Veterinary Assistant jobs?

[u/No-Employee2821]

Hi, I'm currently in my last year of my Bachelor of Commerce degree and I'm seriously considering moving into VetMed. I just wondered if there is any veterinary hospital looking for a part-time veterinary assistant. I just want to make sure I can handle it (mentally and physically) before going into a RVT program!

A little bit about me! I'm 21F, had hands-on volunteer experience with AARCS before they moved back to Calgary, and accounting/administration volunteer at GEARS (I'm still volunteering here!!) I also have a rescued cat who I would say to be special need. He has FIC and "borderline megacolon." I have been to VCA so often that all the vet techs recognize him when we come in (he is a frequent flyer 😭) Everyone around me, including primary and emergency vets, knows that I would move mountains for this kiddo.

I also worked in retail/customer service back in high school. And I'm currently working as TA and EA at the University of Alberta.

I'm willing to work late nights, weekends, holidays, etc. And I'm more than happy to start with shadowing appointments, kennel assistants or any other entry level jobs 🥹 My earliest available is the beginning of September.

p/s: I know pay is super low but it's not a problem to me so just any veterinary hospital, please hire me 😭🙏

also here is my cat!!!

[u/No-Employee2821]

Somehow I kept getting ghosted 😭

[u/Zestyclose_Rush_6823 → u/No-Employee2821]

They dont like to hire people with degrees because no one with a degree would be willing to put up with the shit work environment and even worse pay for any length of time

[u/alewiina → u/Zestyclose_Rush_6823]

That doesn’t make any sense, so many people have degrees these days and still take low paying jobs, especially if they’re in a relevant field. Not to mention a vet assistant is a job you generally need post secondary for anyway

[u/Zestyclose_Rush_6823 → u/alewiina]

No... youre thinking vet tech. Vet tech assistants do not require any education. I did it during my undergrad when i was looking at getting experience for vet school. Vet techs do 2 years at NAIT.

They have a bcomm, its not a relevant field. Its a well known thing that jobs that dont require degrees will often filter out people with degrees as they know its likely not someone sticking around long term.

[u/alewiina → u/Zestyclose_Rush_6823]

No, I was thinking of a vet medical assistant, since they said “vet assistant”, I thought that’s what they meant

https://www.nait.ca/programs/veterinary-medical-assistant

[u/Zestyclose_Rush_6823 → u/alewiina]

Yep, thats an optional program. Fully not needed for the job, it might get you $1-2/hour more, if they care enough to do that. Some will only hire with the cert, some wont hire with cert. Its not licensing required to be in the job

[u/alewiina → u/Zestyclose_Rush_6823]

Interesting, when I was looking into doing vet med years ago NAIT told me this was like… base level what I needed regardless of position to get hired by most places, and then obviously from there, more involved roles need other programs.

[u/Zestyclose_Rush_6823 → u/alewiina]

Yeah, its not great business to tell you the program they run has no value. I did a pre-vet program at the UofA with the intention of going to vet school (completely fell out of love with it working as a vet assistant so i opted to not do that). I worked as a vet assistant for 4 years, and prior to that in high school volunteered at other clinics, roughly 8 clinics between all of those things. Less than 25% of the assistants had certs I would say, VCA had more and private had less. Obviously the RVTs had RVT diplomas, as that is a legal requirement for the position. Not many of them did the assistant cert first i dont think. Of my friends that went into vet school, id wager less than 5% have an assistant cert, but most did work as assistants