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Tag: employment

The key to your new career
vetsonlinejobs – the key to your new career
Image © iStockphoto.com/scyther

Regular vetsonline users (or at least those with an interest in changing their career path) may have noticed a change to the site in the past couple of months – specifically our recruitment section.

What was initially a fairly basic affair with a handful of job listings has been transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing recruitment platform that is set to revolutionise the veterinary recruitment process for both employers and job seekers.

For those looking to hire new staff, vetsonlinejobs makes it simpler, easier, faster and cheaper to find the right person for the role. For job seekers, the site – which can be found at www.vetsonlinejobs.com – offers the ability to upload your CV and search the very latest job ads from around the country.

More than that, however, we’ve tried to make sure vetsonlinejobs is a site that suits ALL the needs of the employment seeker. As such, we also offer a growing selection of articles to help you win the job of your dreams – from basic CV writing tips through to advice on what to wear to your interview (not a clown outfit, apparently – but then, you probably already realised that!).

Some of our latest articles include:
- Interview nerves? How to calm yourself before an interview – If sweating and nerves can cause a politician to lose a presidential election, then they can surely hurt your job interview. Simple techniques to control your nervousness in interviews are available.
- Creating an alluring covering letter – The main aim of a covering letter is to encourage recruiters to read your CV. However, it needs to do a lot more than say, “here is my CV!”. In short, it is the biggest chance you have to sell yourself.
- Jobseekers: be prepared for the tough questions – Interview jitters can make it difficult to come up with great responses on the spot, so try to anticipate the questions your interviewers will ask you and have the perfect answers ready in advance.
- Creative approaches to bagging that perfect job – The weird and wonderful methods potential employees have used in an attempt to help them get noticed… but not always for the best!
More articles are being added on a weekly basis, so be sure to visit vetsonlinejobs regularly. Alternatively, get them posted straight to your social media streams by following @vetsonlinejobs on Twitter, or “liking” www.facebook.com/vetsonlinejobs, which both also feature the latest job listings.
June 13, 2014
A vet school storm on the horizon

Following last year’s announcement that the University of Surrey is to open a new veterinary school (taking in the first cohort of students in autumn 2014), it would appear that the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) is now jumping on the bandwagon.

These proposals have indeed kicked up quite a storm in the veterinary world.

There seems to be little positive attitude towards this news, with many of us panicking about academic standards, graduate prospects and EMS availability.

With neither of these being Russell Group universities, it has to be questioned whether the academic standards will be comparable to the current UK vet schools.

It is notoriously difficult to get into vet school, but will the two new universities have lower entry requirements? If so, this would be providing a back up option for many applicants and, as a result, decrease the currently high standard of veterinary students. If the graduates are indeed less knowledgable, or have less well-developed clinical skills, would this encourage the employment of poorer quality vets in second-rate practices?

Evidently, more veterinary graduates would mean more competition for jobs, hence pushing down the salaries that graduates would be willing for work for.

It has been suggested that the restricted number of graduates being able to go directly into clinical practice would mean that more veterinary students would be encouraged to take a different career route (research or veterinary education, for example). But if the aim is not to produce veterinary professionals, why not instead increase the intake on veterinary biosciences courses for those more interested in research?

I also think it unfair to expect new graduates to begin teaching at vet schools immediately, even if that is what they’re interested in doing. Their credibility and respect from their students would be dramatically reduced if they’ve not actually had any experience in practice and can’t give clinical case examples to the possible vets of the future.

Another concern is the availability for EMS opportunities. With an increased number of students throughout the UK as a whole, it will become increasingly difficult for students to gain clinical EMS placements. To further the competition, Surrey will not be opening its own teaching hospital as such, and it is expected that final year rotations will instead take place in veterinary practices in the surrounding area, reducing their availability for students from other universities to undertake EMS.

Could this be the future employment opportunity for UK veterinary graduates?

Of course, there are a lot of “ifs” and “buts” here, and potentially the two new vet schools could produce better graduates than the rest of the UK – but this would still increase the competition for graduate jobs and EMS placements.

In my opinion, the main concern is not the repercussions of opening these two vet schools themselves, but the catastrophic effects that would result from further universities following suit.

With little legislation able to dictate requirements for opening a new vet school, the prospect of having as many veterinary education institutions as medical ones could soon become a reality. Before we know it, we could be inundated with veterinary graduates, some of questionable quality, and the next generation of veterinary professionals will be fighting tooth and nail for a severely underpaid job.

November 15, 2013
Too many graduates, not enough jobs?

The increasing number of veterinary graduates has had “little impact” on job prospects, survey claims.

No doubt spurred on by a survey carried out by the Institute of Employment Studies (on behalf of the RCVS), this last week has seen an interesting focus on the availability of jobs within the veterinary profession.

Curiously enough, the survey seems to show that the increasing number of graduates over the past few years has had “little impact” on job prospects. In fact, it shows that an average of 94% of graduates seeking a role in clinical practice found work within six months.

Surprisingly, this figure did not change significantly over the five years under consideration, despite UK graduate numbers increasing by around a quarter in the same period. It did take them slightly longer to secure a post, but they still got there!

Mind you, the situation changes rather dramatically if you want to work with horses. Results of a second survey revealed by (who else?) BEVA suggests there may be up to five times as many graduates wanting to work in equine practice as there are jobs available.

Overall, however, results of the RCVS survey may slightly allay the fears of current vet students and recent graduates. But you can’t help but wonder what the situation will be like for those looking for employment when Surrey lets its first cohort loose on the veterinary job market.

Plus, with the BVA citing rumours of even more new veterinary schools on the horizon, the future of veterinary employment does start to look a lot less certain.

July 10, 2013
Tax doesn’t have to be taxing

Is calculating tax returns your idea of hell?
Image: Darren Shaw.

As students, we need all the extra cash we can get, and often a part time job will help considerably with rent, bills etc. But what about self employment?

It may seem like a scary proposal: how would I be able to run my own business while studying? What do I need to get started? What would I do? Will I have time? Are students even allowed to do that?

The answer is yes, you can be self employed while studying!

I recently registered as self employed for freelance writing. It’s something that I enjoy doing, which means it doesn’t even feel like I’m working. I also feel that it would be almost impossible to fit in a “real” part-time job around university, particularly because the veterinary course has so much contact time, and it would be very difficult to find fixed working hours that would accommodate that. The freedom and flexibility are definitely major positives of being self-employed.

But writing isn’t the only option; there are lots of things that you could do and make a bit of spare cash from. There are a few self-employed students out there, you just might not be aware of it.

Could baking be your way of earning a few extra pounds? Image (and chocolate button cake) by Rebecca Hubbard.

I know of people at Glasgow and other universities who earn money from a variety of sources. One of my high-school friends makes teddies from different fabrics by hand and sells them via her Facebook page. Another student makes very high quality professional-looking cakes for occasions in her spare time.

As an employee, you get paid every month and generally won’t get taxed because a part-time job would mean you don’t come anywhere near the earnings threshold. If you did get taxed accidentally, filling out a simple form (or having a word with your employer) would ensure a tax rebate. So getting your hands on your hard-earned cash and keeping hold of it is fairly straightforward.

Self employment, on the other hand, involves a much more proactive process. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been learning the jargon, trying to get my head around National Insurance contributions and making a start on my tax return. It’s all very new and while it seems like a headache at the minute, once I get into the swing of things, I’m sure I’ll get the paperwork done in no time.

All in all, the extra paperwork is completely worth being able to do what I love, when I want, while getting paid for it.

June 5, 2013