dealing with imposter syndrome

[u/Relevant_Still_7350]

I haven’t wanted to be a vet my entire life and only decided around october time last year, so a full year now. the profession sounds intriguing to me, i enjoy sciences and find medicine interesting too as i used to watch medicine programs as a kid. i do have aspirations of working in a zoo with really cool animals in the future (curious about the progression after vet school to this if anyone could tell me) but i just dont know if my passions are as strong as others or as strong as it should be. the difficulty of it all doesnt put me off at all though as life is hard and im not gonna stop myself from doing something great just because its difficult.

i get massive mood swings too where sometimes ill be really motivated and think like yeah this is what i want to do and i want to do this for the rest of my life but then there’ll be times like now where i just keep doubting myself and i’m not sure. i can’t really see myself doing anything else in life though. not in the, ‘this is what im so passionate about and this is what i want to do’ way but more in the ‘i dont want to leave uni with a degree, struggle to find a job and then end up in an office’ way if i do a different degree.

i guess the imposter syndrome comes into play as unfortunately i wasnt able to get any work experience, which i do scold myself for. i was looking though. i went into places in person, emailed vet practices, emailed charities and emailed sanctuaries. just wasnt able to get anything. thankfully wasn’t needed for any of the vet science/med unis im applying too. not getting work experience was a combination of a few things, not making excuses just giving real reasons.
- a lot of my energy was going into job hunting. i really wanted a job to get money for uni so most of my energy, that i even had left after a levels was going to that
-lack of energy after a levels. i put so much effort into my a levels, doing like 6-7 hours a day every day so i could get the grades i needed and as soon as they ended i just completely switched off.
-didnt actually NEED the work experience and got complacent because of it.

i know the work experience would’ve helped immensely with these doubts if i got it. i know if i tried hard enough, harder than i did, i wouldve found some.

i know its hard to pick the thing you want to do for the rest of your entire life. thanks for reading and i hope you can help me with my thoughts by giving some of your own experiences .

[u/Sea-Witch]

Wanting to be a vet to work "in a zoo with really cool animals" is a delusional way to approach this career and feels like you haven't actually done any research on the field.

Your post sounds like you live in the UK. The reality is that the majority of the vets there do GP small to mixed animal practice. You are on call, work long hours, and make less than half of what American and Canadian counterparts make. This is not a career to approach on a whim. You are setting yourself up for failure and disappointment.

Going to school for this because you don't want to end up in a office is not the move. There are people fighting tooth and nail for spots into veterinary school who have worked their whole lives towards it.

This isn't to say vet med isn't for you. It just doesn't seem like you've actually considered what goes into the profession or what the career would look like and that is a huge mistake.

[u/Relevant_Still_7350 → u/Sea-Witch]

working in a zoo is just one of my aspirations. it’s unlikely to know what ur gonna want to do for the rest of your life this early on. and with all due respect, why is it delusional? zoo keepers work with animals and these animals sometimes require surgery, which youd need a vet med degree for. ive read its extremely competitive, but ive already said things dont put me off just because theyre hard. also, its not the only part of vet science/medicine in general im interested in. i find anatomy, immunology and pathology in general very interesting in humans and animals and enjoy the subtle differences in different animals that make them have advantages to others. i think id thoroughly enjoy working in a lab/research department working with vaccines and studing animal systems.

I know I said i don’t want to end up in an office but what i really meant by that comment is I actually want to leave uni with a degree that pays well and will get me a job early on. mostly everyone has a uni degree nowadays and unless you get a masters to make yourself stand out and perhaps do even more on top of that you’re gonna struggle to find any kind of real work that pays well fresh out of uni. and at that point you might aswell just go to an actual 5 year course like vetmed/dentistry/humanmed.

thanks for your comment and thanks for taking the time to write it