Profile

I originally worked in Finance (having done A Levels in Maths French and German, and a degree in Banking and International Finance) but after a few years I realised that it wasn’t the right thing for me (basically I hated it!) so I went back to school for a year to do an intensive course for A levels in Biology and Chemistry, alongside lots of work experience on a dairy farm and in a vet practice.  I applied for vet school and the rest, as they say, is history.

Being a vet in practice is a challenging job – it’s all about problem solving.  You are combining diagnosing and treating illness for a patient who can’t tell you what is wrong with them, with communicating with the animal’s owner (sometimes more than one person) at a time when they may be stressed about their animal’s health.  Sometimes it’s a positive situation,  if you succeed in fixing a problem and everybody is happy that the animal is now fit and healthy again. Other times it can be more difficult. Owners may be worried about how they will care for their animal, or  whether they are able to afford the cost of treatment or sometimes they are having to make a  decision about having the animal put to sleep because the problem can’t be fixed, despite you using all your veterinary medical and surgical skills and knowledge.  This can be very upsetting, as many people view their animal as part of the family (even farmers get upset about having to have an animal put to sleep). This means it’s a job of highs and lows.

Research work is very varied.  Sometimes I interview animal owners to understand the kind of problems they face when looking after their animals. Other times I create a survey which owners can fill in online. Sometimes I am  examining animals to understand how healthy or unhealthy they are.  One research project may take several months or even longer from start to finish, so I have to be patient and persistent.  I have to listen to lots of recordings of interviews to summarise all the information we’ve collected, or use mathematical tests to analyse data collected in spreadsheets from a survey.  I also have to be good at writing reports about what the research has discovered and doing presentations to large groups of people who are interested in the research results.