelance writing, where I'm working on projects instead of spending all day in a sales role. (Even if you're selling for the benefit of the pet and ignoring the pressures to make the hospital money, you're still essentially selling people on the need to care for their pets. Very few clients come in actually WANTING quality care... their goal is to get out of the clinic as cheaply as possible, your goal is to provide decent-quality care for the pet, and 75% of your mental energy will go into trying to persuade them of your view and reach an acceptable compromise. Doing that 20+ times per day, over and over and over again, doesn't really produce a huge sense of accomplishment.)

- Surgery is no big deal. Ethical dilemmas every damn day (clients neglecting their pets, requesting convenience euthanasias, wanting meds without appropriate workups, etc). The ethical dilemmas are a bigger mental drain than I anticipated.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

a sales role. (Even if you're selling for the benefit of the pet and ignoring the pressures to make the hospital money, you're still essentially selling people on the need to care for their pets. Very few clients come in actually WANTING quality care... their goal is to get out of the clinic as cheaply as possible, your goal is to provide decent-quality care for the pet, and 75% of your mental energy will go into trying to persuade them of your view and reach an acceptable compromise.

Yes.....I had a hard time with the idea that I was in sales, until I realized that what I was selling was my opinion and recommendations.

 

[vanmrm]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I am surprised that people feel so dissatisfied with their choices..

 

[Caia]

I will just add in that you can make $80k+ in my province in rural mixed practice coming out of school. PM if you would like to know more specific info but I have several classmates making that amount having just graduated.

Wouldn't do it again if I could go back though. A lot of blood, sweat and tears for what I feel is just arguing with people about money all day. Work life balance is not done well in this profession at all and like DVMD said, if that's what you're looking for, you should run, run away. Just my $0.02.

 

[ukrainiandude]

I will just add in that you can make $80k+ in my province in rural mixed practice coming out of school. PM if you would like to know more specific info but I have several classmates making that amount having just graduated.

Wouldn't do it again if I could go back though. A lot of blood, sweat and tears for what I feel is just arguing with people about money all day. Work life balance is not done well in this profession at all and like DVMD said, if that's what you're looking for, you should run, run away. Just my $0.02.

$80k in Canadian dollars equals $61k in American dollars

 

[CalliopeDVM]

$80k in Canadian dollars equals $61k in American dollars

Who cares? It's applicable to where you live.....it's not as if Caia is suggesting that the OP work in Canada while living (and spending) in the US.

 

[DVMDream]

Who cares? It's applicable to where you live.....it's not as if Caia is suggesting that the OP work in Canada while living (and spending) in the US.

That's this posters MO... to post things maybe related to the topic but totally not helpful/not actually related to what everyone else is discussing. Kind of comical, mostly not.

 

[Caia]

$80k in Canadian dollars equals $61k in American dollars

The OP is Canadian....

 

[ukrainiandude]

Who cares? It's applicable to where you live.....it's not as if Caia is suggesting that the OP work in Canada while living (and spending) in the US.

Wasn’t sure which currency we are talking.
Canadian dollar sometimes written like C$ to avoid confusion.
I apologize if my post wasn’t entirely appropriate.

 

[Squeaksmom]

And American dollar is sometimes written as $###USD. Still not the point.