RE: veterinarians WAS unschooling
Karen
Vets don't talk about this much. Believe me, there are dedicated people out
there who love animals, are good businesspersons, and have great people
skills, and if you can find one, hang on to her/him! I don't have or want
the business skills, and so never pursued my own practice, but I burned out
on animals. It's taken a year to enjoy them again and I actually own two
dogs now. For the last three years I worked in a high-volume
general/specialty/emergency/24 hour hospital and you have to be an
adrenaline junkie. It's much more business and dealing with people than it
is loving animals and that's what I try to impress on young people who want
to go into the profession. I also tell them they *must* work in a practice
before they commit. It helps to weed out the idealistic ones.
Hiring an office manager? Even single-person practices have one, along with
a couple of receptionists, a couple of techs, and a kennel person. That's
minimum. Starting salaries for associates are often in the $40K range, and
it's the rare vet, owner *or* associate, who can ever make over $100K.
Happens occasionally now, but the ones I know who are well off have other
sources of income, or work two jobs. So don't go into it for the money! :-)
Karen
LOOOOOVE animals!" It's hard to explain how the time you actually spend
PLAYING with the animals is very small---most of their time will be
inflicting pain on their patients. They hardly ever see healthy, happy
pooches that smother them with kisses. Of course there's all the paperwork
(unless you're interested in hiring an office manager to share in your
profits) and all the bitching from patients about how high your prices are.
There's the tremendous expense of starting a practice (before or after you
pay off those student loans?)---and then, after working all day on ugly,
sick
animals, you get to come home to your own critters----which you're really
don't want to deal with because the LAST thing you want to see at the end of
the day is ANOTHER DOG!<<
there who love animals, are good businesspersons, and have great people
skills, and if you can find one, hang on to her/him! I don't have or want
the business skills, and so never pursued my own practice, but I burned out
on animals. It's taken a year to enjoy them again and I actually own two
dogs now. For the last three years I worked in a high-volume
general/specialty/emergency/24 hour hospital and you have to be an
adrenaline junkie. It's much more business and dealing with people than it
is loving animals and that's what I try to impress on young people who want
to go into the profession. I also tell them they *must* work in a practice
before they commit. It helps to weed out the idealistic ones.
Hiring an office manager? Even single-person practices have one, along with
a couple of receptionists, a couple of techs, and a kennel person. That's
minimum. Starting salaries for associates are often in the $40K range, and
it's the rare vet, owner *or* associate, who can ever make over $100K.
Happens occasionally now, but the ones I know who are well off have other
sources of income, or work two jobs. So don't go into it for the money! :-)
Karen
>>I talk with teens (mostly girls) that want to veterinarians when they growup. I ask why they want to be vets. Inevitably they answer, "Because I just
LOOOOOVE animals!" It's hard to explain how the time you actually spend
PLAYING with the animals is very small---most of their time will be
inflicting pain on their patients. They hardly ever see healthy, happy
pooches that smother them with kisses. Of course there's all the paperwork
(unless you're interested in hiring an office manager to share in your
profits) and all the bitching from patients about how high your prices are.
There's the tremendous expense of starting a practice (before or after you
pay off those student loans?)---and then, after working all day on ugly,
sick
animals, you get to come home to your own critters----which you're really
don't want to deal with because the LAST thing you want to see at the end of
the day is ANOTHER DOG!<<