News
Results of The VET Recruiter’s 2024 Workplace/Workforce Survey
This past summer, The VET Recruiter conducted its annual Workplace/Workforce Survey of professionals in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. The results of the survey were insightful. Some of the results were expected, others were not and still others...
The Importance of Making Candidates and Employees Feel Wanted
In the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession, attracting and retaining top talent is more challenging than ever, especially in the Veterinary profession. For employers, it’s not enough to merely offer a job; they must ensure that candidates feel genuinely...
THIS is Perhaps the Most Important Soft Skill to Grow Your Career
I have addressed the topic of soft skills on multiple occasions in my writing and on my podcast. In addition, I have addressed the importance of having a growth mindset in your Animal Health and Veterinary career and not a fixed mindset. And in this article, I would...
The Many Positive Aspects of Changing Jobs
Changing jobs can sometimes come with some feelings of fear or trepidation. Sometimes maintaining the status quo can feel easier or less of a hassle than making a job change. However, sometimes changing jobs can have a dramatically positive impact on your career and...
The Value of Consistency in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
There are many ways to set yourself apart from other professionals within the Animal Health industry or Veterinary profession. Doing so is usually most important when you’re exploring the job market and considering other employment opportunities. Some of these ways...
How to Build a Great Network in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
I’ve learned quite a few things during my 25+ years as an Animal Health recruiter and Veterinary recruiter, and one of those things is that, “Your network is your net worth.” You may have heard this phrase before, and perhaps you didn’t give it much credence. However,...
How to ‘Build Bridges’ in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
I have addressed the topic of “burning bridges” in a person’s Animal Health or Veterinary career on multiple occasions. And while I am going to touch upon that topic once again in this article, my overriding focus is “building bridges” instead. However, let us touch...
How to Avoid ‘Drifting’ in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
As a recruiter and search consultant for more than 26 years, I know how easy it is to get into a “career rut.” However, before a person finds themselves in such a position, they’ve usually succumbed to something called “career drifting.” The problem is that some...
Switching Jobs: Why Embracing Change is Good for You in the Long Run
There are few things in life that are potentially as stressful as changing jobs. In fact, it is generally agreed upon that there are three such things: Getting married Having a baby Moving Pity the people who have done all three and also did so while changing jobs,...
Engagement and Empowerment in Animal Health and Veterinary Recruiting and Hiring
It may be an understatement to say that successful recruiting, hiring, and retention in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession are challenging right now, especially in the latter. However, there are keys to enjoying success in all of these areas, and...
A Comprehensive Blueprint for Recruiting Veterinarians in 2024
However, before you can successfully hire veterinarians in the new year, you must first successfully recruit them. The recruiting process involves everything up until you make an offer of employment to a job candidate. The job offer is the “moment of truth.” If the...
How to Get a New Veterinarian Job in 2024 to Help Grow Your Veterinary Career
With less than one month left in the year, the job market for veterinarians in 2024 remains highly favorable, and candidates continue to hold significant leverage in most hiring situations. As has been the case in the past, this situation particularly benefits the top...
10 Steps for Maximizing Employee Engagement for Better Retention
Not only is it difficult to recruit and hire in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession right now, but it’s also more difficult to retain valuable employees. However, the good news is that hiring, and retention are “two sides of the same coin.” This means...
How to Answer the Interview Question, ‘Why Should We Hire You?’
The face-to-face interview is one of the most important stages of the recruiting and hiring process. That’s because it represents the opportunity for both the job candidate and the employer to make the best possible impression upon each other. And yes, both the...
The Major Factors That Help Attract Talent and Retain Top Employees
While it has become exceedingly difficult to both attract talent and retain valuable employees during the past couple of years, there is a silver lining in the challenges that face Animal Health and Veterinary employers. That silver lining is that the same factors...
4 Big Mistakes NOT to Make During the Job Interview
Yes, we are currently in the midst of a candidates’ job market in the Veterinary profession. And yes, that means candidates (especially top candidates) have the majority of leverage in hiring situations. However, that does not mean you don’t have to “put your best...
10 Intangible Factors for Achieving Job Interview Success
There are many different factors that are involved in enjoying a successful job interview. Some of these factors involve tangible steps—i.e., researching the organization, reviewing the job description, etc.—while others are more intangible in nature. However, just...
Could We Actually Be Underestimating the Veterinarian Shortage?
Many questions have arisen during the past few years regarding the shortage of veterinarians within the profession, questions such as: What is causing the shortage? How bad will the shortage get? What can we do to combat the shortage? What effect is it having on the...
How to Make a Lasting Impression as a Candidate in the Hiring Process
Yes, job seekers and candidates have the majority of the leverage in hiring situations, and that includes within the Animal Health industry and Veterinary impression. And yes, that is especially the case within the Veterinary profession, specifically in regards to...
How to Make a Lasting Impression as an Employer in the Hiring Process
In the current job market, it’s difficult to attract candidates and convince them to enter your organization’s recruiting and hiring process. Conversely, it’s easy to lose them during the process and watch them drop out of it or disappear altogether for one reason or...
What is Executive Search and When Should You Use It?
Hiring successfully is perhaps more difficult now than at any time in the history of the United States job market. With the National Unemployment Rate recently at a 53-year low, there is certainly evidence to support such a claim. And hiring is even more difficult in...
‘Sowing the Seeds of Success’ in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
You may or may not know who Kevin Bacon is. For those of you who don’t know, Kevin Bacon is an actor and has been one for decades. You might say that he’s been a prolific actor, having starred in quite a few movies, television shows, and series over the years. In...
The Banning of Non-Compete Clauses for Animal Health and Veterinary Employers
In case you haven’t heard yet, non-compete clauses could be a thing of the past in a little more than a month’s time. And if that’s the case, then it could have an impact on employers, including those in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. How did...
How to Practice Self-Love in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
One could say that stress levels within the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession are at an all-time high, especially in the latter. Long hours, unruly customers (pet owners), financial concerns, and mergers and acquisitions represent just a handful of the...
Animal Health and Veterinarian Job Search Tips for 2023
As I’ve stated on multiple occasions during the past year, there is no better time to conduct a job search in the Animal Health industry and the Veterinary profession than right now. There is a shortage of Animal Health professionals and veterinarians and an abundance...
How to Get a New Veterinarian Job in 2023
The job market is good right now for veterinarians, namely because it’s a candidate’s market, one in which candidates hold the leverage in the majority of hiring situations. This especially the case for the best candidates in the market, which is typically defined as...
Gen Z and the Future of Animal Health and Veterinary Hiring
The members of Generation Z are changing the nature of the employment marketplace and the workforce, just as the Millennial Generation did. At the moment, there are more Millennials in the employment marketplace than any other generation. However, Gen Zers are...
How the Recruiter Got Your Name
Perhaps you’ve been contacted by a recruiter and the first thing you asked them was, “How did you get my name?” As an Animal Health executive recruiter and Veterinary Recruiter for more than 25 years, I’ve had a number of people ask me this question. And because there...
Veterinarian Shortage About to Become More Severe: Recent BLS Data
The last few years have been challenging for Veterinary employers, and one of the reasons is that there is a veterinarian shortage in the job market. Demand for Veterinary products and services has continued to rise (driven in part by the pandemic), but there has not...
Veterinary Hiring: What It Takes to Hire Veterinarians in This Job Market
It would be an understatement to say that it takes a great deal to successfully hire veterinarians in this current job market. It would also be an obvious statement, one to which many hiring managers and Veterinary practice owners would agree. However, what...
An Overlooked Key to Greater Career Advancement for Women
During recent years, women have become a bigger part of the Veterinary profession. This trend was substantiated in an article published by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) in December of 2020. According to the article, the size of the nation’s active...
Employers: Why ‘Job Hopping’ is Considered the New Normal
Remember when anyone who didn’t stay at a job for at least five years was considered a “job hopper”? That is no longer the case today. That’s because the job market and employment marketplace has undergone a radical change since those days. It’s been so radical, in...
The #1 Skill That an Animal Health or Veterinary Recruiter Should Possess
Now, more than ever, employers need recruiters and search consultants to help them find and hire the talent they need to stay competitive in the marketplace. This, of course, includes employers in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. But what is the...
If You Don’t Explore Opportunities, Will You Regret it?
I’ve written about opportunity many times, both in The VET Recruiter newsletter and also in blog posts for our website. During my 25 years as a recruiter, I can say that there has always been opportunity in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession....
How Many Veterinary Jobs Will Go Unfilled by the Year 2030?
It would be nearly impossible for me to overemphasize how much opportunity exists for workers in the Veterinary profession right now. There has been opportunity in the profession for the past several years. However, there is more opportunity in the profession right...
10 Tips for Improving Your Luck and Growing Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
The late actress and comedian Lucille Ball was in the news earlier this year when the TV show “Being the Ricardos” aired on Amazon Prime. While I confess that I have yet to see the show, I am a fan of Lucille Ball for many reasons. One of those reasons is what she...
What to Do If You Don’t Love Your Job (and How to Love Your Career)
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, people’s thoughts usually turn to the topics of love and affection. Typically, these thoughts are about another person, but how about your job? Do you love your job? And if you...
Don’t Turn Down an Animal Health or Veterinary Job Before It’s Offered
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® Later this year, I will be starting my 26th year in executive search as an Animal Health and Veterinary recruiter. That means, of course, that I was born 26 years ago. (Just kidding!) During that time, I have a seen a lot,...
How and Why Changing Jobs Helps You Make More Money
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® There have been and unfortunately continue to be misnomers and misunderstandings in the job market about Animal Health and Veterinary recruiters. (Actually, about all recruiters in general, but we’re dealing specifically...
Why Do You Need an Animal Health or Veterinary Recruiter If the Job Market is So Good?
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® You’re probably well aware of the fact that there is a talent shortage in the employment marketplace, one accompanied by a trend known as the “Great Resignation.” Workers have been quitting their jobs in droves—many in...
Doing What’s in Your Best Interests at the Cost of Your Personal Integrity
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® You may have already guessed from the title of this article that I am going to relay a case study regarding something that I recently encountered in the employment marketplace. If so, then you are correct. And in a year...
Don’t Let Your Employer Make You Feel Guilty About Growing Your Career
You may feel as though you are in control of your career, including how you’re going to grow your career. But how much are you really in control? I ask this question because of recent situations that I have seen as an Animal Health recruiter and Veterinary recruiter....
Why HOW You Hire is Just as Important as WHO You Hire
Hiring well and doing so on a consistent basis requires a tremendous amount of time, energy, and effort, and that is especially the case within the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession in this current market. There are many aspects associated with a...
The #1 Factor in the Long-Term Success of Your Organization
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® While it’s true that there are a number of factors that are involved in the success of any company or organization, including within the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession, there is one factor that stands out...
Animal Health and Veterinary Career Advice: Listening Without Getting Defensive
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® On more than one occasion, I’ve referenced the fact that emotional intelligence is a key factor in how much success a person enjoys in their career. The more emotional intelligence you possess, the more successful you will...
Why Higher Wages and Bigger Bonuses are Inevitable in This Market
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® I have broached the subject of making competitive and compelling offers of employment to Animal Health and Veterinary candidates in the past. In fact, I even addressed the topic relatively recently with the article, “If...
The Top Reasons a Company is Not Considered an Employer of Choice
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® In today’s competitive hiring environment—especially in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession—organizations must stand out from the competition. That’s because if you don’t stand out, then you reduce the...
What to Do if You Don’t Get the Animal Health or Veterinary Job You Want
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® At first, when the candidate said these words, I almost didn’t believe what I just heard: “The employer is stupid for not hiring me. I know more than they do!” But that was exactly what the candidate said, which was...
THIS is What Employers Are Looking for in a Candidate
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® Even if you’re not actively seeking a new job or actively looking for another employment opportunity, you might be curious as to whether or not you have what employers want. To an extent, this is human nature, but it’s...
Not Allowing Fear to Dictate Your Career Decisions
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® Fear is a natural emotion that can impact one’s personal life and their professional life. It’s unavoidable in the same way that change and adversity are both unavoidable. As an executive recruiter for more than twenty...
Humility is Not a Weakness in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® I’ve addressed the topic of personal branding numerous times in my articles and blog posts, and with good reason. Personal banding is an important component of a person’s Animal Health or Veterinary career. The experience...
5 Steps for Making Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career More Durable
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® I’ve addressed the topic of resiliency in terms of a person’s Animal Health or Veterinary career on more than one occasion. The reason I’ve done this is because resiliency is an extraordinarily important attribute for...
Are You Negotiating Your Starting Salary . . . Backwards?
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® Many times, the way that you approach a situation dictates what happens in that situation. If you approach the situation correctly, then you can expect a positive outcome, perhaps an even better outcome than you could have...
Why Your New Hires Are Failing (and What You Can Do About It)
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® It’s tough enough to find qualified job candidates in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. Then it’s tough enough to effectively engage them and hire them. So the last thing you want is for your new hire...
5 Costly Interview Mistakes You Might Not Realize You’re Making
By Stacy Pursell, CPC/CERS The VET Recruiter® The interview stage of the hiring process can be tricky, to say the least. You’re trying to make a good impression and brand yourself in the best way possible, but things don’t always go as you’ve planned them. In fact,...
5 Pro Tips for Growing Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career in 2021
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The employment marketplace has changed quite a bit during the last several years. And of course, COVID-19 has helped accelerate these changes since it arrived on the scene last year. I’ve written before about the fact...
What Albert Einstein Can Teach You About Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® You might have read the title of this article and thought, “What could Albert Einstein teach me about my Animal Health or Veterinary career? Didn’t he work in physics?” If that’s the case, then the answer to the second...
The Difference Between an Employment Agency and an Executive Search Firm
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The VET Recruiter is an executive search firm and professional recruitment firm operating in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. The VET Recruiter is not an employment agency. There is a difference. That...
Conveying Your Animal Health or Veterinary Company Culture in a Pandemic
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Last year was filled with more than its fair share of obstacles and challenges, both for professionals and for employers in the employment marketplace. And this includes in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary...
Simple but Highly Effective Animal Health and Veterinary Career Advice
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The best and most effective career advice for growing your Animal Health and Veterinary career is typically the simplest advice. In my experience, that has been the case during my more than 20 years as an Executive Search...
Will My Animal Health or Veterinary Recruiter Keep My Confidentiality?
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® I hope that I caught your attention with the title of this article. That’s because job candidates ask me different versions of the same question quite often. These versions include: “Is this process confidential?” “Are...
Don’t ‘Burn Bridges’ or ‘Close Doors’ on Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® One of the problems in today’s society is the “immediate gratification mindset.” In other words, it has become commonplace for people to place a higher priority on what is short-term gain, as opposed to taking the long...
Don’t Be a ‘Ghost’ When It Comes to Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Even though Halloween is over, and we are in the middle of a pandemic and quite possibly a recession, there is still “ghosting” happening in the employment marketplace, including in the Animal Health industry and...
Control What You CAN Control to Grow Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® On many days, it might appear as if the world is “spinning out of control,” what with the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Presidential election. The good news is that it’s NOT actually “spinning out of control.”...
Is Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career ‘Sitting on the Sidelines’ Due to COVID-19?
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® I do not profess to be a football fan. However, it is football season and there are a few football-related phrases that I know. One of them is contained in the title of this article, and I wanted to use it to address an...
The Normalcy Bias and Your Animal Health Career or Veterinary Career
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The year 2020 has been quite a year. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. So perhaps it makes sense on a couple of different levels to bring up the normalcy bias as it pertains to your Animal Health or Veterinary career....
How Animal Health and Veterinary Professionals Sabotage Opportunities
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The key to growing your Animal Health or Veterinary career is not where you went to school. It’s not how much experience you have or how many employers you’ve worked for. It’s actually much simpler than that. The key to...
The Importance of Resiliency in the Animal Health Industry and Veterinary Profession
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Just recently, I received a phone call from a veteran of the Veterinary profession. This is a veterinarian who had been in the business for quite a while. He had seen a lot during his career, which has spanned multiple...
The COVID-19 Pandemic is NOT a Good Excuse to be Unprofessional
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® A number of trends have resulted from the COVID-19 virus and the pandemic that it created. Virtual interviews, working from home, and even making (and accepting) an offer of employment without actually meeting anyone in...
Why This is a Great Time to Explore Animal Health Jobs and Veterinary Jobs
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® When I think back to before the COVID-19 pandemic began—with the job market having record numbers of employment—I remember that some people when contacted about Animal Health jobs and Veterinary jobs would not be open to...
The Current State of the Veterinary Profession = Plenty of Opportunity
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Much has happened in the employment marketplace overall and in the Veterinary profession specifically since the start of 2020. As recently as just a few months ago, it was a candidate-driven job market. In fact, while the...
Avoiding the ‘Round-About’ in Your Animal Health or Veterinary Career
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® You may have read the title of this blog post and immediately thought to yourself, “What is a ‘round-about’? Is it a card game? A new dance? or like the Merry go Round we played on as kids?” No, it is not a card game or a...
Animal Health and Veterinary Hiring- Offering the job Without Meeting the Candidate
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® If you are an Animal Health company or Veterinary practice and you are looking to hire right now, there is certainly a market for you to do so. Yes, the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing. However, where some...
Ostriches Do NOT Bury their Heads in the Sand . . . and Neither Should You
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® In the current COVID-19 pandemic, interviewing and hiring may not be at the top of your to do list, but it should still be considered a vital and necessary activity. It’s human nature to avoid danger. Actually, it’s not...
Why Hiring from Your Network can Fail for Animal Health and Veterinary Professionals
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® As you may know, I’m a big advocate of networking. I believe that people should continue networking all throughout their career, regardless of the industry or profession in which they work. However, there is a difference...
How to Conduct Top-Notch Animal Health and Veterinary Video Interviews
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The Coronavirus or Covid-19 is affecting the lives of nearly everyone living in the country right now in addition to those living around the world. Its effect has stretched to the employment marketplace and organizations’...
Employer Branding: the Key to Animal Health and Veterinary Hiring
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® There are a number of keys to Animal Health and Veterinary hiring. And when I say hiring, I mean the successful identification, recruiting, and then hiring of top talent in the employment marketplace. (Hiring goes well...
How to Improve Company Culture for Better Animal Health and Veterinary Hiring
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® “Company culture” has become a popular catch-phrase or buzzword during the past several years. The current candidate-driven market has contributed to this evolving trend. The logic is simple: in order to attract, hire,...
The Employee Experience is Critical for Animal Health and Veterinary Talent
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® What you want as an Animal Health and Veterinary employer is simple. You want to hire the top talent in the employment marketplace, and you want that talent to help grow your organization and your business. You also want...
Veterinary Excellence and Our Commitment to Help YOU in the New Year
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® For some professionals, it is customary for them to select a word or theme at the outset of each year. This word is typically one they plan to stress in the New Year in the pursuit of providing more value and growing. And...
What is the Difference Between an Applicant and a Candidate?
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® In a previous article, I answered the question, “Why Are There No Animal Health or Veterinary Applicants for My Job?” In that article, I discussed the low unemployment rate in this country, especially within the...
AVMA Census: Veterinary Profession Facing Greater Personnel Shortages
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® I’ve shared a number of interesting statistics with readers during the past year, and I have more to share in this article. However, I’d like to recap some of the information from previous articles and blog posts. For...
“Why Are There No Animal Health or Veterinary Applicants for My Job?”
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The reason that the title of this article is in quotation marks is because this is a question that I have been asked with regularity lately. (Although I did add the words “Animal Health or Veterinary.” Much of the time,...
The Right Way for Employers to Treat Executive-Level Candidates
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® I’m going to start this article with a bold and true statement: Some Animal Health and Veterinary organizations are losing executive-level candidates because they’re not treating them the right way during the interviewing...
People Want to Do Good Work for Good Organizations Making a Difference
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® The best candidates in the marketplace do not care about money the most. Sure, money and compensation are important. However, for the majority of today’s candidates, that is not their top consideration when they’re...
How to Motivate the Different Generations of Animal Health and Veterinary Employees
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Motivation is an important issue for employers, regardless of the state of the employment marketplace. However, it’s even more critical in a candidate-driven job market like the one that we’re currently experiencing. The...
How an Organization Tells a Candidate to Decline Its Offer of Employment
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Workplace/Workforce expert for the Animal Health Industry and Veterinary Profession You might have read the title of this article and thought to yourself, “What are you talking about? Why would an organization tell a...
The Benefits of Using a Recruiter Instead of Job Board Posting Sites
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® During the course of my career as an Animal Health Executive Search Consultant and Veterinary recruiter, I’ve been asked many of the same questions. These questions often form the basis of my newsletter articles and blog...
The Reasons Why Candidates “Ghost” During the Hiring Process
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® During the past year or so, “ghosting” has become a popular topic in the employment marketplace. Perhaps “popular” isn’t exactly the correct word, though, especially when it comes to employers. That’s because I’m sure...
The Biggest Reference Check Mistakes Employers Can Make
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® I’ve mentioned before in my articles and blog posts that the margin for error for Animal Health and Veterinary employers in this current margin is razor-thin. That’s because we’re in a candidates’ job market where top...
Is it Illegal for Recruiters to Poach Professionals from Employers?
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Last month, I broached the subject of whether it’s illegal and/or unethical for a recruiter to contact professionals while they’re at work. If you read the article, then you know that the answer to that question is an...
What the Unemployment Rate Says About the Employment Marketplace
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Just when you think the job market can’t get any hotter . . . it gets hotter. According to the United States Labor Department, employers added 263,000 new hires during the month of April. At the same time, the...
The #1 Reason Why You Should Interview a Candidate without a Resume
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® There are things that Animal Health employers and Veterinary employers must do in the marketplace right now that might seem counterintuitive at first. One of them is interviewing a candidate who does not have a current...
Collaboration Between Internal and External Recruiters = Better Hiring
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® As an Animal Health recruiter and Veterinary recruiter for more than 20 years, I’ve built some great relationships with hiring managers, HR personnel, internal recruiters and business owners. To that end, I’ve partnered...
Why the Demand for Veterinary Professionals is So Urgent Right Now
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® In a recent newsletter article, I discussed how pet ownership is increasing in the United States. I also touched upon the fact that pet owners are spending more on Veterinary care. In fact, the American Pet Products...
Just Because They’re a Candidate Does NOT Mean They’re Job Hunting
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Some things that I see happen puzzle me in my job as an Animal Health recruiter and Veterinary recruiter. Sometimes, these things are surprising, but sometimes they are not. And the reason they’re not surprising is that I...
Do You Know if Your Employees Are Satisfied With Their Job?
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Let me state the obvious: you can NOT afford to lose the top performers within your Animal Health Company or Veterinary practice. I’m making this obvious statement because the two most important aspects of workforce...
How to Hire More Women in the Animal Health Industry
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Gender equality in the workplace is a huge topic in today’s employment marketplace. In addition, March is a big month for women. For example, March is Women’s History Month. Not only that, but March 8 was also...
Top 10 Mistakes Employers Make When Hiring in This Job Market
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® I’ve addressed the topic of employer hiring mistakes before. I’ve also discussed how the mistakes that Animal Health and Veterinary employers make are magnified because of current market conditions and how the margin for...
How the Hiring Process is Like Dating (and Why It’s Important)
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Perhaps you’ve never heard of this analogy before, although some of you may have heard it. Regardless, the Valentine’s Day holiday this week—and this current candidates’ market—make this an excellent time to discuss it....
Why You Don’t Have to Meet a Great Candidate to Hire a Great Candidate
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® In perhaps what might be the “Understatement of the Year” in 2019, the job market is tight for employers. In fact, the National Unemployment Rate was 3.9% in December. In a job market this tight for employers, one thing...
10 Tips for Building (and Maintaining) Great Employees in 2019
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® If there’s one thing that every Animal Health and Veterinary employer wants to do in 2019, it’s to have a dynamic workforce. At the very least, they want to have a more dynamic and impactful workforce this year than in...
Hiring Strategies and Techniques for More Success in the New Year
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® As an Animal Health employer or Veterinary employer, you want to experience more hiring success in 2019 than you did in 2018. That only makes sense. However, there are challenges aplenty that exist in the current...
How Your Job Application Process Could be Driving Away Top Candidates
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Hiring top talent in this current job market is tough enough. The last thing you want to do is drive away good candidates because of your job application process. Unfortunately, though, that’s exactly what is happening...
THIS is How Much It Costs When You Don’t Hire the Veterinarians (or other professionals) You Need
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® I’ve mentioned before about how costly it is when an employer leaves a position open for too long. In fact, there have been numerous studies conducted and articles and reports written about the topic. However, the...
6 Top Intangible Traits That Make a Good Candidate a Truly Great Hire
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Every Animal Health and Veterinary employer looking to hire wants a candidate that has the right skills and experience. And when I say skills, I’m talking primarily about hard (or technical) skills. However, hard skills...
The Best Tactics for Hiring (and Keeping) Top Talent in This Job Market
by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS The VET Recruiter® Make no mistake about it: there is a competition happening right now. That competition is between Animal Health and Veterinary employers that are looking to hire the best candidates in the employment marketplace. What...
Why “Nickel and Dime Offers” Lose Top Candidates—Every Time
by Stacy Pursell, The VET Recruiter® You’ve probably heard the phrase “All in” before, as in someone saying that they’re “all in” regarding a situation. Well, this phrase is also applicable to hiring top candidates in today’s employment marketplace, including within...
An Employer’s Biggest Challenge: How It Handles People
by Stacy Pursell, The VET Recruiter® Employers in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession face plenty of challenges. They face all of the challenges that every employer faces, and then they face the challenges that are unique to the profession in which...
The Hiring Value That Technology and Social Media Can NOT Duplicate
by Stacy Pursell, The VET Recruiter® The process of finding and hiring candidates has changed quite a bit over the past few decades. After all, the Internet has not always existed. And it’s not just the Internet, either. Perhaps you’re old enough to remember fax...
Why THIS Type of Top Candidate Doesn’t Care About Money
by Stacy Pursell, The VET Recruiter® I’ve written a lot about money lately, specifically salary negotiations between Animal Health and Veterinary Employers and candidates. That’s because in this tight market, salary negotiations have become quite important. However,...
Just HOW Tight is the Marketplace for Talent Right Now?
by Stacy Pursell, The VET Recruiter® If you’re an employer in the Animal Health Industry or Veterinary Profession, you are probably of the opinion that the marketplace is tight when it comes to talent right now. In fact, you probably think this is especially the case...
Failure to Screen Candidates Properly Can Lead to a Bad Hire
by Stacy Pursell, The VET Recruiter® From all indications, more candidates than ever are being dishonest and/or misleading during the hiring process. This includes, but is not limited to, lying on their resume. Just how bad is it? HireRight issued a report last year...
How to Combat No-Show Candidates in This Market
by Stacy Pursell, The VET Recruiter ® I’ve been teaching the same message to employers for the last several years: just because you have a job opening doesn’t mean that qualified candidates are going to come running. In some cases, they don’t even come walking. In...
If You Don’t Invest in Your Employees, Then THIS Will Happen
Stacy Pursell The VET Recruiter ® The Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession are very tight right now in terms of the employment marketplace. What does that mean, exactly? It means that high-quality candidates are difficult to find, and that’s especially the...
The #1 Key to Hiring Top Talent in This Current Market
Stacy Pursell The VET Recruiter ® If someone were to ask you, “What’s the #1 key to hiring top talent in this current market?” you probably would have a litany of answers ready for them. “An attractive salary and benefits package.” “A great company culture.” “A great...
THIS is Just as Important as Why People Quit Their Job
Stacy Pursell The VET Recruiter ® Not hiring the best candidates in the marketplace hurts your organization. There are no two ways about it. However, there’s something that is almost as costly as not hiring the best candidates. That’s hiring the best candidates and...
The Team with the Best Players Usually Wins
Stacy Pursell The VET Recruiter ® Even if you’re a casual sports fan (and I suspect that some of you are more than casual fans), you know the truth of the above headline. It doesn’t matter if your sport of choice is football . . . or basketball . . . or soccer . . ....
How Your Organization’s Core Values Help Determine Hiring Success
Stacy Pursell The VET Recruiter ® Perhaps at no other time in the history of the United States have core values been so important to the hiring success of organizations. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the biggest one is the emergence of the Millennial...
5 Potentially Costly (But Fixable) Interview Mistakes for Employers
Stacy Pursell The VET Recruiter ® I’ve written before about the fact that the margin of error in the current marketplace is small for Animal Health and Veterinary employers. (See “Why Hiring Mistakes Are Magnified Under Current Market Conditions.”) Since I wrote that...
Why and How the Exit Interview Should be Used as a Retention Tool
There are generally two ways that an employee leaves an organization. Either their employer fires or lays them off . . . or they leave of their own accord. When an employee is fired or laid off, there is no exit interview. (After all, company officials already know...
6 Traits of A-Level Candidates (and Great Employees)
Every Animal Health and Veterinary organization wants to hire A-level candidates. They also want to have great employees. As you can imagine, the two go hand-in-hand. If you routinely hire A-level candidates, then you’re likely going to have great employees. But as...
The Simple Question That Shows What a Recruiter Really Does
As an Animal Health Industry Recruiter and Veterinary Recruiter, I talk with people all the time. I talk with job seekers, I talk with candidates, and I talk with hiring managers. I talk with scores of people every day, hundreds of people every week, and thousands...
Want to Hire Top Candidates? Then THIS is How You Should Think
Times have changed. They’ve changed not only in the past 20 years, but they’ve also changed in the past 10 and even five years. In fact, it seems as though times keep changing more rapidly as we go along. As a result, the rules that once applied to the employment...
The Real Reason Recruiters Beat LinkedIn When Filling Critical Positions
I wrote an article recently about the fact that when organizations hire a Veterinary Recruiter or Animal Health Recruiter, what they’re paying for is influence, not just a stack of resumes. However, the value that a good search consultant or recruiter provides extends...
How to Know if a Candidate is Lying on Their Resume
Top talent is in great demand in the marketplace, and the best candidates are not easy to find. While a sense of urgency and a commitment to the process are both crucial to the success of the hiring process, so is being prudent and thorough during that process. Let’s...
What Employers Want: the Movie You Should Know Inside and Out
As many of you well know, real life often serves as the basis for the articles and blog posts that I write. And that is once again the case with this blog post. However, the real-life situation on which it is based doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the...
Why Hiring is More Difficult (and What You Can Do About It)
While hiring is not an exact science, there are general rules that govern the employment marketplace. Those organizations that are not aware of these rules and do not follow them typically do not hire as well as organizations that are aware and that do follow them....
Analyzing a Person’s Underlying Motivation for Taking a New Job
I’ve stated this before in numerous articles and blog posts: nothing happens without desire. In other words, nothing can happen without somebody having the desire to make it happen. I’ve also stated something else before: everything boils down to motivation. People do...
Why It Is Okay to Changes Jobs More Frequently These Days
I’ve written about this topic recently, and the title of this article explains why. The title of another recent article also tells the tale: “It’s Official: Being a ‘Job Hopper’ is GOOD for Your Career!” For quite a while, there was a certain stigma associated with...
Why You Can NOT Keep Rescheduling Interviews with Candidates
Since we are deep within the throes of a candidates’ job market, there are many things that employers can not afford to do. I’ve addressed some of these things within my newsletter articles and blog posts. They include the following: Not communicating enough during...
You’re “Too Big” for the Position? Think Again!
Candidates say and do all sorts of things during the hiring process. Many of those things occur during the face-to-face interview, one of the most crucial phases of the process. Unfortunately, sometimes what is said and done does NOT help the candidate receive an...
6 Ways to Set Your New Star Employee Up for Immediate Success
There is no doubt that identifying, recruiting, and hiring the best candidates in the marketplace is not easy. Even if you’re able to accomplish that, it is no guarantee that those candidates will become immediately successful as employees. Sure, they’re ambitious....