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Kaylyn Slone

Mrs. Smith

Advanced Comp

28 January 2021

Career research paper

My chosen career is a veterinarian technician, this career has always been a passion of mine.

“In 1908, the Canine Nurses Institute made the first organized effort to train veterinary assistants

in England” (www.vetstreet.com). Before this was a job the main vet was struggling to keep up

with all the tasks they had on them. Soon after vet techs came around it opened jobs to people

and helped the main vets. I’ve had a huge passion in this career because animals have been a

huge part of my life and I would love them to be in my everyday life. Most people ask why I

don’t want to step up and be a veterinarian, but I love the nurse aspect of the job.

According to (www.bls.gov) there is roughly 112,00 employed vet techs in the united states,

and this job is always increasing year by year. The most related job to a vet tech is a veterinarian

obviously because they are basically the same job, but the vet does surgery, and the vet tech

assists everything. Another job related is often animal service workers, an example of that would

be a rescue center, these relate because they take in animals and work for their wellbeing. The

general work for a vet tech is assisting the main vet, lab work, drug dosages, surgery assists,

dentistry, giving shots and doing checkups. Most vet techs work around 40 hours a week, so a

normal day to day job. On some occasions they must stay overtime or be on call for late night

emergencies almost like a hospital doctor would be.

In order to succeed in this field, you must have a strong attitude, very friendly with

people but also strong for when you have to deal with hard situations like putting an animal
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down. You must be strong for the family dealing with the death of a family member. I believe

you must have a bubbly personality to be with puppies, kittens and all types of great animals. To

have a good step into a job you need at least an associate degree in animal science. “Students

interested in a career in veterinary technology should have an aptitude for general science, math

and biology and demonstrate basic language and communication skills” (www.avma.org)

Veterinarian technicians make around $42,000 a year depending on the state you live in.

Starting out you would usually make $32,000 a year. Being an exceptional vet tech, you can

make up to around $60,000 a year. The higher the degree you have the more money you can get.

That also works along with experience, the more you have the more you make.

(www.thebestcolleges.org) lists the ranked best schools for vet tech programs which are,

“Purdue university, University of New Hampshire and, Johnson college”. I believe the best

scholarship that fits me to help me into the career is the hope scholarship that Georgia gives out

to students. When you turn 18 you can always volunteer at animal shelters and animal hospitals

to get a foot in the door and help you really get a feel with what you’re going to do.

Some benefits that I would gain from this job personally would be just the opportunity to

work with animals and help them live. I expect to grow my love for animals and helping others.

Tony McReynolds said “The risks they face are many: infectious agents, zoonotic agents, waste

anesthetic gases, medications, animal bites, repetitive-motion injuries, noise, ionizing radiation,

long work hours, stress, and more” (www.aaha.org). working as a vet or a vet tech you are

constantly taking a risk but a the end of the day they are doing what they love. In this field it’s on

the top charts of getting injured on the job because of rabid animals that people bring in.
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If you were to advance to the main vet, you would have to go back to school and get a

master’s degree in animal science. Yes, there is additional training you would have to go through

residency like you would as a doctor. As the main vet it would have additional duties, they

preform surgery, put animals down, diagnose the pet and many more because remember the vet

tech is like the assistant. Yes there is farther more education to be a vet. This quote from

(www.collegeconsensus.com) says, “To become a full-fledged veterinarian, you’ll need to

complete a four-year undergraduate degree and earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.

This degree is commonly abbreviated as a DVM or a VMD, and it takes four years to earn”.

After writing this paper it made me want to achieve this goal to be a vet tech even more

than I did before. The opportunities that this job gives me are unmatchable to other jobs in the

medical field. Its good money with little education, what’s better. I got a deep intake on all the

small details about this job that I didn’t know before.

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Work cited

“campaigner” 16 personalities test, NERS, analytics limited 2021, www.16personalites.com,

accessed 18 Jan. 2021

Veterinary Technologists and Technicians, Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment

Projections 2021, www.bls.gov, accessed 21 Jan 2021

“veterinary technician” American veterinary medical association all rights advised 2020,
www.avma.org, accessed 28 Jan 2021

Top 24 vet tech programs, Red ventures company, www.thebestcolleges.org, accessed 28 Jan
2021

Tony McReynolds. What degree do you need, College consensus 2020,

www.collegeconsensus.com. Accessed 28 Jan 2021.

US department of labor: working as a vet is more dangerous than the law. American animal
hospital association 2020, www.aaha.org. accessed 28 Jan 2021