Basic HTML Version
C A R E E R S A D V I C E
SUMMER 2011 ISSUE
EQUINE MATTERS
12
You could even combine your efforts, for
instance using a sport/club that you’re
involved with, to put on a fund raiser for an
animal charity is a good use of your time and
resources and shows initiative. It may also
open new doors, providing you with contacts
which allow you to do more work experience.
Although there’s nothing wrong with
repeatedly seeing practice at your local vets
over a few years, the universities really rate
people with broad ranges of experience.
This may mean doing work that relates to
areas of veterinary practice that don’t appeal
to you, but it shows that you have a grasp of
the broad range of work that vets do and that
you’re happy to push yourself out of your
comfort zone. Not everyone wants to become
a small animal vet or work with dairy cattle,
but you’ll still have to learn all about them and
pass their respective exams at university. Add
to that the fact that views often change with
time, as you learn more you may find yourself
pulled from one area to another, so make sure
you give everything a go, you might be
pleasantly surprised!
You might be starting to think that all of this
work experience and extra activities are
going to take a lot of commitment and use
a lot of your spare time and you’d be right!
This is a really important factor, one that
persists throughout and after your degree
(in my 5 years at university I was required
to spend a minimum of 38 weeks holiday
performing unpaid placement work) and is
another reason universities want you to see
so much before you apply... Starting a
degree is a big investment for both the
university and you. A wasted place due to
someone dropping out of the course because
they decide it’s not for them is very bad
financially for both the university and the
individual... not to mention it means
someone else has missed out.
I can’t emphasise how important it is to be
totally infatuated by the career before you
start. For every brilliant day spent out and
about in green fields enjoying the sunshine,
many more hours will be spent toiling in a
muddy, freezing ditch or in the pouring rain
at 2am. Despite this you have to enjoy what
you do or you won’t last. I won’t lie, I don’t
enjoy being woken up in the night, but I do
enjoy the feeling when the cow has been
successfully assisted to calve or when you can
reassure an owner that their horse’s colic isn’t
life threatening. I hate putting people’s pets to
sleep, but I console myself knowing that we
gave them the best quality of life whilst they
were alive and prevented them suffering
unnecessarily at the end.
I think, because of this seesaw nature of
veterinary medicine, the only way you can
tell if it’s for you is to go and see practice and
find out. I was a typical teenager, when my
parents would ask what I’d done at school
they might get a monosyllabic answer if they
were lucky, usually just a grunt or sigh. After
my first day of work experience at a local
veterinary practice I didn’t shut up from the
moment I got through the front door to when
they fell asleep...I’d truly been bitten by the
bug and there was no going back.
Work experience at an XLVet practice is a
great place to start. Most of the practices are
mixed, so it’s a sensible use of your time; it’s
not unusual for one part of a practice to go
quiet for an afternoon, so rather than just
waiting for horse calls you could step into
small animal consultations or go out on a
calving! Keeping a diary of the interesting
cases you see and finding out why we
vaccinate and worm animals will also help
you for interviews at university. When you’re
on a placement, ask questions! If you’re
wondering why you can’t just feed a cow
more to get more milk, or why some horses
have to have their grazing restricted, just ask!
Placements are for learning and questions are
the best way to find out more. Seeing work
at an XLVets practice allows you to meet a
range of farmers/stable owners that you could
potentially work for to gain experience. You
can then use the practice as a base for your
work experience when at university and who
knows, maybe even for your first job!
WORK EXPERIENCE
CHECK LIST:
q
EQUINE PRACTICE
q
LARGE ANIMAL (FARM) PRACTICE
q
SMALL ANIMAL PRACTICE
q
DAIRY FARMING
q
BEEF FARMING
q
SHEEP FARMING (LAMBING)
q
PIG FARMING
q
POULTRY FARMING (LAYING/BROILER)
q
RIDING STABLES
q
KENNELS/CATTERY
q
ABATTOIR WORK
q
LABORATORY WORK
q
ZOO WORK