Episode #243 – Why Now is the Perfect Time to Explore Animal Health and Veterinary Job Opportunities
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.
Today, we’ll be talking why now is the perfect time to explore Animal Health and Veterinary job opportunities. Hello, Stacy, and thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: Hello, Julea. As always, I’m glad to be here with you today.
Julea: Stacy, when you say that right now is the best time, you are you talking about the current employment marketplace and the conditions that exist within it, correct?
Stacy: Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. Everything that’s happened in the economy and the job market throughout 2021 has built up to now. We’ve discussed before on the podcast—on numerous instances, in fact—that the best time to find a great new job is when you have a good job now. That may seem counterintuitive, but when you think about it, the last thing you want to do is start looking for a new job when you don’t have one, for whatever reason that might be.
Julea: Yes, we’ve discussed that before, but the unemployment rate extremely low right now, especially in the Veterinary profession.
Stacy: Yes, that’s right.
Julea: And since that’s the case, doesn’t that mean professionals don’t have much to fear when it comes to losing their jobs? Isn’t the talent crunch so severe that some employers are actually desperate to find the workers they need?
Stacy: It is true that there is a talent shortage in the broader employment marketplace, including within the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. However, just because that’s the case, it’s not a reason to ignore the opportunities that exist in the marketplace.
Julea: Talk more about that Stacy if you will.
Stacy: Sure, well before I talk about that, I’d like to address the mental aspect of a person’s career or their attitude regarding their career. The first thing that I’d like to say is that a person’s job is not their career.
Julea: What do you mean by that Stacy?
Stacy: I mean that a person’s current employment situation is not the equivalent of their career. It’s just one stage of their career, or at the very least, it should be just one stage of their career. Remember, the days of working for the same company for your entire career and retiring with a gold watch are over. Those days are long gone. We’re to the point where the average person is changing jobs every two to three years and that is not only acceptable by employers, but it’s almost expected, especially when it comes to the members of the younger generations. Some members of the younger generations are changing jobs every 18 months to two years.
There are two main factors at play here.
Julea: Which factors are those, Stacy?
Stacy: The first one is the normalcy bias. As part of the normalcy bias, people have a tendency to believe, subconsciously or otherwise, that the way things are in the present are the way they will be into the foreseeable future. Most of the time, they believe that will be the case into the long-term future. But of course, that is not usually the case. Something often happens that has an effect on a person’s situation and circumstances.
The second factor is people’s desire to be comfortable. Once again, this is usually a subconscious desire. People naturally gravitate toward comfortable situations, including in their professional lives, and once they have such a situation, they like staying in the comfort zone and remaining in the status quo. It’s easier to remain there sometimes.
Julea: Kind of like getting into a nice warm bath.
Stacy: Right, exactly! You’re comfortable and you don’t want to get out. And to a certain extent, you can understand why people are reluctant to leave such situations professionally. However, there’s a danger with staying in the comfort zone for too long.
Julea: Why is that, Stacy?
Stacy: There’s a danger from a mental or psychological standpoint. When a person is in what they consider to be a good employment situation and they feel comfortable, they subconsciously want to keep that situation. In other words, they want to maintain the status quo. And with the help of the normalcy bias, they can convince themselves that this situation they’re in will continue the same into the future, even into the long-term future.
Julea: I imagine there are some professionals who are in that kind of situation right now, considering what’s happening in the job market and with the low unemployment rate.
Stacy: There absolutely are, and if they decide to cling to the status quo for too long, they could wind up hurting their career.
Julea: How can they hurt their career, Stacy?
Stacy: A couple of different ways, actually. First, when your main priority is to maintain the status quo, then it’s not on growing your career. And you have to remember that there’s no such thing as staying in place when it comes to your career. If you’re staying in the same place, especially for an extended period of time, then you’re actually falling behind. That’s because there are other people in the employment marketplace who are moving ahead. So unless you’re moving ahead with everyone else, you’re actually falling behind.
The second way is that if you stay with the same employer for too long, you may be branding yourself in a negative way.
Julea: Which way is that?
Stacy: In the past, employers valued loyalty in professionals. As we mentioned, people often worked for the same organization for their entire career. But not only do professionals know that’s not the case anymore, but employers know it, as well. In fact, they don’t look the same way at professionals who have worked for the same employer for an extended period of time.
Julea: They don’t? How do they view these professionals now?
Stacy: First, they may view them as people who don’t take enough risks. To a certain extent, organizations need employees who will take calculated risks in the interest of achieving bigger and better things. It’s almost impossible to achieve great things without taking some sort of risk, and organizations understand this. I have worked with professionals who have worked with the same employer for 15 or 20 years, and in some of the cases, they had difficulty receiving an offer of employment. That’s because hiring managers were under the impression that these professionals clung to the status quo and didn’t take enough risks.
Julea: That certainly seems ironic, considering how much employers valued longevity and loyalty for the longest time.
Stacy: Yes, but the employment marketplace has certainly changed during the last several years, and this is one of the ways in which it has changed.
Julea: Viewed within that context, it seems like it doesn’t make much sense to cling to the status quo and always want to be comfortable all of the time.
Stacy: You’re right, it doesn’t. In fact, right now is the time where it makes the least sense to do those things. Instead, right now is the perfect time to explore other employment opportunities instead.
Julea: And that’s because job seekers and candidates have the leverage in hiring situations, is that right?
Stacy: Yes, that’s right. And when you have leverage, it makes sense to use the leverage that you have. Now, there’s a limit to the leverage that a professional has, and you have to be cognizant of that fact, but there’s nothing wrong with using the leverage that you do you have in a professional way to advance your career.
And when you do that, there’s no reason to feel as though you’re being disloyal to your current employer.
Julea: Do some professionals feel as though that’s the case?
Stacy: Yes. In fact, I called a candidate about an opportunity at one of his current employer’s competitors. He said that he was not completely satisfied with his current employer. According to him, the company had made some recent management changes, prompting him to “look around” for other opportunities.
So I set up an interview for him with my client. He seemed excited about it. However, he called back later to cancel the interview.
Why did he do this? He was concerned about what his employer would think if he left the company for a direct competitor. He was also worried about what his clients would think.
This is what I said to the candidate:
“So what you’re telling me is that you are so loyal to the current employer, if one of their competitors could offer you a better opportunity than you have now and could elevate your career to the next level, you would pass up the opportunity? And the reason you’d pass it up is because you’re concerned about what your current employer and clients would think about it? What about you? What do you think about passing up a potentially better opportunity than what you have now because you’re concerned about what everyone else thinks?”
I reminded him that he told me he was not completely happy at his current employer and that he wanted to “look around” for other opportunities. I then mentioned that companies are not always loyal to their employees and they don’t typically ask their employees before they decide to merge, be acquired, or lay off staff.
The candidate became convinced that his initial decision was the correct one. He interviewed with my client and he received an offer with an opportunity better than the one he currently had. He accepted the offer and is now working for my client’s company.
Julea: So everything worked out okay?
Stacy: The candidate is very happy and doing well, and he’s extremely glad he made the transition. If he had not gone on the interview, he would not have known that there were greener pastures out there. When you work for a company, your competitors are going to have the most interest in you anyway.
Julea: Stacy, I have another question. If the job market is so good, why do professionals need a recruiter. I mean, if jobs are so plentiful, does it make sense to work with a recruiter?
Stacy: That’s a great question and a logical one to ask. There are probably members of our listening audience who are asking the same question. But there are a number of reasons why a professional should work with a recruiter during a good job market like the one we’re experiencing.
The first reason is that you can be informed of opportunities that you would have not known about otherwise. This is called the “hidden job market,” which contains
jobs and employment opportunities not available through traditional means, like online job postings or advertisements. Instead, only recruiters know about these openings because their client is conducting a confidential search for candidates. So if you’re not working with a recruiter, then you won’t be aware of these opportunities and openings . . . no matter how good the job market is.
The second reason is saving time and energy on your job searches. With a recruiter, not only will you know about premium opportunities in the marketplace, but you won’t have to expend your own time and energy to find out about them.
The third reason is being able to gain valuable insight and information about employers. Recruiters who work with employers as clients know a lot about them. It’s their job. By aligning yourself with a good recruiter, you would become privy to this information, especially as it pertains to your job search and your career.
Julea: These are all things that not everyone thinks about.
Stacy: True, Another thing they don’t think about are salary negotiations during the offer stage of the hiring process. Recruiters possess valuable experience in negotiation, and they an put this experience to use to secure the best possible offer for you.
And the fifth piece of value that recruiters provide during a good job market is that they can help you stay abreast of what’s happening in the profession, the industry, and the marketplace. The more information you have, the better your chances of reaching your goals. A recruiter, especially an experienced one with many years of operating within the profession, has that information and can share it with you as you plot your career course. Their advice and expertise can be incredibly valuable.
Julea: Stacy, thank you for all of this great information. Stacy, if a member of the listening audience wanted to reach out to you, what would be the best way to do that?
Stacy: There are a number of ways that someone can reach out to me. They can send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com and they can also visit The VET Recruiter at www.thevetrecruiter.com. Once on the site, they can register their profile and also upload their resume. And I would also recommend that people connect with me on LinkedIn and also follow The VET Recruiter on LinkedIn and the other social media channels.
One of the major points of this podcast episode is that professionals need to network enough to help grow their career, and networking with an Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter is one way to do that. And keep in mind that this is a no-risk proposition for professionals. There is no risk to them and there is no cost to them. Remember, it’s the employers who pay the recruiter to help them find qualified candidates for their open position. So, building a relationship with a good recruiter is something that professionals should consider, because it can have a profound impact on their career. You should always have a good recruiter in your network.
Julea: Once again, for more information about The VET Recruiter and the services that it provides to both Animal Health and Veterinary employers and professionals, we invite everyone listening to visit www.thevetrecruiter.com. Stacy, as always, thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: It’s been my pleasure, Julea, and I look forward to our next episode of the “Animal Health and Veterinary Employment Insider”!