Interview preparation??

[halesvet]

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So I've read some of the interview recounts from people to had gone to interviews, and a lot of the questions had to do with current events...which I'm not so good at keeping up with.

I've heard about reading Vet journals to keep up with vet current events (i dont really have access to any tho), but should I spend some time going through CNN or world news to know whats going on so I can show the interviewers that I don't live with my head buried in books?

Any suggestions?

 

[FlyOnTheWall]

So I've read some of the interview recounts from people to had gone to interviews, and a lot of the questions had to do with current events...which I'm not so good at keeping up with.

I've heard about reading Vet journals to keep up with vet current events (i dont really have access to any tho), but should I spend some time going through CNN or world news to know whats going on so I can show the interviewers that I don't live with my head buried in books?

Any suggestions?

I admire your desire to be fluent on current events. For vet stuff I would look at the Journal of the Veterinary Medical Association. The first part of every journal has current issues facing vets, what's happening in Washington, current disease issues, etc. That part of the journal is available online: http://www.avma.org/onlnews/default.asp

For brief news reviews I like the "Week in Review" section of the Sunday New York times: http://nytimes.com

 

[cuitlamiztli]

I would definitely keep up with non-vet-related current events as well as vet-specific and animal-related current news.

As for a few more suggestions: If you have an iGoogle account, put a few news applications on there and glance over them at least once a day--that's usually the first thing I do every morning. I also browse CNN.com and recently re-discovered DVM360.com.

 

[halesvet]

Thank you so much! 🙂

 

[HopefulAg]

I like DVM 360. They update fairly frequently with useful stuff (like dalmation genes and bladder stones). Also the Dolittler blog sometimes talks about current events or things facing the profession, at the least.


I never got asked about current events. Do they ask like, 'what's a new treatment that came out?' or more specific 'What is the significance of the new Butorphanol study?'

 

[VAgirl]

I never got asked about current events. Do they ask like, 'what's a new treatment that came out?' or more specific 'What is the significance of the new Butorphanol study?'

In none of my interviews was I asked anything remotely close to this kind of thing. They will want you to know current stuff on hot topics in vet med (look at the AVMA positions on ethical issues, for example) and stuff relevant to the areas you've worked in. Not really anything beyond that, it doesn't seem.

Also, re: hot topics in vet med, one thing I would recommend knowing about is Prop 2 in California. ESPECIALLY if you're interviewing at UC Davis. But apparently it's drawn a lot of attention from the vet community across the US. Prop 2 passes, by the way. If anyone wants some more info on it, we've been talking about it extensively at UCD, so I could provide some additional info.

 

[efab]

VAGirl, please enlighten us on your discussions regarding prop 2 and UC Davis' perspective - whenever you have a chance.

 

[HopefulAg]

Isn't prop 2 the livestock practices one? Where sows have to have enough room to turn around and walk a bit and some other restrictions?

Pretty good idea IMO, but it's going to jack up prices.

 

[nyanko]

VAGirl, please enlighten us on your discussions regarding prop 2 and UC Davis' perspective - whenever you have a chance.

The University as a whole did not take a stance on the issue, but there were opinions offered by specific professors and departments.

http://aic.ucdavis.edu/publications/eggs/executivesummaryeggs.pdf this is about the economic impact

http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=8835 different people at UCDavis who may have their views published elsewhere if you want to search

I don't really want to talk about the props too much. I was exceedingly annoyed with the results from here in CA on 4 different issues, prop 2 being one of them. Just know that it was funded by the HSUS, who are animal rights activists worse than PeTA and ALF because they hide behind trying to sound like something else by using the "Humane Society" moniker. It's not a good thing for agriculture in the state of CA in general and I think voters had a knee jerk reaction to the idea of "helping the animals" on the ballot.

 

[tealamutt]

I would definitely advise knowing CVMA's official stance on this issue as well as AVMA's (they differ) and that fact is likely to be something they want to hear about, if prop 2 does come up as a hot topic...

 

[VAgirl]

I would definitely advise knowing CVMA's official stance on this issue as well as AVMA's (they differ) and that fact is likely to be something they want to hear about, if prop 2 does come up as a hot topic...

Although a contingent of CVMA members split off to form a new vet med association called the Association of California Veterinarians (can't find their website right now). The were against prop 2.

 

[VAgirl]

Some good readings on prop 2:

http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/text-proposed-laws/text-of-proposed-laws.pdf#prop2
This is the text of the proposition. It's not long, it's worth reading.
It's worthwhile to note that CA has no (almost no?) commercial veal production and the last company using farrowing crates in CA had already voluntarily decided to cease using them in the state, pre-prop 2. So this legislation was really only targeting the layer hens.

With that in mind, this is an excellent study to look at. http://aic.ucdavis.edu/publications/eggs/executivesummaryeggs.pdf It's long (100+ pages), but the exec summary (approx 6 pages) gives an excellent overview.

Then there are the position statements by AVMA and CVMA:
http://www.avma.org/press/releases/080826_california_proposition2.asp
http://www.cvma.net/doc.asp?ID=3501

Ok, now some editorializing. Some of the major (and most fundamental) objections to the prop were:

1. It was completely undefined what the aim of fully extending the wings without touching any other animal for the majority of the day meant. Did every bird have to be able to have its wings extended for 12+ hours? A few at a time? That was not really clear to anyone and had huge implications for how to redesign poultry housing, if anyone even thought it was economically feasible to undertake such an effort.
2. Violations were not clearly defined. Was each farm with improper housing a violation? Each bird? Every day that passed without fixing it another violation? This type of thing is supposed to be defined within the proposition, other wise a judge has no grounds to determine what the correct answer is. (This information coming from a lawyer.)

So the major argument against prop 2, in my opinion and many others' as well, was that regardless of how you feel about how much space layer hens have, this is just bad legislation. It leaves everyone totally unclear as to how to respond to be in accordance with it, how to properly address violations, what exactly constitutes a violation, etc. But now it's passed, so we'll see what happens.

Also, FWIW, some people have suggested that this legislation will favor producers using non-battery caged systems. The statements I've heard (directly from the mouth of one producer, and indirectly from others) is that this prop will also put even cage-free producers out of business.

Those are the highlights as I understand them.

P.S.--sorry to hijack the interview thread.