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My first job – hopes and expectations

They are key to the future of the profession, but what are the next generation of veterinary surgeons looking for from their first job?

To find out, The Veterinary Business Journal headed up to SPVS’ “Your First Job” graduate seminar in Lancaster.

   FACTFILE

NAME: Zara Chowdhury

AGE: 22

COLLEGE: RVC

FIRST SALARY EXPECTATION: £25,000 a year

MY FIRST JOB: “I want to move into mixed practice where I will get the experience I want, but also the day-one support I need.

“There are lots of fears of course, and that is natural. Apart from the various clinical concerns, I am not looking forward to the financial side of things, pricing things up wrong and things like that.

“We have not done any business extramural studies. We have had a few business lectures, but it is something I would have liked more of – particularly earlier on in my course, so it would be good to get some kind of induction in the business side of things.”

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: “This is important to me, but I know I have to be flexible to get on.”

WHAT DID YOU GET FROM THIS EVENT? “It has helped a lot to see the various options laid out in such an accessible way.”

   FACTFILE

NAME: Fiona Laurie

AGE: 21

COLLEGE: University of Glasgow

FIRST SALARY EXPECTATION: £20,000 a year

MY FIRST JOB: “I grew up on a farm, so I have always wanted to move into mixed practice.

“Hopefully that job will provide broad experience on the clinical side, but it will be very important to me to see that I will be supported in the right way.

“Coming from a farming background, I have grown up knowing the importance of getting it right from a business perspective, but I would like to be shown the protocols and the pricing structures and have the computer systems all explained to me properly.”

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: “If the rota was really bad I would look elsewhere, as having balance is important to this generation, but we are all coming into this job with our eyes open and I am not scared of hard work.”

WHAT DID YOU GET FROM THIS EVENT? “Free wine and a lot of ideas about the diversity of career options open to those getting a veterinary degree.”

   FACTFILE

NAME: Alexander Kilgore

AGE: 27

COLLEGE: RVC

FIRST SALARY EXPECTATION: US$60,000 to US$70,000 (£35,000 to £41,000) a year

MY FIRST JOB: “I want to move straight into first opinion, small animal practice back in the United States, where the money is better.

“Ideally, in a supportive environment with a mentor to help me grow and develop as a vet and as a business professional.

“For me, there isn’t enough emphasis on the business management side of things, but I think there is more that students could do to make themselves more business-savvy.”

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: “This is a big deal, I have no problem doing out-of-hours, but I certainly don’t want to be working on a crappy rota for crappy pay.”

WHAT DID YOU GET FROM THIS EVENT? “It has shown me there are plenty of other career options in this field – particularly in industry and the military.”

   FACTFILE

NAME: Alice Griffiths

AGE: 25

COLLEGE: University of Cambridge

FIRST SALARY EXPECTATION: £25,000 a year

MY FIRST JOB: “Will be working with small animals for a boss sympathetic to the fact I still have a lot of learning to do. I want some responsibility, but at the same time I will want guidance when needed.

“We have had a few talks about the financial side at university, so I feel I know what will be expected in that direction, but some sort of written guidelines on the business side of things would be great.”

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: “The more hours asked of me, the more important it would be for me to get some flexibility in those hours – I still need to have a life.”

WHAT DID YOU GET FROM THIS EVENT? “It’s a great chance to meet my peers from other universities and to pick up some really good ideas from the speakers here. I am just surprised by how few people decided to come.”

February 23, 2015
Hitting the third-year wall

Jordan and her peers, not even halfway through their course, feel they are fighting to keep their heads above water – Image: ©iStockphoto/Anton_Sokolov

Everyone had heard rumours third year at veterinary school was the worst. On coming back to university after a long summer of extra-mural studies and relaxation, we were nervous. Two weeks in, things didn’t seem too bad and we were sceptical.

We were indifferently meandering through the bewildering world of Latin names and impossible-to-spell drugs, resigned to a fate of an increased workload and new subjects, but not overwhelmed just yet. It happened to different people at different times, but, seemingly out of nowhere, the third-year wall hit. And it hit hard.

Whether it was the hours of straining to make sense of indiscernible pinky-purple mess under the microscope, or trying to differentiate one parasite from the next by the subtlest of morphological changes, or even just trying to fathom the hideous amount of Latin that had forced itself into our lives, veterinary school suddenly got the better of most of us.

While drowning under the sheer amount of information to take in, the realisation we’re not even halfway there really seemed to set in this term, making it almost impossible for us to keep our heads above water.

A week of very little sleep, long hours studying and eight exams will mark the halfway point for my year group. The most disturbing part of this revelation is the feeling we’ve been at vet school for a long time (can anyone even remember freshers’ week?), and yet we still have that same length of time left to go.

Several of us have been questioning our aspirations of late – why did I want to be a vet? Why am I putting myself through this? Is it worth it? Is this as hard as it gets? These are just some of the whispers heard around vet school.

Image ©iStockphoto/pick-uppath

It’s often comforting in itself your classmates are feeling as fed up as you are, but you also need to find a way to combat your doubts and climb the wall, or punch right through it. Veterinary students are particularly susceptible to stress and mental health issues – we’ve all heard the statistics, which is why it’s vital to know how and where to access support should you need it.

The student-run welfare system at Glasgow’s veterinary school has boomed this year, with multiple welfare talks and the start up of many new clubs and societies aimed at stress relief, including relaxing yoga classes to help you reboot or a high-energy Muay Thai sessions to help you release all that pent-up stress. Following in the footsteps of Liverpool, Glasgow vet school is also currently developing a peer-support network to provide an ear for those students who need someone to turn to in times of need.

Of course, your own interests can distract you from the stress of vet school, and while it’s tempting to entirely prioritise your studies, it’s really important to ensure they don’t consume your entire life. For me personally, writing, editing and riding keep me afloat.

One lesson I’ve learned this term is you also need to keep on top of your own health. You may have a persisting issue that you keep putting off because you haven’t got time to see a doctor and have too much work to do. But it doesn’t pay off in the end. I allowed back muscle pain to get to the point of me being barely able to walk before shaking some sense into myself and seeing a physio. After a couple of sessions, I felt a million times better and regretted putting it off for so long. Just remember you need to look after your body to keep your mind on top form.

On the upside, by the time our “halfway ball” comes around in February, we’ll be over the hump, and just a little bit closer to graduation. Or in other words – a little bit closer to fulfilling our ambitions or dreams that many of us have had from a very young age. We just need to find a way to hold on to the light at the end of the tunnel, so we don’t run out of steam.

December 17, 2014
Ask the editor

Jordan and her fellow stewards “hard at work” at the 2014 BEVA Congress.

As a student steward at the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Congress, my responsibilities included helping set up the trade exhibition, handing out welcome packs at the registration desk and escorting speakers to the appropriate rooms. However, we were also able to sit in on lectures and act as the legs for the microphone whenever there were any questions.

The congress provided a great opportunity for networking and meeting other students from across both the UK and the world, as well as many veterinary professionals from every corner of the globe.

One of the lectures I sat in on was a Q&A session, “Ask the editor”, about publishing clinical research. A particularly sensitive topic was the process of peer reviewing research papers. The main point of discussion that interested me was the huge variation in quality of reviews depending on the reviewer, especially when veterinary schools were brought in to the argument.

As someone with no experience of research, the general impression I got was that one of the issues with peer reviewing is many reviewers are practising vets who – having done a veterinary degree rather than a research-based degree – are never taught specifically how to write a paper, and therefore aren’t taught how to review one either.

And then came the inevitable “well perhaps that should be introduced to the veterinary curriculum”.

In my opinion, absolutely not. The format of the veterinary degree is primarily geared towards producing vets. The majority of veterinary students will have chosen veterinary school because they wanted to be a vet, not because they wanted to learn how to review scientific papers.

BEVA 2014 was obviously a very sombre event.

Is the veterinary course not intensive and long enough without adding in extra skills that would be of limited use to the everyday clinician with no interest in research?

This also brings me back to the controversy surrounding the opening of new UK veterinary schools. One of the arguments countering the “too many graduates and not enough jobs“ point is a veterinary degree doesn’t necessarily lead to a career as a vet. Some graduates opt for other aspects of the profession, such as research.

I have to disagree – with extramural studies forming such a huge chunk of the course, it is certainly preparing students to be practising vets, not researchers. If you want to end up in research, do a bioveterinary science degree instead. That way, students aiming for a research career would get the scientific background knowledge of veterinary and research experience, without having to undertake hours in a veterinary clinic, learning practical skills they’ll never use.

I understand some students may want to practise as vets and yet still become involved in research. However, I believe masters’ courses are available, or the option of intercalation, which would allow them to gain some research experience.

I strongly believe not only the vast majority of veterinary students would resent a more research-based degree, but also it would produce less-competent clinicians as a result.

Research should be an option, but not a compulsory part of becoming a vet.

September 29, 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
In the beginning…

I think it’s fair to say I have a less than conventional pre-veterinary school story. In early 2011, after years of working hard at school, gathering experience at different animal establishments and doing regular work experience at a nearby practice, I finally received an offer for veterinary school.

Student blogger Jordan Sinclair.

All I had to do was get the right grades in my final A-Level exams that summer. Or so I thought. In March, a horse I’d been exercising had other ideas.

One moment I was mounting in a car park at a showjumping competition; the next thing I knew, I was waking up in hospital 10 days later.

Involuntary gap year

Despite 12 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a collapsed lung, a broken clavicle and nerve damage, I was still determined to go to the University of Glasgow that year. After a month, I came out of hospital and soon realised I couldn’t fight the sleepy side effects of the morphine long enough to pick up a book, let alone try to catch up with the schoolwork I’d missed.

Glasgow were fantastic – I remember mum being on the phone trying to explain the situation, while I tried to gauge the response from half the conversation. They would not only allow me to defer, but told her I needed to, in order to guarantee full physical fitness for the start of the course.

So what did I do with my involuntary gap year? I spent quite a lot of it recovering. The Air Ambulance Service saved my life by operating at the scene of the accident, and since it is a charity, I started volunteering and fund-raising for it.

When I was well enough, I rode again. Over Christmas, I visited family in Australia and, while I wasn’t allowed to scuba dive due to the previously collapsed lung, nothing was stopping me snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. I then returned to school to finish my A-Levels.

The long journey begins

Finally, after seeing my friends go through it the previous year, results day came. And so began the mad rush to kit up for veterinary school; books, wellies, overalls and goodness knows what else were gathered up and rammed into the car. Unfortunately, my horse wouldn’t fit in the boot, and I heard cats weren’t permitted in halls. So, petless and not knowing what to expect, I started the long journey north.

I thought A-levels were hard; veterinary school is a whole new ball game. You know it’s not going to be easy when even working out your timetable is almost impossible. It was equally daunting to see the proportions of internationals and postgraduates who all seemed to know everything compared to us Brits, who were fresh(ish) out of school.

One moment I was at a showjumping competition, the next I was waking up in hospital.

Anatomy was like learning a new language, with hundreds of obscure words being thrown at you in one lecture; in a whole sentence, the only recognisable words could be “the” or “and”.

Dissections took some getting used to, when you’ve only ever observed surgery and never actually made contact with a cadaver before. However, after a couple of weeks you can actually visualise where everything is and things start to slot into place.

A whole new world

For those not from farming backgrounds (I’m not sure what I consider myself – my horses were kept on a pig farm), husbandry was a whole new world. We all have varying degrees of experience in some area of farming or animal care, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, but trying to learn a lifetimes worth of experience in keeping sheep from someone in six hours seemed crazy. Now, it’s easy to see the importance of preclinical EMS – you can’t learn everything from a book. Though it is good to take a break from bookwork and head out to the uni farm for handling sessions every so often.

After my riding accident, I was given a CD with all of my radiographs and CT scan pictures on. Although the idea of having my own x-rays was novel, aside from seeing the obvious snap in the collar bone, they meant very little. After being shown an example of a radiograph showing the collapsed lung in a dog in the first couple of weeks at Glasgow, I went back to my stashed away x-rays. To my delight, I could see things more clearly, although did find it odd being able to understand how smashed up my insides had been. So far, the CT pictures still remain a mystery though.

I’m not sure if the beginning of vet school is what I expected or not. In some respects, it seems very real now, with professionalism being drummed into us from the outset. And in others, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel from here.

October 21, 2012