Most clinics would love to have you as a veterinary assistant. If you can’t find an assistant position, you could always look at kennel tech positions too. I found my first job via Craigslist
Is your end goal to be a veterinarian? Your schooling looks like a good start with your bio sci degree, and being a vet assistant is a good place to get practical experience in an actual clinic setting. You already do stuff with research and sanctuary animals so that's good. You're honestly pretty qualified to be an assistant, but find a good clinic that is willing to train you. Learning restraint and basic animal behaviours (so you don't get bit) would probably be the key things to focus on. I'd apply to any clinics around you, I think an ER clinic would help you learn a lot but would be a little more demanding in what they expect from you .
My end goal is to be a vet! Thank you this is some solid advice. I’m just not wanting to commit to the load of debt and another four years of school just yet so I agree that being a vet assistant would give me some clinic hours that I also desperately need for vet school
You're overqualified to be a vet assistant, imo. In my local clinics, the assistants have no schooling or degrees. They are an entry-level position with the garbage pay to match. If you're looking to get some experience in a clinical setting so you can determine if being a vet is a good career choice for you, then it's a good decision to work a few months as an assistant.
If your end goal is to be a veterinarian, starting as an assistant will not help you or give you a leg up into getting accepted to school. It's stupidly hard to get into vet school despite the vet shortage, and admissions is going to look mostly at your grades and how well you interview.
In the USA, most schools want you to have around 500 hours of work with a vet (research with a vet, lab work, vet assistant, etc) as well as non-vet animal experience. So if they haven't accrued at least some good vet experience, that's usually recommended. Additionally, it can help with your essay and interview by giving you a real world understanding of the career and experiences to refer too.
The non vet stuff isn't usually as wanted, but it can help diversify the species you worked with. Kennel tech could go under vet experience but working on a farm, with horses, or at a zoo can still be beneficial
Just curious why you are not already applying to vet school. Did you graduate undergrad already?
Honestly my best hire at the moment is a college grad who had no experience. She has an awesome attitude and is always willing to learn. I’d take her over an experienced person with a bad attitude any day. My experience with people who have experience is that they often are set in their ways and are unwilling to do things the way we do them.
Just go in with a good attitude and willingness to learn.
Yea, I would seriously take anyone if your willing to work hard and do what your told. I always need someone to clean the kennels and do laundry. 😈
I always tried to keep it more exciting than that but a lot of a vet assistant role is low level chores. Though personally I went from kennel assisting all the way to scrubbing in as a surgical assistant. Depends on what they'll let you do and what your willing to learn.
You can always assume a vet practice is under staffed. So any help is appreciated and usually will be trained to do what is needed. In theory there should be a scope of practice between registred techs and assistants but due to need its more of a trust thing. For instance, officially a assistant should not administer certain meds. I administered everything. But I also knew most of the meds better than the other techs, I checked their work. This was also a animal shelter as opposed to clinic so even shorter staffed and less liability. If you demonstrate competence it is usually rewarded.
I will also say responsibility follows. I eventually got to the point where my decisions could kill a patient. This was even as simple as making sure to carry a dog right, you can break their necks if they flop around under anesthesia. Or another one was taking on too many patients in the recovery area in one of our big spay days. We wanted to get done and had too many patients. We should have been going slower. As an assistant I had the authority (unknown to me) to tell them to slow down I had too many animals on the recovery area. I missed a puppy that must have had an apnea. Easy to fix if caught, potentially lethal if not. I felt like shit. Same for surgical stuff, with a good staff if you see somthing, an instrument is not sterile, the vitals look weird, say somthing. In a good clinic patients always come first and a false alarm is better than a issue.
Hope this helps give a wide view. Assisting is easy to get into and can be as lite or as deep as you want. It's really fun but can be hair raising as you are given more responsibility. Though I only ever had two major issues like above over 5 years and +500 animals.
Was a good jumping off point for DVM, should have life been diffrent, as well.
I know some techs and VAs that used their experience to apply & go to vet school. Two had bachelors like you, one also had a tech license in addition. It can be done, get your skills up, learn medicine early so it will make your clinical year(s) easier. If your bachelors grades weren’t perfect, I’d consider tech school just to bulk up your academic record. You could always look into vet/anim sci masters programs while you work as a VA as an alternative. Being a vet is tough, seeing day-to-day how a hospital operates will help you decide if it’s the right fit for you.
No need to do anything special. Get a job where they’ll train you and run with it!
Most clinics would love to have you as a veterinary assistant. If you can’t find an assistant position, you could always look at kennel tech positions too. I found my first job via Craigslist
Is your end goal to be a veterinarian? Your schooling looks like a good start with your bio sci degree, and being a vet assistant is a good place to get practical experience in an actual clinic setting. You already do stuff with research and sanctuary animals so that's good. You're honestly pretty qualified to be an assistant, but find a good clinic that is willing to train you. Learning restraint and basic animal behaviours (so you don't get bit) would probably be the key things to focus on. I'd apply to any clinics around you, I think an ER clinic would help you learn a lot but would be a little more demanding in what they expect from you .
My end goal is to be a vet! Thank you this is some solid advice. I’m just not wanting to commit to the load of debt and another four years of school just yet so I agree that being a vet assistant would give me some clinic hours that I also desperately need for vet school
You're overqualified to be a vet assistant, imo. In my local clinics, the assistants have no schooling or degrees. They are an entry-level position with the garbage pay to match. If you're looking to get some experience in a clinical setting so you can determine if being a vet is a good career choice for you, then it's a good decision to work a few months as an assistant. If your end goal is to be a veterinarian, starting as an assistant will not help you or give you a leg up into getting accepted to school. It's stupidly hard to get into vet school despite the vet shortage, and admissions is going to look mostly at your grades and how well you interview.
In the USA, most schools want you to have around 500 hours of work with a vet (research with a vet, lab work, vet assistant, etc) as well as non-vet animal experience. So if they haven't accrued at least some good vet experience, that's usually recommended. Additionally, it can help with your essay and interview by giving you a real world understanding of the career and experiences to refer too.
Non-vet animal experience? Like kennel tech stuff? Why? If you already have the vet animal experience, why is the rest required/desired?
The non vet stuff isn't usually as wanted, but it can help diversify the species you worked with. Kennel tech could go under vet experience but working on a farm, with horses, or at a zoo can still be beneficial
Just curious why you are not already applying to vet school. Did you graduate undergrad already? Honestly my best hire at the moment is a college grad who had no experience. She has an awesome attitude and is always willing to learn. I’d take her over an experienced person with a bad attitude any day. My experience with people who have experience is that they often are set in their ways and are unwilling to do things the way we do them. Just go in with a good attitude and willingness to learn.
I have graduated undergrad already but have no clinical hours to get into vet school
Yea, I would seriously take anyone if your willing to work hard and do what your told. I always need someone to clean the kennels and do laundry. 😈 I always tried to keep it more exciting than that but a lot of a vet assistant role is low level chores. Though personally I went from kennel assisting all the way to scrubbing in as a surgical assistant. Depends on what they'll let you do and what your willing to learn. You can always assume a vet practice is under staffed. So any help is appreciated and usually will be trained to do what is needed. In theory there should be a scope of practice between registred techs and assistants but due to need its more of a trust thing. For instance, officially a assistant should not administer certain meds. I administered everything. But I also knew most of the meds better than the other techs, I checked their work. This was also a animal shelter as opposed to clinic so even shorter staffed and less liability. If you demonstrate competence it is usually rewarded. I will also say responsibility follows. I eventually got to the point where my decisions could kill a patient. This was even as simple as making sure to carry a dog right, you can break their necks if they flop around under anesthesia. Or another one was taking on too many patients in the recovery area in one of our big spay days. We wanted to get done and had too many patients. We should have been going slower. As an assistant I had the authority (unknown to me) to tell them to slow down I had too many animals on the recovery area. I missed a puppy that must have had an apnea. Easy to fix if caught, potentially lethal if not. I felt like shit. Same for surgical stuff, with a good staff if you see somthing, an instrument is not sterile, the vitals look weird, say somthing. In a good clinic patients always come first and a false alarm is better than a issue. Hope this helps give a wide view. Assisting is easy to get into and can be as lite or as deep as you want. It's really fun but can be hair raising as you are given more responsibility. Though I only ever had two major issues like above over 5 years and +500 animals. Was a good jumping off point for DVM, should have life been diffrent, as well.
I know some techs and VAs that used their experience to apply & go to vet school. Two had bachelors like you, one also had a tech license in addition. It can be done, get your skills up, learn medicine early so it will make your clinical year(s) easier. If your bachelors grades weren’t perfect, I’d consider tech school just to bulk up your academic record. You could always look into vet/anim sci masters programs while you work as a VA as an alternative. Being a vet is tough, seeing day-to-day how a hospital operates will help you decide if it’s the right fit for you.
[удалено]
I’d love to be a technician I’ve just been told I would need to get the vet tech certification to even be considered…