Life after veterinary? ...career switch

Tedious Bore

I have a friend who is thinking of leaving veterinary ....largely because after more than 7 years out of college and having worked a number of good jobs, she is still earning very little. She's not really someone with long-term ambitions to start her own practice, so had hoped that by this stage -and particularly given the long hours she works- she might have been on better money.

I would not regard her as someone who is particularly driven by money, and that certainly wasn't the reason she got into veterinary in the first place, but understandably she just finds it very frustrating that some friends return home from round the world travel trips that she wasn't able to join them on, and then sometimes land themselves a less skilled job paying far more money for far less hours. I guess it's just demotivating and she's reaching a point now where she's questioning if there might be other options out there for her.

Anyone know of people who have switched careers from veterinary to something different? ....or maybe even tried to switch but ended up coming back to it because finding something else wasn't easy? Does a qualified vet have many transferable skills?

thegreatgonzo

She could work in the food safety area. She could try the meat factories, but that's where a lot of vets go to retire so it's probably hard to get an opening there. There are other areas in the food safety industry that might be available to her.
She could also lecture, there are 4 colleges in this country that offer veterinary related subjects, not to mention all the colleges that have ag science courses.
If it was me, I'd be looking to stay on the register, keep my CPD up to date and keep my skills fresh by doing locum work rather than leaving the profession all together. I know of one vet who went back to become a dentist but he still does locum work as a vet.

Billiethepup

Been there, bought that Tshirt!
Its not at all uncommon, I've a number of vet friends who don't practice. Unless she goes self employed money is terrible longterm. If she goes self-employed the biggest issue is hours - on call 24hrs a day, 365days a year, unless she outsources her after-hours (small animal and Dublin only), or employs someone to help her.

One option is to emigrate, wages are (significantly) better in Australia. UK is comparable to Ireland, US has significant red tape/exams.

More realistic option is to up skill and stay in they general subject area, it'll likely require further study. Teaching jobs generally look for a masters/PHD or some experience teaching. Food safety is a big area where vets can go to get out of clinical practice but some kind of study is still needed. A few I know have done postgrads online in veterinary public health (essentially food safety), another a postgrad online in applied equine science (hoping to teach equine related at end), but others i know have gone back to college full-time to do completely unrelated courses - law, psychology, medicine, sports science.

Ive worked outside of clinical practice a lot, in completely alternate industry, but I'm also doing a vet postgrad and an odd locum to keep the toe in.

Hope that helps a bit, if nothing else at least you know she's not alone! I started counting the vets i know who got out of practice and I ran out of fingers

Whistlejacket

Totally agree, clinical practice long term can be very difficult. The good thing about the vet degree is that it's so broad there are lots of options for alternate career niches.

I would recommend looking into further study in areas your friend is interested in. It's very common for people to review their options after 5-10 years in practice, I know lots of vets who have changed paths and are happy that they did so. I think the key thing is not to just stay in practice just because it's what you are used to and end up hating every minute of it. That is bad for the vet, their colleagues, their clients and the animals!