advice needed please!

Re: advice needed please!

Mark Hedberg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:20:29 GMT

[quote user="Lucy K"]

Thanks for the state tips Mark, Marek and Aujesky are firmly burnt into my memory! With this new semester we don't have our state exams until feb 2013, so when I say finals in May, strictly that's not true, I'm talking about forensics, ophthalm and obstetrics, however our teaching is over, we just can't make any money to pay off loans until March 2013!

[/quote]

Lucky - we still had surgery, obstetrics, and forensics. :p

Re: advice needed please!

Michael Woodhouse — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:33:13 GMT

[quote user="Lucy K"]Ok, so do you have a top 10 list of calls that we should be able to do alone? It'd be nice to have a few targets in mind, that way I can ask practices at the outset, do they think they could let me do a few of them while seeing practice. [/quote]

For mixed practice I'd like you to be happy doing the following:

1. Pare a lame cows foot

2. Spay a cat & castrate a dog

3. Take a shoe off a horse

4. Be able to give IV injections & induce anaesthesia in companion animals

5. PD a cow 8 weeks in calf

6. Stomach tube a horse

7. Dehorning/debudding cattle

8. Confidence consulting, taking a history and carrying out an examination

9. At the very least assisted in some calvings and lambings.

10. Know the names of and how to hold common surgical instruments. (pet gripe of mine).

That's just a list off the top of my head. I made sure when I qualified that on day one I could go into practice and make myself useful and earn them some money. I took extra time practising PDs and went in to a local practice in the mornings when on study leave for finals just to do some more small animal operating. I went on a 4 day foot trimming course as a final year as I thought the uni teaching was poor.

It stood me in very good stead.

Re: advice needed please!

Lucy K — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:14:38 GMT

Thanks so much for the advice everyone. Actually being stuck in the sticks in first opinion large animal practice sounds like exactly what I want! I was under the impression that there aren't enough jobs to go round so new grads have to be real all-rounders, apply for everything and take whatever job is offered!

Ok, so do you have a top 10 list of calls that we should be able to do alone? It'd be nice to have a few targets in mind, that way I can ask practices at the outset, do they think they could let me do a few of them while seeing practice.

Re: advice needed please!

Mark Hedberg — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:23:58 GMT

Also, don't join particular clubs because you think it'll look good on the CV. Do activities because you like them. If you're a good communicator, you don't need to join Toastmasters to prove it. Show up and wow them at that interview instead! :)

Re: advice needed please!

Mark Hedberg — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:20:25 GMT

Chalk me up as quite impressed - when I graduated from Budapest I think I was suffering from PTSD! I agree with JHL - the fact you're asking these questions is worth any amount of extramural work.

Seriously, though, most employers look for *relevant* experience. If you're applying to a place that is 100% small animal, then with all due respect I don't think they'll particularly care that you've done large amounts of farm work. It's great that you're looking to be a mixed/large vet. I would recommend you stick with what you find interesting and what you want to develop. If you want to do more farm work, absolutely go for it! If you don't see yourself doing farm work, try to see practice of the type of work you want to do.

Cheers,

Mark

(ps: when doing your state exams, try and find the Hungarian connection - the exam committee love it when you bring up Hungarian contributions to whatever disease you happen to be talking about - eg Marek's disease, always mention Marek was Hungarian, and with pseudorabies, Aujeszky was Hungarian too. Trust me on this. )

Re: advice needed please!

james herriot lied — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:27:13 GMT

Honestly?

The fact that you're asking these kind of questions means that you're going to get a job, no problem. But reading between the lines, you seem to be aiming a bit higher than a GP, first opinion practice out in the sticks somewhere (i.e. my kind of job). So if you've got a general goal in mind - academia, second opinion, tier 3 status, OOH emergency etc - then do that.

If you're most deficient in farm stuff, is that because it doesn't interest you? In which case, if you're not going to do it, leave it alone. If I were advertising for a SA vet, I wouldn't give two hoots about whether the applicant had plenty of large animal EMS - and vice versa.

Do what really interests you - this will tell prospective employers far more about you than if you just widen your net over generic practice. Take the opportunity to get the kind of in-practice training which will (very shortly) be costing you upwards of three hundred quid a day as CPD!

Re: advice needed please!

Michael Woodhouse — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:40:32 GMT

Try to spend as much time in the kind of practice you want to work in. I would say a big block at the same place best, providing they are letting you get the experience you need. Have you seen practice before - how much will they let you do. It's a waste of your time watching arthroscopy when you need practical experience calving cows, PDing, foot trimming etc.

The more you can do by yourself on day 1 the more employable you are.