Help for every stage of your veterinary career
A foundational concept you NEED to understand is to Aim for Zero. I encounter so many students who aim to be a +1 and end up being a -1 as a consequence. At the end of the day, the students I most enjoy working with are the ones who are quietly competent. The students who
I have some bad news. Life is not a meritocracy. We all wish we lived in a world where, if you are the best candidate for a position, you get the position. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in. In our world, who you know has a tremendous impact on your ability to get
I do not represent every veterinary professional. I think that should be obvious, but I have to make that VERY clear for this particular post. I have spoken with many veterinary professionals and academics, and I have trained dozens of house officers and thousands of students, and there are numerous ways to approach success in
I was having lunch with a colleague of mine a while ago and we were discussing vet students. They were lamenting about one student who was really struggling. They said, “We need to stop telling kids they can be anything they want to be. Some are just not smart enough to get through vet school.”
You would think a letter of recommendation (LOR) is a simple thing. You ask someone to write it for you when you apply to vet school, they do so, it is read, and that contributes to your evaluation. All of that is true, and I want to drill down on the details of the letter
I believe our culture has a problem. The problem is that we have a simple narrative : “If you work hard enough, you will be successful.” I think this is a problem because it’s not entirely true but it’s not entirely false. Making success seem so simple is reductionist, doesn’t credit the efforts of millions
I was working with a student recently and I gave them some feedback along the lines of, “Please make sure to pay attention to detail and make sure everything is ready for your case.” I could tell, as I was speaking to them, that their eyes were glazing over. I like to think I am
I think this piece of advice is pretty simple. If you can live close enough to walk or bike to work or school, I think you should do so. I have had this luxury for the past 3 years and I don’t ever want to live outside of walking/biking distance again. This simple step helps
When I did a Master of Science program in Sport Pedagogy, I was exposed to all sorts of interesting literature outside of veterinary medicine. One of the articles was about athletes’ choice of where they decided to go to university. I was struck by the simplicity of the methods but also how elegant they were.
The original idea for this post was “don’t commit to something you won’t be able to do,” but that is proscriptive and I am aiming more for productive on this site. The sentiment stands, though. I see this time and again with students and interns who start research projects (with me or someone else). It’s