Work experience and interviews
I’m in Year 13 doing Biology, Chemistry and Maths A levels. I’m hoping to apply to Veterinary School in October after receiving 4/4 rejections this year. I was interviewed at all 4 but didn’t get any offers. I’ve looked at different options but don’t want to give up on veterinary as it has always been my dream job.
Has anyone got any advice on what work experience to get? So far I have:
• 1 1/2 years volunteering at a small animal practice. Every Saturday I went to help with medicine, write vaccine cards, clean tables and watch consults.
• 1 day observing surgery in a small animal practice
• 4 days at a horse racing stables
• 5 days at a livery yard
• 2 days at a dairy farm (it wasn’t the best experience so looking for another farm to go for a week)
Also, has anyone got any advice on preparing for interviews? Especially the animal welfare side.
Thank you
Reply 1
Disappoiniting, but not the end of the world. You have been through the process once now, so can prepare better!
For WEX I had: 1 week at a zoo, 1 week at a farm, 60 hours at a wildlife hospital. + 1 week shadowing at a clinical practice (but it was after 15 Oct, so didn't count towards application). I would do a week at a farm, but otherwise I think your WEX is pretty good.
It's not the quantity of hours (Liverpool only wants 3 weeks) - it's your observations/ thoughts what universities want to hear.
If you haven't done this, I recommend Virtual Work Experience and Exploring the Veterinary Profession - it has a nice overview of a profession but also gives you some tips on how to get the most out of your WEX! It's free if you do it within 2 weeks and Notts has accepted it as 2 weeks clinical WEX last year (Oct 2024 applications).
Edinburgh has some MOOCs as well, but I havn't done those, so can't comment.
Interviews prep:
•
I have read both Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Surgeons and Animal Welfare Act.
•
For animal welfare in practice: Code of practice for the welfare of dogs ;Code of practice for the welfare of cats; Code of practice for the welfare of horses; Good Practice Code for the Welfare of rabbits
•
Cirrent vet affaris - Vet times is pretty good. Sign up for their weekly email.
•
I use STAR method for job interviews (sometimes it is a requirement!) and SPIKES method for bad news (was new to me!). I recommend setting up a spreadsheet "quality universtiy is looking for" - "your real life experince".
•
Ask friends and family to throw random questions at you, so you can practice answerings in under 4 min using STAR method. It becomes easier.
•
Use your gap year for work experience. Working in a customer facing role (cafe/ pub) is a great way of showing how you can work in a team and cope with rude people.
Reply 2
Disappoiniting, but not the end of the world. You have been through the process once now, so can prepare better!
For WEX I had: 1 week at a zoo, 1 week at a farm, 60 hours at a wildlife hospital. + 1 week shadowing at a clinical practice (but it was after 15 Oct, so didn't count towards application). I would do a week at a farm, but otherwise I think your WEX is pretty good.
It's not the quantity of hours (Liverpool only wants 3 weeks) - it's your observations/ thoughts what universities want to hear.
If you haven't done this, I recommend Virtual Work Experience and Exploring the Veterinary Profession - it has a nice overview of a profession but also gives you some tips on how to get the most out of your WEX! It's free if you do it within 2 weeks and Notts has accepted it as 2 weeks clinical WEX last year (Oct 2024 applications).
Edinburgh has some MOOCs as well, but I havn't done those, so can't comment.
Interviews prep:
•
I have read both Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Surgeons and Animal Welfare Act.
•
For animal welfare in practice: Code of practice for the welfare of dogs ;Code of practice for the welfare of cats; Code of practice for the welfare of horses; Good Practice Code for the Welfare of rabbits
•
Cirrent vet affaris - Vet times is pretty good. Sign up for their weekly email.
•
I use STAR method for job interviews (sometimes it is a requirement!) and SPIKES method for bad news (was new to me!). I recommend setting up a spreadsheet "quality universtiy is looking for" - "your real life experince".
•
Ask friends and family to throw random questions at you, so you can practice answerings in under 4 min usin STAR method. It becomes easier.
•
Use your gap year for work experience. Working in a customer facing role (cafe/ pub) is a great way of showing how you can work as a team and cope with rude people.
Good luck! 🍀
Thank you, I will start reading them. Thank you for the advice 🙂
Reply 3
No worries
Also, I really liked May Yean's videos - she has good tips on how to apply and how to surviev the vet school.
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