Interviewing

Acquiring a job was an interesting venture. I went to a lot of clinics in person to drop off resumes, and joined all the websites (AVMA, AAHA, MVMA, you know, all those four letter things). There were two main categories of people who wanted to hire me.

1. Large "chain" clinics in random states, with a generic email inviting me to fly out across the country to work for them, most likely sent to everybody who sticks a resume up on those sites.

2. Clinics out in the boondocks who can't get anyone to work for them, so are like, "New grad? Sure! Heck, we'd hire a vampire at this point."

There was also the one who didn't read my resume past the first line, and offered me a job as a vet tech.

The fact that I have some avian experience and was interested in seeing exotics made me particularly prized by that second group. Bosses who are like, "I don't know anything about that stuff, but there's an untapped market there, so you'll have tons of business!" My current boss was among those who said he'd buy me anything I need for seeing birds. Sadly, I didn't realise how much you can/should go out of your way if you want your avian practice to be really effective, and the scary thing is, I doubt most of those bosses do either. It's not enough to throw birds into the mix and treat them like cats and dogs.

I ended up interviewing at three places. There were a few others I was in contact with, who bailed on me--and probably a good thing, too, because I heard later that they are awful places for new grads. No support, no time in the day to get things done, yet expected to stay as late as necessary to finish up all paperwork and everything, for no extra pay.

There was a common theme among clinics that a lot of places didn't have much in the way of support staff. The one I'm at now is one of the only clinics that has a technician with each doctor at all times. In fact, it's the only one that had 3 other doctors. Most were one or two doctor practices. Also, most were dungeons. Cramped, cluttered, old buildings in desperate need of a redesign. Workplaces with no real break room, just a shelf with a coffee machine and microwave (where does everyone eat lunch??). Dark treatment areas, tiny surgeries, consult rooms with no logical flow between them, ugly waiting areas. The kind of place that starts out depressing and stressful before you've even said hello to anyone.

One of the places that wanted to hire me actually talked smack about their previous new grad. Apparently they hire new grads all the time, because they can't get anyone else to work for them, being in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And most new grads move on after a year or two, so this was one of their selling points: "We've successfully mentored numerous new graduates." But when I started asking questions about the person who'd left, opening up the position, they had some not so stellar things to say. Essentially how she seemed overly needy, wanting advice on every case, asking too many questions all the time. And I'm thinking... I will be wanting advice on every case and asking questions all the time. Seriously?

Then there's the matter of on call. Clinics in civilised parts of the state are within reasonable distance of a 24-hour emergency facility, so on call has become a thing of the past. Unless your clinic is, you know, in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I would have had a 40 minute commute to that particular clinic, and I was required to be within 20 minutes when on call, so I would have had to stay at the clinic one weekend every month. Then they had the gall to say, "We don't want the on call to be a reason someone declines the job." Well, guess what, I have an offer that's almost exactly the same as yours, with no after hours, and no living at the goddamn clinic. Hate to say it, but that's kind of a big deal.

The job I did get was definitely the best choice. :)