Looking to the future

Managing your professional development

The professional decisions the young vet makes in the first few years of their career, such as in which field to work and how to broaden their training, will have a major economic and professional impact on their future. When making these choices, the young vet should be mindful of the following.

You should learn first in order to profit later

Figure 1 shows the typical career pathway for many professionals. The first years are when the greatest increase in learning takes place. As a young professional, it is the best time to absorb new knowledge, to integrate it and make it take root. However, the greatest salary increases will occur further on in your career, when the accumulated experience, personal and professional prestige, and your knowledge network in the sector often allow a better return on the accumulated investment in your personal career development.

It is therefore a very serious strategic error to ignore the lesson of this graphic and to become focused on small salary increases at the beginning of your professional career. The key question for a young veterinary surgeon with a vision of the future should be “In which of these clinics or alternative roles will I learn the most, so that in five or ten years I’ll be a more valuable professional in the market?”.

The salary differences between a successful professional and a mediocre one are much higher at the end of the professional career than at its beginning. Therefore, what is important is not to make more money in the first half, but in the second half of your career. It is a marathon, and the runner that wants to sprint at the start is at a serious risk of running out of steam on the way.

Balance continuous clinical training with organisational and personal skills

Recognising that for most veterinary surgeons their later career may well involve managing a practice and leading others, there are three areas of knowledge that deserve special attention from the young vet:

1. Acquire communication skills. These are essential in order to be successful not only with clients but also with your professional colleagues.
2. Acquire leadership skills. This is essential for anyone who aspires to be a team leader in the future.
3. Acquire business skills. A good background in finance, strategy and marketing will be an excellent addition to the veterinary surgeon’s technical abilities.

Travel and learn languages

In a more global world, the professional that travels and masters languages has a decisive competitive advantage. Being in countries with more developed veterinary sectors and establishing relations with professional leaders from other countries and cultures can mark the difference between an average-level professional and an advanced-level one. The growing tendency in specialisation makes it essential that any vet wishing to stand out in a medical discipline has to travel and interact with centres of excellence wherever they may be in the world (Figure 2).

 

Specialisation, but with common sense

It is undeniable that veterinary medicine, as with the other health sciences, is tending toward specialisation. As we have discussed, as a young veterinary surgeon you must soon choose if you want to be a good general practitioner or if you wish to follow the demanding and complex path to specialisation. Veterinary medicine, our clients and our patients need both career types so there isn’t only one path to professional success. However, what is clear is that those young vets that decide to chance everything on specialisation will need a bit of luck and a lot of skill when choosing their particular field. They will need to decide which specialities they think will develop most in the upcoming years and which of these has currently the lowest number of suitably qualified professionals, so providing the greatest opportunities. It is a difficult choice, with some suggesting Oncology, or Medical imaging, or Neurology or Gerontology.

Setting realistic career goals

Veterinary medicine today offers a wide variety of career options and associated goals. At the beginning of a professional life, it´s not always quite clear where the journey is going and which options will appear along the way. As such, it is always a good idea to look into more than one possibility and not to decide on a whim, or whilst feeling overwhelmed by all the options. Planning and consequently pursuing a career is something that takes time, but it´s worth it!

Do an analysis

 

Find your fit

It is important to understand what is involved. Becoming a shareholder or buying out a business does not mean that you continue in the same job as a vet but with a better salary in exchange for your financial investment. Your role will change completely because you will be taking on the role of a business director in addition to your existing role as a vet (Figure 4). This means that time and energy must be spent on running the business. That is not to say you will need to spend time preparing the accounts, or payroll, or paying supplier invoices, because these tasks can and should be delegated to a support team or external service providers, but rather on making the key decisions that any business director must make. 

The wider business decisions that are taken by owners include:

• Making major strategic choices: what specialisations should be added or abandoned, how many surgeries to run, with whom should you merge, which business should you buy and to whom should you sell?
• Managing a team: recruiting, paying, evaluating, motivating, supporting, training and helping your employees to grow as well as where necessary, resolving conflicts and letting some people go.
• Managing key functions such as defining know-how, enhancing services, defining pricing and purchasing policies.
• Managing major investments such as equipment and facilities.

As you can see, none of these decisions relates directly to veterinary medicine or surgery. Indeed, if you dedicate time to some or all of these issues, you will have a correspondingly smaller amount of time for actual veterinary practice and will therefore have to accept that a step back from this part of your career may be necessary.

• Do I understand clearly that to become an entrepreneur means greater financial and professional risks than those of a mere employee?
• Do I understand clearly that the vast majority of entrepreneurs work more hours and sacrifice more family time for their work than employees?
• Do I really like the fact that my work will have dimensions other than merely clinical? In other words, am I interested in and ready to lead personnel teams, to analyse my company’s finances, to design communication plans for my company’s clients, and to make hiring and firing decisions that will directly affect the team?
• Do I already have some experience in these dimensions?
• Have I acquired any kind of training that helps me supplement my clinical knowledge with other more business-related knowledge?

 

Finally

Finally, we should point out that regardless of the advice we have given, life is often about “taking” or not ”leaving” opportunities as they present themselves. Even if they are unexpected and their timing is less than ideal – and at that point, the decision is entirely yours to make (Figure 5).

Conclusion

In this Focus Special Edition, we have sought to provide the young veterinary surgeon with advice on how to get the best from their first years in their chosen profession, and guidance with the early decisions that will shape their veterinary future. A veterinary degree offers many opportunities, and you should take time to consider your options, explore different possibilities, and make careful career choices that are, ultimately, the right ones for you.