Seeking career advice - zoo/wildlife

[umbrezon]

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Hi all,

I'm a current fourth year veterinary student on my clinical year and seeking some career advice. For context, I have always had a strong interest in zoo/exotics/wildlife throughout pre-vet and vet school. I also really enjoy doing research and have always been passionate about conservation biology. However, I feel like my guidance throughout vet school when speaking with advisors, I was told to avoid zoo and wildlife med as they were essentially unattainable and not an achievable goal due to how competitive it is. With that in mind, I ended up not applying for any internships through the VIRMP this year and decided to opt for a looking for a job with mentorship at a clinic that sees a good caseload of exotics. I currently have a couple interviews/working interviews with places that see exotics. I was also considering doing the experiential route for ABVP specialization in the future. I planned to just go into private practice and do exotics GP.

Now during my clinical year, I've had a wildlife rotation and a zoo rotation so far. I've absolutely loved them, and it's made me want to do it even more. I really want to pursue working in zoo or wildlife medicine, mostly zoo is my strongest interest. I feel lost right now in terms of my career path, as I feel like I've screwed myself by not applying for a rotating or internships through VIRMP this cycle. At this point I see that I'll have to take a job at least for the next year and then possibly apply for VIRMP next cycle. I guess I'm just feeling confused about trying to plan a career path, as I'd really like to get ACZM board certified, whether that's traditional or experiential route. I'm looking for advice from people who may have gone through this, or may have advice for me moving forward.

I'm mostly feeling discouraged right now as I'm disappointed in myself for not applying for VIRMP this cycle + feel unsure moving forward career wise what I should do next. If it's relevant, my GPA during vet school has been around a 3.6 average. I have another wildlife rotation and an exotics only clinic as well in my clinical year before I graduate in May.

Thanks!

 

[JaynaAli]

Tagging @WildZoo for more traditional zoo led residency perspective, @pp9 for nontraditional/non residency zoo positions, and also including @Trilt as someone who saw/sees occasional exotic pets in gp/er and also has done the abvp stuff.

 

[pp9]

Hi all,

I'm a current fourth year veterinary student on my clinical year and seeking some career advice. For context, I have always had a strong interest in zoo/exotics/wildlife throughout pre-vet and vet school. I also really enjoy doing research and have always been passionate about conservation biology. However, I feel like my guidance throughout vet school when speaking with advisors, I was told to avoid zoo and wildlife med as they were essentially unattainable and not an achievable goal due to how competitive it is. With that in mind, I ended up not applying for any internships through the VIRMP this year and decided to opt for a looking for a job with mentorship at a clinic that sees a good caseload of exotics. I currently have a couple interviews/working interviews with places that see exotics. I was also considering doing the experiential route for ABVP specialization in the future. I planned to just go into private practice and do exotics GP.

Now during my clinical year, I've had a wildlife rotation and a zoo rotation so far. I've absolutely loved them, and it's made me want to do it even more. I really want to pursue working in zoo or wildlife medicine, mostly zoo is my strongest interest. I feel lost right now in terms of my career path, as I feel like I've screwed myself by not applying for a rotating or internships through VIRMP this cycle. At this point I see that I'll have to take a job at least for the next year and then possibly apply for VIRMP next cycle. I guess I'm just feeling confused about trying to plan a career path, as I'd really like to get ACZM board certified, whether that's traditional or experiential route. I'm looking for advice from people who may have gone through this, or may have advice for me moving forward.

I'm mostly feeling discouraged right now as I'm disappointed in myself for not applying for VIRMP this cycle + feel unsure moving forward career wise what I should do next. If it's relevant, my GPA during vet school has been around a 3.6 average. I have another wildlife rotation and an exotics only clinic as well in my clinical year before I graduate in May.

Thanks!

A lot of disorganized thoughts for you...

A career in zoo and/or wildlife (they are more separate than people realize, so it would be good to know exactly what you want to do) is not unattainable. Wildlife, if you mean rehab-type medicine, is a little more flexible than zoo med because there is less competition imo. That said, there are still few FT jobs out there and generally they pay poorly. For traditional zoo med, competition is fierce. I'll focus on zoo med for all of my response but we can get into wildlife separately if you want.

A rotating internship -> zoo internship (or multiple) -> zoo residency is the typical pathway in terms of being competitive in the job market. There is a unspoken, but big push for newcomers to be boarded and that will continue. With that said, most of my circle didn't do a residency. I have a very small handful of buddies that didn't even do a rotating, and they made it work (they did not go into zoo med right out of school, though). so it's kind of up to how you want to go about this, and if you for sure want to. A 3.6 will be pretty VIRMP competitive when it comes to zoo stuff but you'll need the CV and LORs to prove it. Once you graduate and start working, it gets harder and harder to maintain those distant zoo contacts if you decide you want to apply in a few years. It also gets harder and harder to drop into an intern/resident salary when you've been making 6 figures for a bit.

The nontraditional route is attractive for a lot of reasons, but to make a huge sweeping generalization, the bigger zoos/boarded vets are reluctant to hire nonboarded/nonresidency trained applicants. Part of that is because a lot of the current zoo leadership at this current time is comprised of people who did residencies/are boarded, part of it is because they want someone who they think won't need mentorship (which isn't always the case...that's a conversation for another day though). That said, myself and my circle of friends/journal club group have all gotten jobs without residencies and we are all working towards the experiential boards pathway. If you are fine working at smaller zoos, it won't be an issue. If your dream is San Diego, Disney, Shedd, or other similarly 'famous' institutions, you're going to want to be boarded ASAP. It's true that not all of the vets at these big places are boarded, but a lot of them started in a different time period.

The biggest sacrifice/challenge imo is that we are approaching boards without any of the exam mentorship that you get in a residency. If you are set on boards, this is a very challenging way to go about it - there is data that was reviewed at the last zoo vet conference and the success rate of experiential pathway exam-takers was really low compared to residents. And the residency-trained, boarded vets behind the exam were up at the podium scratching their heads about why that would be, but the answer is simple. It's not easy to prep for a massive, massive exam (NAVLE on mega steroids) while working full time with no dedicated study time/blocks. Some of these vets are solo vets and are working under some major demands. Some people can't actually afford to take unpaid LOAs for study time leading up to the exam. And that's thinking only of study time...don't even get me started on how hard it is to get publications out if you're not in an internship/residency, are a solo vet, or are at a zoo that isn't going to give you a lot of leeway for scientific investigations. And that's considering that publication requirements used to be 5, and it's now down to 3.

Personally I did rotating -> ER/CC for ~3 years -> zoo internship -> FT zoo. I attribute my success to planning out my externships really well (my internship was at a zoo I externed at). Also for the internship and all jobs I've applied for, the ER experience was something everyone seemed really interested in. Doesn't mean you HAVE to get ER experience to be competitive, but I do think there's something to be said of already being an independent clinician in a high-stakes/high-demand field. And just being able to figure stuff out on the go. Many/most traditional zoo job applicants have not yet been an independent clinician tbh, so that's a con, but they've also been diligently trained and have been studying hard for boards by the time they are applying for the same jobs you are. Definitely pros and cons to both ways.

Finally, because I'm not sure if I'm even helpful at this point: I think the biggest thing for you now is to decide if you truly need to be in zoo med to feel fulfilled or if you are feeling remorse for not pursuing the path you originally intended to pursue, even if that path is not the only thing that could work for you. I'd need to know more about what drew you to zoo med/how much experience you really have to know if you have a good idea of what the day to day is actually like. Looking at your old WAMC post and now reading here that you've done maybe only one rotation/externship, I'll say that you probably need more experience to be able to know for sure. To be honest, I find that the majority of students who want to be zoo vets are disappointed in the career after a few externships.

Keep in mind that ACZM has an exotics discipline too, so even in an exotics PP career, ACZM boards are still an option (though still just as difficult to achieve).

 

[WildZoo]

I'm not sure I have much useful stuff to add other than my support for everything pp9 said and a couple of my own anecdotes.

I personally side stepped rotating internship by concurrently doing a PhD and working part-time in small animal GP for 3 years. Went from that to specialty internship to residency. But the vast majority of people I know in residencies did a rotating internship, specialty internship (more often multiple) and then residency. I also know multiple people who did rotating internship, specialty internship (or multiple), and then never got past that stage before deciding to exit the residency pipeline - several of those have zoo jobs now, but there are others who don't and had to pivot entirely despite checking all the careerpath boxes since starting vet school. That's not meant as discouragement, just a reality check to keep in mind. I have a decent mix of residency and experiential path folks in my own boards study groups, and like pp9 mentioned it's increasingly rare for people to break into the field without doing some kind of additional post-grad training. The days of vets doing part time work for zoos and then eventually having a full time position made for them are largely gone, and though there are still smaller zoos that have vets contracted to manage the general needs of their collections, that's not likely to be a pathway that leads to board certification, if that's your ultimate goal.

There's still lots of different ways to get there but I think one of the really big things that has been and continues to be important is making and maintaining relationships in the field with people who will be willing to vouch for you, whether that's when you're applying for internships, residencies, or associate positions.

In any case I don't see why you couldn't decide to apply to VIRMP next year if you want to go that route. I would try as much as you can to maintain contact with people who can write you excellent LORs. See if you can take the time in the next year to get some more experience as well and make sure it's really the path you want to go down.

 

[DVM2024]

I don't have a lot to add as there is already lots of amazing advice above, and I'm obviously a lot earlier in my career path than others here. I'm in a very niche corner of zoo med, and while I was a student, I heard a lot from a few (well-meaning, I'm sure) doctors that I would never find a job in the field and should try something else. But there were also those who supported me and served as mentors, and I owe a lot to them! I'm now currently halfway through a specialty internship in that niche area. It took being rejected from 20+ positions to get it. Your goals are definitely not unattainable, and if you really want this, pursue it. Half of the battle, at least in my experience, is not giving up even when the disappointment from rejection and fierce competition gets overwhelming.