“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.”- James Yorke
I have moved on to Plan B. And no, I don’t mean the emergency contraceptive. I mean my “plan B” career. The average person changes careers 7 times in their lifetime. Not just jobs, but entire careers. When I graduated college and came back from my month long vacation in SoCal, I realized I needed a real job. I put in an application at Nationwide Insurance, and got hired. I started as a claims processor, which sucked. I answered calls, sent letters… I was pretty much a glorified receptionist. Then, I got a promotion to my current position, which is an MD/PD Appraiser. Of course, I don’t actually get to do anything very technical, I still work in the rental department- so now I’m pretty much a glorified administrative assistant. Except instead of having a “boss” whose work I have to do, I have lots of bosses whose work I have to do… they’re called claims managers. After about a year and a half, the constant stress and arguing and feeling like I’m never going to actually change anything and I’m just spinning my wheels officially caught up with me. I believe there is only so long that you can put up with never making progress if you have any shred of aspiration before you snap. So I decided I needed to get out before I, A) drove my car into an elementary school on my way home or B) burned the motha’ down.
The only other career field I would be interested in pursuing is something dealing with animals. I have always loved animals and been interested in animal welfare. Growing up, my family always had lots of pets ranging from a dog to a hedgehog, so I have experience with all types of small animals. In my job at Nationwide, I was a professional “bad guy”. I was always the “bad guy”. When someone got a bill the didn’t expect to get from Enterprise, they called me. When someone realized they didn’t have rental car coverage only after they had an accident and needed a replacement vehicle but couldn’t afford to pay for it on their own, they called me. When someone had an agent who forgot to add rental car coverage on their policy like they asked them to… do you think they called the agent? Nope, me. When one of our policy holders got hit by someone, and the other company accepted liability and the other company didn’t pay for their rental…. they called me, although at that point the claim has nothing to do with us. Do you get the picture?
So, to save you from reading more of my whining and complaining… I’ll cut to the chase: I needed a job where I could be “the good guy”- at least once in a while. I considered working at a shelter, but I could not deal with rejecting people applying to adopt animals or turning away people trying to surrender animals because of space limitation. If I had to turn away animals because the shelter had no space, I know what would happen… they would end up at my house. So I decided to look into a position as a veterinary technician (AKA Vet Tech).
Vet tech’s are basically the unsung heroes in a vet’s office. They handle record keeping, customer service, lab work, assisting with exams, surgeries, pre-op and post-op care, cleaning, toe nail clipping, vaccinations, dental work… the list goes on and on. They are the veterinarian’s supporting cast. It’s a job where you can make a difference. You can be a “good guy”. Sometimes, this job does require you to find the good in the situation- and sometimes you have to be the “bad guy” or deal with bad situations… but there isn’t a single job in the world that’s all good.
So, I put in my resume at Cove Mountain Animal Hospital. This is a private practice that used to be called “Clark’s Ferry Veterinary Hospital” , but since they moved to the Cove in Duncannon- they changed their name accordingly. I decided if I was going to switch jobs, I wasn’t going to drive 45 minutes to another animal hospital, especially since it was likely I would take a slight pay cut, so if it was meant for me to have this job, it would be at this hospital since it’s only 1 mile from our house. A month of hearing nothing passed…but to my surprise, Nora (the staff manager) called me the day before Baxter’s follow-up appointment after getting neutered and said “Please re-fax me a copy of your resume so we can do an interview when you come in tomorrow.” I was like, Wow, OK. So I got them my resume and went in for his appointment the next day. During the exam, I talked to Nora and the doctor about the position, the salary, the benefits and why I wanted the job. After all the questions were answered, Nora then said “Can you start Monday?”
While I would have loved to say yes, I had to tell them I really needed to give Nationwide a two-week notice. I didn’t want to burn the bridge, in case I need to go back to them for a job in the future if something doesn’t work out. They agreed, and instead asked that I come in and work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 6:30p to 9p after work, and Saturday morning. This has made for a hectic week, but it’s very very worth it.
I really enjoy what I have been doing. I have so much to learn, and at times I feel like I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m catching on quickly [I think]. In my first week, I have learned to restrain animals, read a stool sample, do a heartworm/lyme/E. canis test, write prescriptions, some record keeping and billing, and how to properly clean the office areas. I’m sure there is more stuff I have picked up on… but it seems like there is so much to know, it’s hard to keep track of. I did order a vet tech text book yesterday from Amazon, so I’m hoping it will help me get even more familiar with terms I keep hearing so I will be able to absorb the info better.
I will definitely keep updating how I’m doing with this job. I’m so excited, because what I’m learning is also really inspiring me on what to write about in my other blog, www.animal411.wordpress.com.
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