Experience... when?

[ylrebmik]

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When does your experience hours usually come in? Meaning... during break time? during the normal week with school? Weekends?

 

[david594]

Its going to be different for everyone. Since I am doing school full time I work 6 hours at a wellness clinic and 16 hours at an emergency hospital on weekends. Then I work another 18-20 hours during the week at the welness clinic. At the emergency hospital I work more as a vet assistant, at the wellness clinic I work as a vet tech.

 

[ylrebmik]

Its going to be different for everyone. Since I am doing school full time I work 22 hours on weekends between my 2 jobs as a vet tech. Then I work another 18-20 per week at one of the 2 jobs again as a vet tech.

wow. Full time student-full time worker.. must be tough. Is it difficult to find a job as a vet tech during undergrad? Do you do your other experience for the other fields of animals during summer then?

 

[david594]

The wellness clinic is more of a mixed practice. One vet will do farm calls ~1 a week, and I go on some of those. We also see exotics and some of the smaller animals for a local zoo.

To get the job I started out as a volunteer. I was showing up 18-20 hours a week and did as much as I could to be helpful. After about 3 months doing that a position opened up and I was hired. I was on the job trained for everything. Getting the job at the ER was cake since I had experience and only wanted (the undesirable) weekend shifts.

 

[ylrebmik]

The wellness clinic is more of a mixed practice. One vet will do farm calls ~1 a week, and I go on some of those. We also see exotics and some of the smaller animals for a local zoo.

To get the job I started out as a volunteer. I was showing up 18-20 hours a week and did as much as I could to be helpful. After about 3 months doing that a position opened up and I was hired. I was on the job trained for everything. Getting the job at the ER was cake since I had experience and only wanted (the undesirable) weekend shifts.

Thats awsesome. I hope I can find a place that I can get varied experience like that. So you work at the ER on weekends and the clinic on both? That's cool.

So by the end of fourth year... what is the average... or the amount of hours a person "should" have?

 

[NittanyKitty]

Most of my experience is during breaks and summer vacations. I do PhD thesis research during the school year (which counts), but I definitely don't have time to fit in much more than that.

 

[Electrophile]

Most of my experience is during breaks and summer vacations. I do PhD thesis research during the school year (which counts), but I definitely don't have time to fit in much more than that.

Slightly OT, but just as a heads up and to avoid the headache that I went through, you may want to check with who you are applying with what it will exactly count as. I was told in grad school that the hours I was working with my research animals counted as lab animal experience, but even if the PI was a DVM (instead or addition to a PhD), it was not veterinary lab animal experience because it wasn't clinical, but research. That was immaterial because my masters was in biology and not the vet school biomedical sciences and my faculty adviser was a PhD.

But I could count the time that I spent with the office of lab animal medicine vets when they would come over and check our animals out for various stuff and tag a long a bit and ask questions. I was also informed I shouldn't bother asking for a side project with any admission committee members because I couldn't use their LOR either to make it fair for everyone. *shrug* I was busy wrapping up my thesis, so I didn't want any more work anyways, thanks! 😀 Anywho, the lesson I learned was check into everything before you submit it!

 

[NittanyKitty]

Thanks muchly for the info, Electrophile! All of the little caveats and addendums can really give you a headache! 😉

 

[nyanko]

I was also informed I shouldn't bother asking for a side project with any admission committee members because I couldn't use their LOR either to make it fair for everyone. *shrug* I was busy wrapping up my thesis, so I didn't want any more work anyways, thanks! 😀 Anywho, the lesson I learned was check into everything before you submit it!

Yeah I'm wondering about this. My research for my MS is going to be with someone who has been on the admissions committee for the DVM program for the past couple of years, and if she's an adcom when I apply again (next year lol) how does that get handled? I'd hate to do all this work for the next 2 years and get no rec letter out of it, as "pre-med" as that sounds!

Of course I'm doing it either way, but still..

 

[ylrebmik]

I know you need varied animal experience so would like small animal, equine, zoo, and exotics work? Shadowing can be counted in the animal experience category right?... or is it a seperate category? I'm guessing just working at a clinic or volutneering at the humane society just walking dogs and being a cat socializer doesn't count for vet experience right?... just "animal experience"? Sorry so many questions.

 

[ShelterGirl]

I know you need varied animal experience so would like small animal, equine, zoo, and exotics work?

Yes, that could work. Some schools place more emphasis on breadth (e.g. Cornell), others on depth (e.g. Davis). There's not a magic formula. I recommend looking at your target schools' MINIMUM experience requirements and then looking at previous successful applicants threads to get a feel for accepted students' experiences.

Shadowing can be counted in the animal experience category right?... or is it a seperate category? I'm guessing just working at a clinic or volutneering at the humane society just walking dogs and being a cat socializer doesn't count for vet experience right?... just "animal experience"?

Socializing and dog-walking are animal experience. If you are shadowing a vet doing their thing (exams, surgeries, etc). that is veterinary experience. The category depends on what you are shadowing.