Hello, New here, need help.

[Presadog]

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I am new to the Veterinary forums but not SDN. I am in the Army reserves and have thought about changing my career. My ultimate goal within a year is to make a Special Forces National gaurd unit. There I will train and then go to a selection course where I will get picked or not. If I get selected I would hope that they give me the Medical Sergeant slot. A medical Sergeant is trained in everything pertaining medicine even Veterinary medicine. Now my qeustion, would this help me when the time comes to apply for Veterinarian school? I have been working with people in the healthcare field for 7-8 years. I like it a lot. But I have a greater love for working with animals. I have a 140 lb. Presa Canario (Brutus) and a lot of times there is no one who I would rather spend more time with than him.

How can I get more expierience to where I am 100% sure. I don't know if there are a lot of opputunities in Chicago. I have applied for Vet assistan jobs but never get any interviews. I don't mind volunteering either.

 

[JIKJen124]

Volunteering is a great way to go! I would recommend getting your resume together and just making some trips to local vets and asking if they wouldn't mind if you spent some time shadowing them, as you may be applying to vet school in the near future. I found getting ideas from my own local vet was a great place to start. You may also want to contact local referral practices (specialists) to see if they'd let you shadow them. Since they completed residences and had to do quite a bit of teaching then, I have found they are also eager to teach future vet students.

I hope this helps,
Jen

I am new to the Veterinary forums but not SDN. I am in the Army reserves and have thought about changing my career. My ultimate goal within a year is to make a Special Forces National gaurd unit. There I will train and then go to a selection course where I will get picked or not. If I get selected I would hope that they give me the Medical Sergeant slot. A medical Sergeant is trained in everything pertaining medicine even Veterinary medicine. Now my qeustion, would this help me when the time comes to apply for Veterinarian school? I have been working with people in the healthcare field for 7-8 years. I like it a lot. But I have a greater love for working with animals. I have a 140 lb. Presa Canario (Brutus) and a lot of times there is no one who I would rather spend more time with than him.

How can I get more expierience to where I am 100% sure. I don't know if there are a lot of opputunities in Chicago. I have applied for Vet assistan jobs but never get any interviews. I don't mind volunteering either.

 

[spikey]

i definately agree with Jen. i asked to shadow and thats how i got my job. even shadowing counts as experience.

 

[brightness]

I got a job working at the front desk at a vet clinic with no experience. Believe it or not, you do learn a lot about being a vet from this job and about veterinary medicine as well. From there you could apply to be a veterinary assistant, which doesn't require anything but on the job training, even though it doesn't pay all that great.
Thats what I am hoping to do.

 

[HorseyVet]

I got a job working at the front desk at a vet clinic with no experience. Believe it or not, you do learn a lot about being a vet from this job and about veterinary medicine as well. From there you could apply to be a veterinary assistant, which doesn't require anything but on the job training, even though it doesn't pay all that great.
Thats what I am hoping to do.

Just becareful that its a real option where you are. Same with shadowing if you're looking to work at the place eventually. I shadowed at an ER for several months always with the promise that they'd hire me (which they had no intention of b/c they were more then happy with the free labor and as I would learn latter did this to a lot of people in my position). I eventually worked for their competitor, which was actually a much better operation.