Options after leaving veterinary school

[tealcoffee]

So I left vet school during third year. I had health issues that affected my performance, I felt out of place in my cohort, and was deeply unhappy with my life to the point where the stress was making me physically ill. I put on a brave face for my non-vet friends, but truthfully I'd been feeling burnt out for a while and it kept compounding.

After leaving, I sought help for my health problems and burnout. I'm in a better place now, but I'm still kind of at a loss for what to do. The dream of going into vet med is what motivated me to work hard and I'm struggling to find that same degree of motivation again. I understand that vet school and practicing medicine are completely different, and sometimes I wonder if I should have just stuck it out.

Working with animals is deeply rewarding. I loved completing my biology degree. I also genuinely enjoy helping and listening to people. My work experiences outside of vet med are in teaching, wet lab research, and a creative outlet. I don't feel strong enough about any of these as careers, but I genuinely enjoyed my time in those roles. I felt like vet med was the most obvious career choice with respect to things I like (working with animals, life science, helping people), which is why I decided to pursue it, but in practice it didn't work out. More than anything, I don't want a repeat of my current situation. I'm not sure if the particular school I went to wasn't a match (would I have done better at a different school I got into?) or if the profession as a whole was a poor fit. I've had both positive and negative experiences as a vet assistant and it truly depended on the practice culture.

Any advice on where to go from here?

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[battie]

This is hard and really only you can answer this. With that being said....

You're free to do anything. It can be animal related. Or not. It can be science related. Or not. My back up plan (took 3 cycles to get into vet school) was working in student success at the undergraduate level. And honestly, that's what I would do if I ever left vet med clinically.

Remember, your career is just a job at the end of the day. You'll spend 30-40 a week at that job, the. ~72 hours a week doing other stuff (assuming sleeping 8 hours a night). So consider what you're good at in addition to what you like to do

 

[Minnerbelle]

Remember, your career is just a job at the end of the day. You'll spend 30-40 a week at that job, the. ~72 hours a week doing other stuff (assuming sleeping 8 hours a night). So consider what you're good at in addition to what you like to do

This. If I had to do it all over again, I would become an accountant and volunteer with animals and have my own pets to dote on.

There is a lot of vet med and working with animals that are ruined by depending on doing so to earn a living…