Common Career Pitfalls That Veterinarians Face

Rachel Cezar, DVM, director of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, explains a few of the common pitfalls veterinarians may face on the path toward finding their dream jobs.

"Some pitfalls that you may see? The concern of wanting to be mobile. That's where a lot of veterinarians think, 'I'm not interested in where I'm at now in practice or in my current career path that I've chosen, but I don't want to move.' So I think that's the thing is that, you know, if you have the opportunity to be mobile then that's when you do take advantage of those career paths and the different opportunities that are out there. And I think that's the thing too, like right outside of veterinary school being a recent grad, I know typically it's been that you do have that span of being able to go overseas or go and do different things because you know you've just graduated from veterinary school. So that's where you should take that opportunity to go out there and try different try different areas.

But also, too, if you're not having the right mentors or right networking connections, that's really important because you really need to make sure that you can bounce things off other individuals that may be in that same type of career path or area so then they can also tell you and advise you on what's good, what's bad, what you need to probably steer away from. Because I know for me being in a regulatory government area, I get a lot of questions from new grads saying, 'Hey, I've been advised that, you know, I really do want to work in the government regulatory area but I'm told I need to go practice first I need to hone in my clinical skills.' And I tell them look, if this is what you want to do and you want to go to regulatory government route, then go and do that. And I'm like you don't need to do that part first and don't feel like you have to do this because everyone's just telling me that's what's my priority right now. And I'm like no, if you want to, go ahead, but definitely if you see an opportunity take it and go out in there and do it. So I think the thing is feeling like that you're obligated to fill a void or do something before you really go and seek out your passion."