Veterinary medicine - I really need some advice on prepping for an RVC interview

I don't really have anyone to turn to for advice for interviews, so I don't know how to prepare, and I'm really nervous. I don't know if I'm ready for it on Thursday.

The things they'll be assessing is:

-understanding and insight into the profession; (in which
case i'm not sure what I have to know)

-empathy and understanding;

-analysis, problem solving and reasoning; (I don't know how the questions will be posed, and how to prepare for this)

-curiosity;

-quality of observation;

-resilience and self-reflection;

-communication skills.


Does anyone have any experience/advice/resources I should use?

Thank

Thanks for the tag @Littleemma98

Understanding and insight into the profession is somewhat more difficult with limited work experience opportunities but they will be understanding that you may not have had much time in practices. Basically it translates to what is being a vet actually like, and what do vets actually do? Many people apply to vet med, vet nursing and other animal courses because they 'have wanted to work with animals since they were a baby' - whilst there is nothing wrong with that if you believe being a vet is how you imagined it as a kid you are setting yourself up for some major career disillusion, this is what they want applicants to realise.

It isn't working with animals, its working with people in the company of animals. Ultimately it is your clients that allow you to undertake diagnostics and treatment, which they pay for. So if you can't communicate effectively with clients and appreciate that you won't always be able to do the gold standard treatment due to financial constraints then you're unlikely to be able to convince a client you are worth your salt. Similarly not every client loves a vet, and they won't always see your way of thinking, some may even be very angry - how you deal with this is important. And within that you have resilience, communication skills, quality of observation from reading your client/situation, empathy and understanding and chuck some problem solving in there for good measure.

It is also important to understand the role vets actually have within public health - and this is from all sectors not just farm. To start with the obvious you wouldn't want to eat meat with antibiotic residues in it, or other harmful drugs. Nor if the meat was unsafe for human consumption due to parasitism/disease. It is both meat inspection (including ante and post mortem) and also on farm that vets play a key role in ensuring animals are healthy and suitable to eat. Same applies to milk, eggs and just about every other animal product you can imagine. From the business point of view - a farmer can't afford to keep paying vet bills if they aren't making any money. Vets will commonly advise on husbandry practices which can lead to increased productivity on farm - allowing greater animal welfare, health and productivity, which ultimately allows them to pay your fees.

Small animal vets also have an important role in public health - animals being imported or exported must be extensively tested for disease/parasites and certified as free from them, many of these are zoonotic so it is essential beyond an animal welfare perspective that these cannot enter the country.

Equine vets also - whilst many horse owners would dread to think it, horses can often end up in abattoirs at the end of their lives - a lot more commonly than people think. Phenylbutazone is a commonly used drug within equine practice, you may know it as bute - if this enters the foodchain there are dire consequences for human health through contamination of meat. It is key a horse passport is marked as the animal having administered this drug which rules it out of the food chain.


Regarding the analysis/problem solving angle - it is your reasoning skills. So long as you have a logical thought process to back up your opinion AND can say but on the other hand I see why people may think X instead then you'll be fine. It could take the form of having to complete an activity from instructions they provide but this is less likely when interviews are not in person. Or they could show you two data sets - one showing cattle body condition score on different farms and another the dystocia levels on the same farm. Then ask what your conclusion is - so if farm A the cattle are all BCS 3.5 or above and they have a high dystocia rate, but farm B has normal BCS and dystocia levels you could comment that the data appears to show correlation between overweight cattle and difficulty calving.

Thank you @Littleemma98 for suggesting TheWannabeFarmer, and TheWannabeFarmer for such an in-depth explanation! This really helped a lot, I'm taking note this! Would they use terms like dystocia though? I'm not really familiar with it - I had to check what it means, but during an interview I obviously won't be able to do that, so if a question is asked with a term I'm not sure of, would it cause any harm if I ask for an explanation?

Dystocia is not an uncommon term so I imagine it is possible they could use it or similar - but there would be no harm whatsoever in asking for clarification. They would certainly look down on just carrying on if you don't understand what they are asking as imagine applying that to a surgery where you are unsure what you are doing (and yes, that can happen with both students and qualified vets alike.. doesn't normally end well)

Thank you @Littleemma98 for suggesting TheWannabeFarmer, and TheWannabeFarmer for such an in-depth explanation! This really helped a lot, I'm taking note this! Would they use terms like dystocia though? I'm not really familiar with it - I had to check what it means, but during an interview I obviously won't be able to do that, so if a question is asked with a term I'm not sure of, would it cause any harm if I ask for an explanation