Internship advice

[Dsmoody23]

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Hi there folks.

Anyone have any advice for someone looking to find a noteworthy internship?

I'm currently starting my junior year and I have a fair amount of clinical experience in small animal. Sadly, none of it is local, and none of it goes beyond a low-tech, country doctor level.

I'm looking to substantially broaden my experience in large animal and some of the more current clinical protocols, but I'm unsure how to get my foot in the door.

How did you guys locate your work experience/ internships?
Any advice for someone just starting out?

 

[EllieGirl89]

Hi there folks.

Anyone have any advice for someone looking to find a noteworthy internship?

I'm currently starting my junior year and I have a fair amount of clinical experience in small animal. Sadly, none of it is local, and none of it goes beyond a low-tech, country doctor level.

I'm looking to substantially broaden my experience in large animal and some of the more current clinical protocols, but I'm unsure how to get my foot in the door.

How did you guys locate your work experience/ internships?
Any advice for someone just starting out?

Ballsy up and ask 😉

Seriously.

To graduate from my undergraduate program we're required to have an internship. I really wanted to work with one of the local vets, so I got all dressed up and took a cover letter and resume to the clinic. The receptionist was really nice and told her she'd give it to him. A week later I still hadn't heard back, so I followed up with a phone call. Again, the receptionist was super nice and said she'd leave a message on his bulletin board. A week later I STILL hadn't heard back so I called again. Again, nice receptionist, said she'd leave him another note.

When I still didn't hear then, I decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. I called and made an appointment for the vet to come out and float my horses' teeth. When he was done and before he left, I asked him if he had any internships available for the summer, and he said that I was more than welcome to ride around with him all summer, and I did!

Later I talked to him about my resume and all the messages I'd left, and he just laughed at me. He said he has a stack about a foot high of resumes from people like me that he has zero time to go through. In getting to know him I've learned what a busy, busy man he is and I understand now why that was at the bottom of his priority list.

The moral of the story is make yourself stand out. Obviously you should go through the standard protocol, i.e. sending a resume and making follow up calls but when I didn't get what I wanted I went straight to the source and it worked. He and I have a great working relationship now, and I got not only my internship requirements out of it, but also a great letter of recommendation for vet school as well as continued mentorship and experience opportunities. I've also been able to work extensively with the small animal vet at that clinic. It's great.

While doing what I did and asking him straight out was very much out of my comfort zone, I'm so glad I put myself out there and did it. Great risks can reap great rewards, so if you just need to make cold calls, walk into clinics and ask for what you want, chances are you'll find something.

Good luck!

 

[canis13]

this list is a good starting point if you're willing to travel:
http://people.rit.edu/gtfsbi/Symp/vetag.htm

a lot of the things on the list are more animal care and maybe couldn't be classified as veterinary experience, and the list is definitely more wildlife than large animal, but it's worth a look.

there are also two other internship type things that i came across on the avma.org website:
http://www.alpinehospital.com/site/view/172128_externforms.pml
http://www.wildlife-rescue.org/involved/intancare.php

I'm very interested in public health, and there's not really any kind of advertised internships (such as the type I linked to above) for pre-vet people in the field of veterinary public health. So it requires finding relevant professionals and contacting them to try to create an internship. After over 3 months of searching and contacting people, I finally landed an internship with the USDA/APHIS office in Cheyenne, Wyoming (well, I'm about 90% sure it will work out as this point).

I think the two things that helped were:
a) not being afraid to target smaller-town areas...every time I tried to get my foot in the door with veterinary and/or public health related folks in the two big cities I've lived in (Portland, OR and Philadelphia), I never would get replies to my emails or have my phone calls returned. So I think the fact that not as many folks are inquiring about interning in Cheyenne (b/c it's kind of in the middle of nowhere...but I'm actually thrilled about going!) worked in my favor.

b) Calling instead of just emailing. I have horrible, terrible, phone phobia, and will put off calling people for weeks because I just psych myself out. Emailing feels very safe and easy for me to do, but for instance with this Cheyenne internship, I sent two emails over a period of two weeks and got no response. I then finally called, and two days later I get a return phone call and an offered internship.

Oh, and in terms of finding large animal vets to contact, this site may be helpful:
http://www.ruralvets.com/ (go to "mentorship" and "find a mentor")

Also, try not to get too down on yourself if you can't get things to work out right away. Persistence and patience are key.

 

[Minnerbelle]

http://www.wildlife-rescue.org/involved/intancare.php

I did this internship for 7 months, and though I think I gained valuable experience (along with viral meningitis and ample amounts of slave labor)... I spent a great amount of time during my interviews talking about how this org did not do right for their animals, esp when it came to veterinary care. It made for a great discussion, but I'm not sure I would recommend this place for someone who wants vet experience (though I heard it's gotten a little better after they hired a new grad vet... just a little). I don't think it'll hurt your application, but I think there are better things you can do with your time.

feel free to pm me if you have any questions.