What am I actually good at?
All I can say is thank goodness for Jenny. The results of the psychometric test were incredibly useful and shone a light on how I work as a person like I’ve never seen before. I realised that I might be good at some things because I’ve spent 5, 6, 7 years training how to do them. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m naturally gifted at them or get any kind of flow doing them.
Things like technical reasoning and remembering data. Sure, I can do that pretty well now I’ve been to vet school for 5 years and practiced as one for 4, but do I find it easy? Absolutely not. Would I try and avoid it if I could? Absolutely yes. Do I have to work harder at it than my peers? Definitely.
However, when it comes to big thinking ideas, acting intuitively, connecting with people emotionally… now this is my jam. And once I saw it on paper, I absolutely saw how this was reflected in my work life.
I have a tricky case in practice, what do I do? I would avoid searching for data and evidence in journals, and always try to ask other people first for their opinion and experience. I would act upon what felt right to me but also what I felt the owner would best handle in their emotional state. The more difficult a case was for an owner, the more I struggled with the emotional toll.
But these natural skills have advantages as well. I know I light up when I connect with people and enjoy helping people. I also like thinking creatively in a ‘big picture’ kind of way with my intuition guiding me.
How to Non-Vet CV Write
Where to start right? Some of the resources on VSGD were really helpful for this and I think there are even more now since I last looked so I would definitely urge you to have a look there!
My breakthrough came when one of the vets I talked to in a networking session sent me the CV she used to get her first job out of practice. It was really useful to see how she’d translated her clinical skills into transferable skills that can be applied to any other workplace.
Let’s look at some examples to see how it looks in action.
I would firstly select 3 ‘Key Skills’ that you want to highlight at the top of your CV just under your first ‘profile’ paragraph.
Top tip: use some of the same keywords from the job advert you’re applying to in these bullet points. There’s a good chance the person who wrote the job ad is reading your CV, and they chose those words for a reason. So if the job ad asks for: ‘Excellent organisational and time management skills’, and if you genuinely are organised of course, you can list – ‘Extremely organised with excellent time management skills in a busy workplace environment’ in your Key Skills – this jumps right out at them immediately!
If the hirer only reads the first half of your CV, you’ve already ticked off one of their requirements without them having to deduce this from your whole employment history.
I know it might sound like cheating, but if you have 3 Key Skills on your default CV and none of these include words listed in the job requirement for the specific job you’re applying to – I would swap at least 2 out so that they’re relevant to the job ad.
These are mine as an example (please don’t copy these, make them your own):
• Excellent communicator with clients and staff at all levels; strong listening and rapport building skills.
• Highly organised and self-disciplined, able deliver on multiple concurrent projects to a high standard.
• Innovative and adaptable with new technology and software.
Next is your employment history, and this means translating what you do in clinics to useful skills for a more commercial setting that a non-vet employer would recognise. You can do SO MANY things that employers really rate in employees. You probably have excellent:
- Communication skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Assimilation of data skills
- Organisation skills and time-management skills
- Great rapport-building and building trust with clients
- Time management skills
- Delivering technical skills in a high-pressure environment
- Maybe you have public speaking experience from client evenings?
- Marketing skills from managing your practice’s social media accounts
- You’re solution orientated while used to working to a budget and managing client expectations
- Adaptable to new software and tech (think of all the Practice Management Systems, and equipment you’ve learnt how to use!)
- Copywriting skills – maybe you’ve written social media posts, newsletters, journal articles, protocols for your practice etc.
- Coaching skills (with your vet and RVN students)
- The list goes on!
You can use examples from practice to illustrate any of these (and more!) that best describe your skills in practice and that are relevant to the job you’re applying to. It goes without saying – always adapt your CV to the job!
Send me a DM on on instagram @thisvetcan_blog if you wanna chat CVs!
How to Non-Vet Job Search
Once you’ve got yourself a killer CV… say Hello to Indeed and LinkedIn job search. I’m sorry but the VetTimes ‘industry’ section on the jobs board just won’t get you anywhere. I started off searching with keywords like ‘Veterinary Remote’, ‘Veterinary Business’, ‘Veterinary Project’, ‘Veterinary Product’, ‘Veterinary Engagement’. I tailored these as I went by, learning what sort of jobs they threw up and deciding what I liked the sound of, while using my new-found knowledge from my job prototyping sessions.
There was a lot of black hole scrolling thinking I was never going to find anything that I remotely liked and that I’d actually have the right experience for. It took a long, long time before I worked out what specific job titles meant, what sort of thing I thought would suit my skills and before I even applied to anything. I also decided to apply and take a punt on jobs that sounded moderately interesting, without always knowing exactly what the role was or if it was the right kind of thing. It’s often hard to gauge exactly what you’ll be doing from the job ad, especially if it’s via a recruitment agency, so use it as good experience for CV and cover letter writing or interview practice – you’ll always be able to ask more questions at interview and discern if it’s up your street.
The other thing to be prepared for is getting lots of rejections. In my career up until now, I’ve got every job I applied for. This isn’t to toot my own horn – this is kind of just how the veterinary industry works isn’t it? My job application experiences so far were either a 10 minute zoom interview, or a chat over the phone for 20 mins, and then a ‘yep – so when can you start?’.
The real world works very differently and I had to quickly get used to the idea of applying for lots of jobs and getting rejected. The first one felt very personal, but I soon got used to it and didn’t get hung up on them – so you shouldn’t either, it’s totally normal.
I eventually got asked to interview for a role that I really thought suited my strengths, and for a company I’d heard great things about. I went through 3 stages of interviews, including a presentation to the CEO in the last stage. This was definitely a whole territory I thought I’d left behind since my university days but prepared like hell and felt like I presented like a pro.
I got pipped to the post by another candidate and I was absolutely gutted.
We move though, and I was more determined than ever after that and it was great interview experience. Finally I found an interesting looking job on LinkedIn, applied, interviewed online and then in-person.
And I got it! And cried with relief while reading the email in a cold, dark early morning dog walk in the park… :’)
Non-Clinical Job Expectations
A few things I was warned about when I was searching for a non-clinical job to help set my expectations:
Firstly, you’re unlikely to find THE perfect job straight away. It’s really useful to have a list of non-negotiables and ideally’s. You’re looking for a job that hopefully covers all your non-negotiables but might not tick all the ideallys. And that’s ok! I was expecting to find something to help me find out what I do really vibe with outside of practice, and maybe find strengths I have that I didn’t realise. But also expected there to be some aspects that weren’t totally perfect.
If you look at this job as a guiding stepping stone to help get you where you want to be, it doesn’t set your expectations too high and means you’re also not self-sabotaging by not applying for jobs that sound ‘absolutely perfect’ in the first place.
Secondly, it can be really common to have to drop your salary to start off with, but know that there’s probably more chance of scaling that up fairly soon and quickly compared to your original vet salary. I’m lucky in that I actually got a pay-rise when I started my new job but I was absolutely ok with the idea of accepting a job that didn’t pay as much initially. It’s useful to have an idea of what your absolute minimum would be – consider how much you need for necessities, if you’re the breadwinner of the family, how much you’re comfortable with changing your lifestyle if you needed to for a period…
For me, my absolute minimum was £35k, but this might be different for others – it’s very personal!
And as I always like to remind people, everything is negotiable. Always remember to negotiate your salary whatever you do get offered – employers expect you to do it, so you’re shooting yourself in the foot if you don’t.
And finally, it’s normal to feel a degree or shame and self-doubt throughout this whole process and even once you have found a great job! I mean serious creds if you don’t but if you do, you’re absolutely not the only one.
Conclusion
I really hope this helps people in a similar position to how I was and if you want to find out what I do and have a chat – reach out on LinkedIn (Alice Barker) or Instagram @thisvetcan_blog and let’s talk!
ThisVetCan 