What to Look For in Jobs for Veterinarians
While searching for jobs for veterinarians, you’re likely weighing several options like salary, location, and more. However, there are other essential elements outside the obvious logistical ones to consider in your veterinarian job search in order to get the team support you need to succeed, achieve work-life balance, and land in a fulfilling and sustainable position.
The VetEvolve team has years of experience in the veterinary industry helping vets achieve their highest potential. Using this expertise, we’ve put together what we believe to be the ultimate list of aspects for DVMs and VMDs to consider when job searching.
Strong Team Environment
Transitioning into any new job can be a stressful process but having a strong, supportive team that’s willing to put in the extra time and effort to help you succeed is essential. You’ll want to make sure you land somewhere that promotes longevity. This ensures you won’t have to go through the same job search and transition process not long after starting.
Working with dedicated, compassionate professionals who understand your trials and tribulations will be a key element in supporting your personal growth and professional development. A great onboarding process with helpful coworkers will allow you the opportunity to adjust, setting you up for a bright future in your new veterinarian job.
Compassion fatigue and burnout are real threats to today’s veterinarians but having strong at-work and outside-of-work support systems to lean on can help combat this. Knowing you can trust and rely on the rest of your practice team to consistently perform well and aid you whenever necessary takes some of the pressure off of you, allowing you to focus more clearly on what matters most — taking care of animals.
Work-Life Balance
Veterinarians traditionally have longer hours, higher stress levels, and less flexibility than many other career paths. In order to continue feeling passionate about your work and performing your best, you’ll need to balance your work schedule with time outside of work.
In permanent full-time or part-time jobs for veterinarians, you’ll want to make sure you have a great team around you and benefits that promote work-life balance. Understaffing and a lack of support can make your career feel draining; avoid burnout by working with a team you can trust to have the business side under control so you only have to worry about patient care. This will allow you to take time for yourself for a more well-rounded and happy lifestyle.
Working with an organization that offers relief options is also ideal to adapt your work as your life changes down the road. Shifting to relief veterinarian work where you make your own work schedule filling staff shortages at different practices may be ideal when you’re wanting to adapt your work schedule in times of personal change, like when having kids.
And if you’re wanting to take a personal leave of absence, work or study elsewhere for a period of time, or temporarily take a break from work for any other reason, it’s great to have the option of a relief veterinarian stepping in for you in the meantime. For this reason, the benefit of working with a practice or organization that has veterinary relief career options is two-fold in that you’ll have the option to dynamically shift your career with your lifestyle and can rest assured that a plan is in place to cover your work if you ever need to take leave.
Opportunities for Continued Growth
As a DVM or VMD, continuing education is essential to your personal and professional advancement. It allows you to establish your expertise in specific areas of veterinary medicine to grow your animal care capabilities and build trust with pet owners.
You’ll want to make sure the practice you’re joining offers reliable and easy-to-use support for continuing training, education, and advancement. Organizations that sponsor CE at no charge to vets and do not require them to use their personal CE money enable them to potentially access more CE opportunities than needed for maintaining their veterinary license, empowering them to learn more and consistently chase their passions.
One great way to find out whether or not the practice you’re interviewing for provides easy-to-access continuing education opportunities is to ask them to tell you about some of the most recent CE events their vets have attended. Their reply will be a good indicator of how often current vets at the practice have been able to take advantage of CE and how diverse the opportunities being brought to vets at that practice are.
Another key element to growth opportunities is finding a practice that allows for cross-training, so you are able to gain practical experience in specialized areas of interest or emergency settings. One way to achieve this is to work within a network of practices that specialize in different areas. Relief veterinary work, mentioned earlier, also allows for variety in both the type and setting of your work.
Positive Reviews
No veterinarian wants to work at a practice that doesn’t provide top-quality medical care. While preparing specific and contextual interview questions can help you to determine whether or not a practice delivers excellent care, keep in mind that interviewers are salespeople for the open position they’re offering.
Representatives of the practice itself may not give you the straight answers you need to decide whether or not you want to work there. Luckily, with so much of the feedback process moving online, it’s easy to access public opinions about most practices.
In order to determine whether or not the place you’re interviewing for practices high-quality medicine and treats staff and patients well, check out their online and social media reviews. Many job listing sites have reviews from past employees, while the public-facing veterinary practice website, as well as external sources like Google, Yelp, or Facebook will have customer reviews for you to reference.
VetEvolve Provides Fulfilling Jobs for Veterinarians at Top Practices
VetEvolve’s extensive veterinary network across the Mid-Atlantic region allows us to leverage industry know-how to superiorly manage partner practices, which allows them to provide a high standard of care. We work closely with practice teams to promote personal growth and development and help them fulfill their visions for their own professional futures, as well as the future of the practice. We work with the AVMA and empower vets to serve animals and pet owners exceptionally while we focus on the business side to grow practices ethically.
If you’re looking for jobs for veterinarians that provide better work-life balance, options for CE, cross-training, and gaining experience across multiple disciplines and settings, and a career including high-quality medicine balanced with a people-focused environment, you’ve come to the right place. We care about our vets feeling fulfilled at work and can meet the needs of a veterinarian regardless of what stage they are in their career.
Check out VetEvolve’s current openings today if you want to work with a team of veterinary professionals who prioritize practicing high-quality medicine, creating a positive working environment, and fostering team development and individual growth.