AIBU to consider teaching after becoming disillusioned with veterinary work?

Lol

Is this impacting students choosing this path as a career? I recall friends fighting to study at Oxbridge in what was supposed to be a lucrative veterinary career. So it’s a business model change? The same is happening in dentistry in some countries with companies scooping up independent practices.

I am fortunate in that a couple of my local vets left when the practice was bought out by a corporate, and have now set up an independent practice. They have clear pricing structures and have managed client expectations with regard to services. It feels very personal and much like a vet practice used to, rather than a production line. All the staff seem happy and cheerful. Best of all, my dog loves going there.

I know that they had specialist help setting up from another independent vet practice who has developed a model for vets disillusioned with corporate veterinary structures.

Usually I'd argue, but given your username - OK, fair play 🫡

Seriously I am leading a small collection of practices and am the main surgeon for the collection. My FTE salary would be £85K, but because the is so tough I work part time - 34 hours a week.

Its definitely a big factor, i worked for one of the big corporates at the end of my career, you are tied to what products you can use as they do deals with the pharmaceutical companies. Compared to when I started theres hardly any independent vets left

Tell me you dont understand how the vet industry works, without telling me you dont know how the vet industry works.

Equine is a very different specialism to small animal medicine

Work on her tan?

Seriously? That’s terrible pay.

I love our vets, and have vet friends. I don’t think anyone is ever unreasonable to need a change. A dear friend of mine hit a wall years ago with small animal medicine at a general clinic, she did some extraordinary number of vomiting dogs per day and just had enough, and that was years before the current ‘bills too high’ media stuff. In fact she went into a referral clinic, she was a bit cynical about the work but it meant fewer cases per day and more money, she is one of the very top now so does earn the big bucks but I think if she did t have high outgoings she would have stopped a long time ago. Jobs are hard and if you’ve fallen out of love with what you do, change it - sounds very doable for you.

Vet salaries are one of the biggest myths out there i think. By the time you take their on paper salary and then actually average it out over the amount of hours theyre actually working, when you consider things like over nights, staying late, starting early etc. you're probably close to, if not less than, minimum wage.

I know many people, vets and nurses, who have left the industry. Vets - went into research, another has gone into lecturing, another has set up their own CPD and consultsncy business in a niche area, and a couple have retrained in totally different fields (one in psychology, another in accounting). Similarly nurses I know have moved into things like dog walking/pet sitting businesses, drug/medical supplies companies, teaching (colleges rather than school - animal care/behaviour type courses) and again some total changes of direction - floristry and catering!

As an experienced vet you have an incredibly diverse skillset, but is secondary school really where you want to be? Do you have any contacts in the education sector? Can you afford to take some time out and do some good old fashioned work experience? That brings back memories 😆 I think college/university would be a much better option if youre looking for more respect than youre currently getting!

Go for it. You’ve done a demanding professional job for a long time, so transitioning to teaching for a few years will be relatively easy in comparison. Most senior leaders will give you autonomy and respect, you essentially set your own agenda and most behaviour is excellent. You’ll love the sense of being a highly valued professional while being treated with respect and courtesy by your colleagues and the students. (Plus you finish at 4pm and only work 3/4 of the year.)

I’m over twenty years qualified and earn £54k FTE, but I can’t manage full time hours around family life so i work 3 days and earn just over £30k. I don’t know anyone at all earning £150k as a vet, or anywhere close.

I'm now pet free after having pets all my life, and this is one of the reasons. I use Borrow my doggy now, and get my pet fix that way

My brother went into teaching. He worked in a secondary school in a middle class area. The kids were awful. He had his classroom trashed twice. A girl sat eating biscuits in his lesson and scattered crumbs and bits of rubbish on the floor. When he told her to clean it up, she told him it was the cleaner’s job to do that.

Have you considered going out to Saudi or Dubai to be an equine vet? 💰💰💰

Couple of years of that & work on your tan.

But children don't have whiskers and paws and little velvety noses?

I have been a vet for 30 years and earn a third of that Google quote! I don’t know of any vets earning anything like that amount and it’s frustrating that the public don’t realise how low our salaries are compared to doctors and dentists.

When you have to start at the bottom of the teacher pay scale, M1 or M2 if they value your vet experience, then you get your first pay cheque, you will realise teaching is a financial waste of time...

And waste of vast hours of your life.

You won't see your family much, you will be knackered and unhappy, and for the first time money constraints will enter your life at a level you haven't experienced since your 20s.

Dont do it...

Teaching is a waste of time and a PGCE a waste of a year. Hard work earning zero, to then get a job that pays you half what you make now... God, idiotic on paper.

Genuine question, do you think that large numbers of vets being taken over by a few large companies has caused a lot of this? Interested in an insiders viewpoint.

That's interesting @likeafishneedsabike

Maybe my intel is out of date – it's more than 15 years ago. I did GTP (no longer exists) but also got a PGCE. We were a big group of different subjects and were told specifically at the start that we would be trained to teach, not trained in our subject, and that any subject knowledge we felt we were lacking we would have to cover ourselves.

Was your PGCE a big group of one subject? What subject? (mine is MFL not science but there were scientists on my course)

I am on benefits, and I would not agree that vet care should be like the NHS. Pets are optional. Your own healthcare is not.
Saying that, there have been some horrid posts on here about people on benefits that have pets. I saw one about how people with benefits should have their money stopped unless they agreed to have their pets euthanised. Or that people on benefits with pets clearly get too much money if they can afford a pet.
I budgeted for my pet. I went without in a lot of other areas to be able to afford her to have a happy and healthy life.

The tax payer, of course. Not a vet, but know of several women who were very indignant that things weren't free, like they get for their kids (health, nursery, holiday club, food etc) and one asked if her benefits would go up when her dog had a health issue, like with her kids!
OP, find out about doing some observation in schools, if they let you do that these days. My friend's a teacher and asked local schools to let her observe before she applied, but that was years ago, so maybe they don't now, but if you can, you'd get more idea of whether it's for you.

Not a vet but have worked with this industry and I'd say that's unusual. Junior/ starring salaries 35k. Mid, 50-60k. Senior possibly a little more than OPs figure of 70k but not much.

The staff aren't getting the extra money!

The anthropomorphizing of animals has meant that the expectation to save them regardless of cost/quality of life is a big factor. My cat was diagnosed with an abdominal tumour last year, it's most likely cancerous but I turned down the referral to a feline oncologist (£1000+ just for biopsy and to ascertain if definitely cancer and if so, which type) as I wouldn't go down any chemo or surgical routes anyway. The cat has had a great 11 years, the last thing I want to do is put her through chemo or major surgery. She's on steroids and appears normal, the day I feel she deteriorates will be the day I phone to get her PTS. We love her dearly but she's an animal who has no understanding of the meaning of life beyond getting fed 20 times a day.