How to Get an Internship

I recently shared my blog with the pre-veterinary society at UCF and got a pretty great response, including a few PMs from students. {FYI, I'll be acquiring questions and placing them here, with links back to the response blog post!} I thought I'd start out with a question I received about getting internships and vet experience in general. Hopefully my advice isn't totally lousy and helps at least one person out :)

So I know that it's a tough situation to be in when you're first starting out, because many places won't hire without previous experience. So where do you begin? As for me, I spent hours applying to every veterinary clinic within a 20 mile radius of my apartment. Mostly it's just luck {and a lot of praying}, but you have to sincerely try. It took me about 3 months to find my first veterinary job in Orlando. Apply, get interviews, dress professionally and take it seriously. Hand your application and resume in to the office manager and introduce yourself! Call and follow up. Show them that even though you don't have experience, you want to pursue vet med for reasons other than just loving animals. Another option is to get started by volunteering at your local animal shelter. Most will offer a brief training course after which you can serve as an adoption counselor. That's at least something you can put on your resume to show that you have the ability to work around dogs and cats, and there may even be a staff veterinarian you could shadow occasionally.

Once you have a basic work foundation down, you can start applying to internships. Honestly, it's pretty hard to get internships without any previous experience because you often need multiple letters of reference. For specific internship opportunities where you live, the pre-veterinary student doctor forum is really helpful! Once you've found a few places to apply, your next step is to create a winning resume. As a side note, if you need help creating a resume or would like for me to critique yours, feel free to contact me by clicking the "contact" link above and sending me a PM! I'm kind of obsessed with perfecting my resume and it's a really important component of applying to internships, especially more popular and competitive places such as Animal Kingdom because you really want to stand out in a giant pile of applications.

The last major suggestion I have is to practice for your interviews. Have an idea of what to say when they ask you why you want the internship, what you see yourself doing in five years, and of course the typical questions like what are your strengths and weaknesses. Show that you are serious about getting into this field and passionate about the medicine aspect of the job (and have a reason for that too).

And most importantly, be persistent and don't give up!

What about my vet student readers? Do you have any other tips or tricks for pre-vets?