Veterinary How can I get out of general practice? What other options do I have?

[Mr.Smile12]

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I am a vet. I am extremely miserable as such and I want out of GP. I have no interest in the profession. I lost interest halfway through veterinary school but unfortunately, my type A personality pushed me through and I graduated as valedictorian. $500K in student loan debt, 4 jobs in less than 2 years, and a truckload of traumatic memories later... I am in a profession that needless to say, I abhor. I am just wondering what can I do? How do I get out? Is working a minimum wage job financial suicide at this stage? I would LOVE to retrain- I have an interest in fish but have not been successful in even coming close to figuring out a way to find my way into a fish related career. I have tried to get into an internship program for the last 3 years without success. I have been accepted into a masters program I cannot afford. Do I take out another $100K in loans and just forget about it all? It seems like whatever I do backfires. I have asked other doctors, who would tell me, “keep trying.” “Do Aquavet” (as much as I would love to, Aquavet would cost me almost $4000 and I cannot afford it), “Get an internship “ (again, I would love to and have tried to get my hands on one of the few there are, very unsuccessfully. I’m just wondering? How do I get out of dog/cat practice and into something that interests me? Or do I go and work at Walmart? You’ll hear a lot of frustration in my tone and may be tempted to attack my attitude. Please don’t- I’m angry enough at the moment and am planning on setting my half a million dollar degree on fire.

You posted once before in 2018 about your frustrations. Kudos to you for finishing because you are in a better position with your degree than without.

1) network seriously with people who have DVMs or similar who are not doing GP. They do exist in pharma, contract research orgs, public health, and biopharma. But you need to put in the time. I'd drop out of your masters program until you figure that out.

2) are you seeing a psychiatrist?

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[lord999]

I realize that you do not ever want to practice again, but there is work that uses that background without doing the actual practice that you might find more engaging. The usual options for displaced practitioners are research or industry that are not in practice and do not cost you to apply. Vets actually have a fairly easy time getting Care of Research Animals jobs and/or QA positions in feed control (although you would need to live in a company designated rural area or be very mobile according to the company's wishes). Patterson tends to hire such. If you actually do live in NZ, you will probably have to go to Australia for those opportunities. If you are actually in the states, then there are usual opportunities. If you do want to commit financial suicide, that is always an option, but bankrupting out of student loans is a lifetime issue.

Barring all of that, getting into a funded graduate program is not that hard and if your grades were that good, it is not hard to get sponsored for PhD training, you should never pay for a Master's unless you have a direct reason to go.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I am in the United States. All of the laboratory jobs I found required an internship or residency in laboratory medicine. Research jobs require a PhD. My grades were excellent. But I was told by university faculty and others who have done masters degrees that they usually are not funded. The masters program I was accepted into certainly wasn’t and I was not able to attend.

FWIW Here's an article that could inspire you to explore more options and broaden your informational network.

When clinical practice doesn’t fit

Veterinarians who have switched paths offer advice

news.vin.com

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