Introduction

Starting your professional career as a young graduate is one of the most interesting moments of your life, because so many choices are open to you. It is also one of the most stressful... because so many choices are open to you! 

There are many ways in which a career in veterinary medicine can be developed:

• One of the first choices to be made is whether you wish to work only with pets and companion animals or in a mixed, equine or large animal practice.
  
  

• Should you get involved as an employee in an existing practice or should you decide early on to go it alone? This choice will be discussed later, together with an explanation as to why the first option is chosen by the majority of young vets and under which conditions the second may be considered.
  
  

• As a new vet, would you be better-off in a small independent practice or in a larger-sized group with several surgeries? The section focusing on this choice details the advantages and disadvantages of these two options.
  
  

• Should you commit early on to general practice or would you benefit from a period of additional training or an internship prior to a more specialised career? The answer, also discussed later, depends on understanding your individual aspirations and areas of competence whilst dealing with the many preconceptions that exist in the sector.
  
  

Employee or entrepreneur?

By definition, anything is possible as you embark upon your career in veterinary practice. Nevertheless, there is one golden rule you would do well to follow: It is better to get some experience under your belt as an employee before setting up your own practice (Box 1).

Regardless of the quality of your initial training, there are several good reasons why you should heed this advice:

• Your priority as a new vet should be to perfect your technical training and to gain clinical experience (Figure 1).

• It is rare for a new vet to have the marketing and commercial expertise needed to promote your services and, subsequently, drugs and food or other relevant products (a subject covered elsewhere in this guide).
  
  

• Regardless of your talent or natural skills as a new vet, you will need to acquire and develop strong managerial skills; firstly, to integrate into a team, then to supervise other colleagues, and finally to hire, motivate, train and retain employees.
  
  

• Few new vets will have specific experience of growing a business. Doing your own job well is not the same as being able to develop the quality and quantity of work performed by a whole team, and is different again from being able to keep a practice’s service provision up-to-date and relevant.
  
  

• As a new vet, it is almost impossible to identify opportunities for development or to choose those that can best be exploited using your own individual strengths. It is equally difficult to overcome the various obstacles hidden within the veterinary business environment.
  
  

• The new vet often finds it difficult to obtain immediate access to the financial resources needed to set up a successful business.
  
  

• Finally, setting up a new business at the start of your career may not necessarily be… good for business! In effect, young entrepreneurs have to bear the risks of setting up their new business without any guarantees of it making any decent returns in the short term. As a general rule, this initial drawback can become an advantage after several years of experience (Figure 2).

It may seem surprising that there are so many reasons not to start your own business very early on in your career, especially as this pathway has been widely chosen by many vets in the past. Simply put, times have changed and in the vast majority of cases it is not advisable to copy another person’s career. Veterinary practices have evolved significantly over the past 20 years. 

They are now more structured, built around larger teams with differing specialities, and this technical expertise is more focused and more expensive. In addition, veterinary practices based in larger facilities are often better located and better equipped. All these factors reinforce the obstacles, strategically known as “barriers to entry”, that make the creation of an independent practice more difficult, particularly for those at the very start of their careers.

The risk isn’t so much one of total failure but rather of not having the means to succeed quickly enough, so becoming stuck in a suboptimal situation with a practice that is too small, making it impossible to take advantage of the different opportunities that may arise over time.

However, there are rare exceptions to the above principle; situations which combine exceptional maturity from a young vet with a specific opportunity in a given place or with a particular business model. These exceptions are more frequently found in emerging markets such as South-East Asia, Latin America or Eastern Europe, than in mature markets like Western Europe, North America or Japan. For those of you who, nevertheless, want to undertake the adventure of setting up your own practice at the start of your career, reading this Special Edition will provide you with valuable information to help you avoid many pitfalls.

Working for a group or an independent practice

More generally, human resource management is often more formal and more professional in groups offering frequent feedback, annual evaluation meetings, and opportunities to assess your progress and your potential for further development. It must be noted, however, that an increasing number of independent veterinary surgeries are adopting these same tools and methods and, in both cases, the key HR issue remains the professional skill of your direct superior (line manager).

Review your application

Up to this point, your application has solely been paperwork, so now your strengths should be shown and “sold” to the team that is going to decide if you get the job or not. Check your application because you could miss out if you have omitted something important or forgotten to highlight special knowledge or skills that would give you a unique and strong advantage. Even if you have made a good job of describing your abilities, now is an ideal time to review what you have written to ensure that your strengths are at the front of your mind when you go into the interview. Additionally, it´s a good idea to prepare a small piece of paper or a card containing the most important points from your CV that you can refer to shortly before your interview. Even if you don´t need the backup, it may relax you to know that it´s there.

Ask some questions

• Why do I want to work in this clinic?

• Why should this clinic employ me?

• What specifically qualifies me for the job?

You will often be asked these or similar questions in a job interview; so preparing for them is essential to ensure you give confident answers.

Do a dress rehearsal

Good questions to ask at a job interview

Getting a good job without performing well in a job interview is highly unlikely. When being interviewed in a selection process, the interviewers will already have considered your CV and will normally not be particularly interested in going over precise details of your previous academic or professional career, rather they will want to get to know you better as an individual. They will want to verify your communication skills and decide if you transmit enthusiasm and confidence. They will also want to know if your interest in the work offered is genuine or whether you are simply looking for the first job that is available.

In this context, a candidate that asks intelligent and well-considered questions has more chance of standing out from the rest. Table 2 highlights some questions to ask and explains why they can have a positive effect on the candidate’s image.

Conclusion