Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Vault Guide to Veterinary and Animal Careers is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting.
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Vault Guide to Veterinary and Animal Careers Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Vault Guide to Veterinary and Animal Careers is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting. |
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Vault Guide to Veterinary and Animal Careers What is a Career with Animals? Careers with animals encompass a large range of options, from working in kennels and vet offices to farming and ranching. Becoming a veterinarian is one of many avenues for the scientifically inclined. If you're science-oriented, you might also work with animals in research to find cures for diseases and to develop new medicines for the animals themselves, or for humans. Not just science But that's not all. If you're interested in business or management, jobs from farming to grooming to pet daycare operations require those skills. (Particularly if you open your own business and have people working under you, accurate financial records, reporting of earnings and record-keeping in general are essential. In some industries, you will be required to go through inspections of your facilities and business operations.) Many animal-related careers presume a certain degree of environmental and social awareness. If you have a strong sense of global responsibility, you may be motivated to take on challenges facing animals in local communities or throughout the world through an organization like the ASPCA, a group that is dedicated to promoting the welfare of animals through education and adoptions of animals. All for the love of animals Whatever the career, people who work with animals are usually drawn to the field through a natural sense of bonding with animals that developed at an early age. For that reason, careers with animals can offer a sense of fulfillment that other jobs often don't. |
Basic requirements
It?s critical to be honest about your abilities, emotionally, physically, educationally and financially. When working with animals, you are dealing with living beings, and this can happen in different capacities. Working in an animal hospital setting involves healing patients, whereas a laboratory may use animals for the sole purpose of gaining information. These positions are mentally and physically challenging. Veterinarians must be able to communicate with clients in a clear, compassionate way while assessing diagnostic tests to come up with a medical plan. Cases don?t always go as planned, and doctors often have to reassess patient status throughout the course of a day. They then need to communicate these updates to the client.
It may be hard for some people to emotionally watch or do tasks involved with each job; for example, two common procedures in both veterinary medicine and scientific fields involving animals are surgery and humane euthanasia. These procedures are not for the queasy or highly emotional. On a ranch or farm, there may be hard decisions to make about animal health or the sale of animals for food. Even if you're pet sitting, you may come upon an emergency situation that requires quick, educated, level-headed decision-making. You must have the ability to read basic animal body language, and learn how to approach and handle animals accordingly. You must also have a strong physical constitution to deal with the daily physical demands of most of these jobs. Some require heavy or repetitive lifting, bending, standing on your feet all day with no or little time for breaks, or you may need to endure harsh environmental conditions outdoors.
