I often receive request from junior colleagues on how they could get their foot in the door to advance themselves in this aspect of their veterinary career.
Getting the first job is the most difficult part. It’s a bit of the chicken and the egg thing. Employers want someone with experience, and as the potential employee, you can’t get experience if you don’t get the job. Aaargh!
For most aquatic vets, there’s some form of luck involved. So, how did we get lucky? Luck was once explained as ‘preparation meeting opportunity.’
This ‘experience’ that employers are after is the ‘preparation’ part. You can begin fish keeping if you’ve not already done so. Volunteer at public aquaria and get in amongst the curatorial part of things. Attend seminars, workshops, conferences. Read texts, journals and news. Do an Honours, Masters or PhD on an aquatic-related topic. Look for jobs in aquatic related fields and more.
Wow! That’s a lot of effort. Yes it is. Only the passionate make it. All this effort is to gain knowledge and to form networks. At a seminar I attended, I live this quote,”In the past it was ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know.’ Now it’s not who you know, but who knows you!'”
In Australia, most aquatic veterinarians found their first fish job through government agencies, often as fish pathologists at the laboratories. This was a great training ground for most of us, and we were able to make many connections in the industry, and had access to a wide variety of resources (training, conferences and people).
Some stay in government, and some branch off to work for themselves as aquaculture veterinary consultants, and may have enough work to start employing others.
Those veterinarians who work with pet fishes and public aquaria tend to do so as a supplement to their normal day job. Receiving patients in their clinics, or make site visits. Some are lucky enough to be employed full time by very large public aquaria.
As a new graduate veterinarian, you can try to get a traditional job close to a public aquarium, or get a job where the boss is interested in allowing you to pursue this aspect of veterinary science. From there, start approaching all fish related businesses and let them know you’re here, to be of service.
To fast track your knowledge on aquatic Veterianry aspects, I encourage you to obtain copies of the Fish Vetting series of resources. They’re available at this link
http://thefishvet.com.au/
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Yours sincerely,
Dr Richmond Loh
DipProjMgt, BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Pathology) Murdoch, MANZCVS (Aquatics& Pathobiology), CertAqV, NATA Signatory.
THE FISH VET, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
W: http://www.thefishvet.com.au
E: thefishvet@gmail.com
P: +61 (0)421 822 383
