Episode #210 – The Most Underrated Aspect of Animal Health and Veterinary Career Success
Julea: Welcome to “The Animal Health and Veterinary Employment Insider,” brought to you by The VET Recruiter. In this podcast, Animal Health executive recruiter and Veterinary recruiter Stacy Pursell of The VET Recruiter provides insight and practical advice for both employers and job seekers in the Animal Health and Veterinary industries. The VET Recruiter’s focus is to solve talent-centric problems for the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. In fact, The VET Recruiter’s mission is to help Animal Health and Veterinary companies hire top talent, while helping Animal Health and Veterinary professionals attain career-enhancing opportunities that increase their quality of life.
In today’s podcast episode, we’ll be talking about the most underrated aspect of Animal Health and Veterinary career success. Hello, Stacy, and thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: Hello, Julea. As always, I’m glad to be here with you.
Julea: Stacy, what are your reasons for exploring this topic today?
Stacy: There are a few reasons, actually Julea. First, I have always enjoyed the topic of success. I like to learn more about success and about continuous improvement. That’s why, even though I’ve been a recruiter for more than 20 years, I still participate in training activities and continuing education. I believe that you can always get better and enjoy more success. That’s why I want to address the topic of success—specifically Animal Health and Veterinary career success—in this podcast episode. In fact, it’s going to be a topic for our next several episodes.
Julea: A series on success, then… that sounds great Stacy!
Stacy: Yes, that’s right! A series on success, because I also believe that everyone wants to be more successful, even if people have different definitions of success. Of course, this includes both personally and professionally. As an executive recruiter, you could say that I’m in the “success business.” The mission of The VET Recruiter, which is the recruiting firm that I founded, is to help Animal Health employers’ Veterinary employers and Animal Health and Veterinary professionals experience and enjoy more success. Our job—and our passion, really—is to help other people be successful. It’s a job that we take very seriously and also one that we enjoy.
So it’s really the mission and passion of The VET Recruiter that has prompted me to tackle this topic today and also to start a series of podcast episodes about Animal Health and Veterinary career success in the marketplace.
Julea: I imagine you’ve seen plenty of people experience success through the years Stacy and I know you have helped connect many of these professionals with the opportunities with companies where they were able to achieve success.
Stacy: Yes, I have! I have followed the careers of successful people in the industry. Unfortunately, I’ve also seen some be not as successful. So, I believe that I’m uniquely qualified to speak on this topic, based upon my experience as an executive recruiter and search consultant.
Julea: So where would you like to start today Stacy?
Stacy: I would like to come right out and reveal the most underrated aspect of success, and then we can discuss it in more detail?
Julea: Okay. What is the most underrated aspect of success?
Stacy: For me, the most underrated aspect of success, including Animal Health and Veterinary career success, is the mental aspect. I believe this 100% and without a doubt, and I also believe that those professionals who neglect this aspect of their professional life and their career will not experience as much success as those who do.
Julea: Stacy, I’m just going to take a guess, but when you say the mental aspect of success, you’re not necessarily talking about how smart someone is. At least, not how “book smart” they are, is that the case?
Stacy: That’s right. I’m not talking about how “book smart” someone is or what their IQ is. This also includes where a person went to school and what degree they earned while at that school. Don’t get me wrong. Those are important and they can play a role in the trajectory of a person’s Animal Health or Veterinary career. But not in terms of ultimately how success they are, how far they’re able to go or how far they’re able to climb.
Julea: How about skills and experience? Those also play a role, don’t they?
Stacy: They do! That is absolutely the case. But once again, they don’t determine whether or not a person reaches their full potential. There are degrees of success, after all. A person can be moderately successful or they can be wildly successful. And people have different viewpoints regarding success. What one person thinks is successful, another person may not. But despite all of this and despite their individual viewpoints, all people want to be more successful. Or at the very least, they should want to be more successful.
Julea: And you’re saying that the way to do that is the mental aspect or their mental attitude?
Stacy: Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.
Julea: You also called it the mental aspect of success underrated. Why is that?
Stacy: By and large, people don’t think about it that much. That includes people who do have the proper mental mindset and those who don’t.
Julea: Stacy, is it true that some people are just born with a better mental mindset than others? How much of a role does that play?
Stacy: It is true that some people are born with a better mental mindset. However, a person’s mindset is not set in stone, so to speak. Their mindset can change. They can improve it and create a more positive one that helps them to experience more success than they would have otherwise.
Julea: But in order to do that, they would have to recognize and realize that their mental attitude is lacking. That’s a form of self-awareness, isn’t it?
Stacy: Yes, absolutely. And it might be one of the most important forms of self-awareness, the ability to recognize the areas in which you’re lacking and realizing that you must improve in those areas if you want to reach the next level in your development.
Julea: It also seems as though there is much that goes into the mental aspect of success. Is that another reason why people don’t consider it as much or give it much thought? The fact that it could be overwhelming?
Stacy: Yes, that is also a consideration. And you’re right. There is a much that goes into the mental aspect of success, including Animal Health and Veterinary career success.
Julea: I imagine there is probably more than we can fit into one podcast episode, which is why I imagine you decided to do a series on this topic.
Stacy: You’re right about that, but we are going to address as much as we can and we’ll be talking about the topic in future episodes, as well. Today, though, I want to discuss the foundational elements of success.
Julea: Okay, great! Which elements are those?
Stacy: One of the most important foundational elements of success is the willingness to take ownership of your life and your career, and there’s a lot that goes into this element, too. First of all, taking ownership of your career means that you’re taking personal responsibility and accountability for what happens. That can be a scary thing, but it’s also a necessary thing for people who are interested in maximizing their potential.
Julea: Is that because when you take personal responsibility, you’re willing to work harder?
Stacy: Yes, that’s one of the reasons. Taking ownership of your life and your Animal Health or Veterinary career is one of the healthiest things you can do in terms of your mental mindset. Keep in mind, though, that when you do that, you’re not saying you have 100% control over what happens to you or that you can control what happens to you.
Julea: What are you saying, then?
Stacy: You’re saying that you will exert control and influence over the things that you can exert control and influence over. This encompasses a lot of things, including the amount of effort that you put into your work. It is true that there is a lot in the world that people have no control over. Unfortunately, some people use that as an excuse not to take ownership of their life and their career. Then, when things don’t happen the way they want them to happen, they take the attitude of, “I shouldn’t even try, because things never turn out the way that I want.”
Julea: That seems like a defeatist attitude.
Stacy: It is a defeatist attitude. That is why the second part of this foundational element is not allowing external circumstances dictate your frame of mind. Specifically, people who allow negative circumstances to affect them are generally less successful than people who not, or at the very least, they’re not as successful.
There is an old saying that sums all of this up perfectly.
Julea: What saying is that?
Stacy: “You don’t have 100% control over what happens to you, but you do have 100% control over how you react to what happens to you.”
Julea: That is very true! But people forget that, don’t they?
Stacy: They absolutely do. When circumstances are bad, it can be easy to forget or to stay calm in the face of those circumstances. In fact, the worse thing that a person can do is focus on the negative circumstances around them and then blame other people for those circumstances.
Julea: That’s pretty much the exact opposite of taking ownership and accountability of your life and your career.
Stacy: You are correct. It is the exact opposite. That’s what makes it the wrong mental mindset and the wrong mental approach. That kind of mindset does not lend itself to success, nor does it lead to success. And neither does having a sense of entitlement.
Julea: Stacy, can you talk about that for a moment. What does it mean to have a sense of entitlement and what bearing does it have on this discussion?
Stacy: Having a sense of entitlement means that you have a pervasive sense that one deserves more and is entitled to more than other people. But there is an important distinction here. It’s one thing to have a sense of entitlement if you’ve done absolutely everything you can to achieve the things that you want to achieve, including out-working everyone else. Having a sense of entitlement is dangerous when you feel as though you’re entitled to more than everyone else, but you haven’t put in the hard work and effort to earn the things that you feel that you’re entitled to.
The bottom line is that you can’t feel as though other people owe you something, and that includes within the professional realm. It doesn’t matter which college or university you’ve attended or what kind of certifications you have, no one owes you anything. One of the most important parts of a positive mental approach is to realize this and also to realize that you have to work for and earn everything that you want in your life and your career.
Julea: I was wondering when you’d talk about hard work and how that relates to the proper mental mindset. Can you elaborate on that point?
Stacy: Absolutely! When a person has the proper mental mindset for experiencing more success in their Animal Health and Veterinary career, they recognize the amount of hard work and effort that is necessary for achieving that level of success. It would be impossible for me to overestimate the importance of hard work and effort when it comes to being successful.
Julea: Yes, we’ve talked about this before, haven’t we? Hard work can be the “X-factor” for people who want to achieve more in their careers. Isn’t that the case?
Stacy: That is definitely the case. For example, let’s say that you have two job candidates and they are pretty much the same in just about every way. They have the same experience, the same skills, and the same certification. Let’s even say that they graduated from the same school or university. Which candidate do you think is going to be more successful in their career? The bottom line is that the candidate who is willing to work the hardest is the one that will be more successful. The one that is willing to put in the long hours and make sacrifices when necessary will achieve more.
Julea: Stacy, thank you so much for all of this great information. And before we end today’s episode, can you talk about the resources that are available on The VET Recruiter website that can help our listeners enjoy more Animal Health and Veterinary career success?
Stacy: Yes, absolutely. First and foremost, we have Animal Health jobs and Veterinary jobs on The VET Recruiter site. There are Animal Health industry jobs, Veterinary clinical practice jobs, jobs in academia and jobs categorized by geographic location. You can also search through our jobs by title or any other term that you would like to search on.
We also have an extensive section of Career Resources for job seekers and professionals looking to explore other employment opportunities and grow their career. We have a section devoted to interview tips and relocation information, and we also spell out best practices for working with a recruiter. In addition, we also explain the dangers in accepting a counter-offer from your current employer, and that’s a pretty extensive page on our website, so I would recommend checking that out.
And of course, we have a library of articles and blog posts that stretches back the last several years. These articles are full of career advice and best practices for job seekers in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. This is all information and expertise that I have accumulated during my career as an Animal Health executive recruiter and veterinarian recruiter and I am more than willing to share this information to help Animal Health and Veterinary professionals achieve more career success.
Julea: Once again, the website address for The VET Recruiter is www.thevetrecruiter.com. Stacy, as always, thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: You’re very welcome, Julea, and thank you. It’s been my pleasure, and I look forward to our next episode of the Animal Health and Veterinary Employment Insider!