What NOT to do in your veterinary career: Lessons from a vet career coach

About the guest:

Steve Oehley, BVSc was a burnt-out mixed animal veterinarian who through a process of life and career coaching underwent his own transformation from clinical veterinary practice into work that suited his strengths and interests. Since then he has worked in an industry role and now runs Next Step Vet, a career coaching program specifically for veterinarians. The Next Step Vet podcast is a free resource for veterinary professionals. Steve is also starting to support kids and teens in understanding more about themselves and considering career ideas that use their strengths and interests.

Resources:
Episode on YouTube
Next Step Vet Podcast (Apple Podcast, Spotify)
Steve on LinkedIn
Clifton Strengths Assessment

Transcript

Steve Oehley: [00:00:00] The breaking point for me was coming home from work. And my partner said to me, Steve, I don't look forward to you coming home from work. And so that was the day that I realized that something needed to change. 

Megan Sprinkle: Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. I think this episode is a great follow up from last week. Somehow the actor, comedian Ken Joeng is mentioned in both. But today we have Dr. Steve Oehley, a mixed animal veterinarian in New Zealand who has had a couple of different pivotal moments where he discovered that he needed to make some differences in his career. 

Megan Sprinkle: Steve took the time to understand his true strengths and interests and how to find work that allowed him to use those daily. From clinical practice, he went into an industry role, then became a career coach in his Next Step Vet. He also has the Next Step Vet podcast full of resources. We talk about how to overcome imposter syndrome and the power of understanding that you aren't stuck. 

Megan Sprinkle: You have the ability to change your situation, to design a career where you're using your strengths and interests, and live in your values at work. [00:01:00] There are some especially great points if you're considering going into Vet Med and Young Career Veterinarians. So let's get to the conversation with Dr. 

Megan Sprinkle: Steve Oehley. 

Megan Sprinkle: When did you know you wanted to get into veterinary medicine? 

Steve Oehley: Firstly, thanks Megan for having me. 

Steve Oehley: On the podcast. So it's definitely a very good question to ask as my first question, because typically when you talk to a vet. I've known from a young age, I've always wanted to be a vet. My story is a little bit different in that I was told from a young age, I should be a vet. And while I liked animals and was particularly good with animals and had an interest in science and nature and all those things. 

Steve Oehley: For me, the only thing I ever wanted to be was a professional sports player. As a kid growing up, and so I only really started to seriously consider what I wanted to do for university and what I wanted to do for a [00:02:00] career when I got to about 17 or 18 and I was forced to make a choice. So I went and saw a career advisor and he looked at my strengths in science, my academic ability and the fact that I like nature and animals and vet was one of the choices that he recommended alongside marine biology and oceanography and a couple of more sort of, I guess, nature orientated courses, but inevitably, when you've been told your whole life that you should be a vet and one of the options is presented for you is to be a vet, you inevitably end up going and studying veterinary science. 

Steve Oehley: And I'm sure we'll go into more detail about how that went for me, but yeah, that's, that's essentially how I got there. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Well, I want to start, what sport did you play or sports did you play? 

Steve Oehley: So in New Zealand, the two most common sports is rugby in winter and, cricket in summer. 

Steve Oehley: Um, and those are the sports [00:03:00] that my South African parents really liked as well. Um, I also really liked tennis. And so, growing up as a kid with a strong imagination, I always pictured myself being a professional, either tennis player or rugby player or cricketer. 

Megan Sprinkle: Nice, nice. Also, you mentioned you're from New Zealand and most people can probably tell by your accent as well. Do you mind sharing a little bit about how the vet school works in New Zealand? 

Megan Sprinkle: Because kind of depending on the country, sometimes it's different when it comes to years of like undergrad college versus vet school. , how does that look in New Zealand? 

Steve Oehley: Sure. So, yeah, when I heard about the American system, it sort of blew me away how long Americans spend in university or college. so we don't have an undergraduate sort of thing where you do, to my understanding, you guys do sort of like a random array of topics and subjects before you then pick the thing that you're going to do. 

Steve Oehley: Uh, we just go straight [00:04:00] into veterinary school. I have a six month semester. Where you have to get into veterinary school, but then from there, the entire program is five years. 

Megan Sprinkle: And I think that's important for where we'll talk about later about, the decision of what your career could look like in that high school age So you went into vet school. Now, once you got to vet school, how was that experience for you? And I also like, do you, can you choose like the type of animal you're going to work with? Did you know, or like that, did that change through the five years? How did that go as well? 

Steve Oehley: so I think an important caveat for this in terms of like the career choice and everything is that we've got to remember that most. People's brains are not fully formed until their late twenties. And so as a teenager and in your early twenties, you're not necessarily looking at things like I would be now as a 34 year [00:05:00] old, where I actually really objectively measure, you know, is this something that I'm good at? 

Steve Oehley: is this something that I can see myself doing for a long period of time? is it something that we can add value to the world? But also get paid to do it. when I was that age, I was a very immature teenager and in my early twenties, and I went to university as a kid who was academically quite good. 

Steve Oehley: So I got the grades to get into vet school and I had to study quite hard. I wasn't one of those people that had a photographic memory and didn't do any work. I actually had to study. But I always, I was interested in science and did genuinely. For the most part, enjoy vet school. I do remember about halfway through the program. 

Steve Oehley: so to answer your question about, you know, choosing paths and stuff for four years, our degree is exactly the same for everybody. Although in fourth year, you do get a little bit of choices of stuff you can do. And then in fifth year, you actually choose a track. So you can choose [00:06:00] equine or small animals or mixed or production animals. 

Steve Oehley: But most people do a very similar program. Within maybe 10 or 12 weeks, where you go and do placement in equine or smallies or, or whatever that is. So we all end up with the same degree and with the idea that I could go and practice working with horses, or I could go and practice working with small animals or with production animals that people generally make a choice before then for me personally, I was mostly interested in enjoying myself at university, having a good time, going to lots of parties and, making sure that I got the grades to pass. 

Steve Oehley: And so then when it came to sort of late fourth year, when I had to make a choice in terms of path, I chose mixed track because to be completely honest, I wasn't really sure which way I wanted to go. I knew I didn't want to do equine, but it wasn't, again, I wasn't that kid that had wanted to be a vet since they were five years [00:07:00] old and knew that I wanted to be a farm animal vet or knew that I wanted to be, you know, working with pets. 

Steve Oehley: So I just kind of did what I needed to do to get my degree and then experienced the real world and got a huge wake up call when I actually became a vet. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Now your classmates that you were going through vet school with, did you have a lot of them who had been one of those that had wanted to be a veterinarian forever? 

Megan Sprinkle: Or how did you kind of see your classmates? Yes. Take an experience vet school and kind of making decisions through that time. 

Steve Oehley: It's interesting because, , yeah, definitely in my class, there were definitely people that had wanted to be a vet since they were five years old. amongst my close group of friends, I didn't actually know this at the time because no one wanted to admit that they were that person. 

Steve Oehley: But when we later became qualified vets and some of us. weren't necessarily felt like we were cut out [00:08:00] to be clinical vets long term. We sort of reflected back and said, you know, I had friends of mine saying the exact same things that I'm saying to you, which is I was 17 and I didn't really know what I wanted to do. 

Steve Oehley: And some people said, Oh, you're good at science and you're good with animals. Become a vet. and so I think there's this narrative around the idea that. Everyone who becomes a vet has wanted to be a vet since they were five years old. It's been their dream since they were young, but there's actually a lot of people who perhaps more interestingly are quite good at science, are quite academically strong, maybe have pushy parents that had this idea for them and end up becoming vets as a result of that. 

Steve Oehley: And I don't think this is a issue that's. unique to the veterinary industry. I think, you know, think of the most typical one is the pushy immigrant family or pushy immigrant parents and that then encourage their eldest child to become a doctor because they see that [00:09:00] as a success. And then inevitably you end up with someone who's. 

Steve Oehley: In the early thirties, extremely stressed out and maybe not cut out for a profession, but then so heavily invested in that profession because I've accumulated a huge amount of debt and are now getting paid quite well to, to be a doctor. and the most famous example I can think of someone who wasn't cut out to be a doctor is Ken Jeong, who landed the role in the hangover at the age of 38 and quit medicine very soon after that. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yes. And I don't always know if it's like, they're not cut out to be, but you know, it is, it's like you took on someone else's vision for you, instead of being able to sit down and think about what. 

Megan Sprinkle: You not only that you're talented or good at, but also that you're actually interested in doing. And, uh, we don't always know what the future will bring, but you know, to your best understanding, think about what [00:10:00] is something that YOU personally have a interest in pursuing and having time to be curious, to explore those things. 

Megan Sprinkle: And I think you're right. The human doctors are probably one of the big ones that comes to mind, but I'm sure engineers and all, or other different industries have, People that have experienced the same thing. So all really, really important. So let's go back to your story and you know, you're not quite sure what you want to do. 

Megan Sprinkle: You've tracked into mixed animal practice and you get out in 2013 and work as a rural veterinarian working with lots of different things that I was still looking and dairy, deer, sheep, beef, horses, small animal, pretty much everything. So, I mean, I think even if you did want to be a veterinarian from when you were five, that transition into, clinical practice is quite shocking sometimes. 

Megan Sprinkle: So what [00:11:00] were you experiencing and feeling at that time? 

Steve Oehley: Yeah. So, um, before I sort of tell you my story, I wanted to, first emphasize that this is not, um, You know, to say that people shouldn't become vets or, vet is not a great industry that I'm sharing that my experience with being a young bit. 

Steve Oehley: And I often reflect on, you know, if I'd been given different career advice, maybe I would have gone, I probably would have ended up in a different path if I'd had better career advice. But I also reflect on whether becoming a vet was a bad choice for me. And I genuinely think and I'm grateful for becoming a vet, because it's given me an awesome experience. 

Steve Oehley: But to answer your question in terms of my experience as a young vet, uh, the shortest version of the answer is that it was terrible. I was Very much out of my depth, and it was essentially more a [00:12:00] case of an immature young man that hadn't taken their studies that seriously, like I did what I needed to do to pass, but hadn't really been considering what the end result of my study was going to be and taking my practical. 

Steve Oehley: Classes and stuff. Seriously enough. So I came out of, uni with, you know, five years of having a good time with mates, like just had had the time of my life with lots of like minded people. And then I'm thrown into this isolated rural town. And as you say, having to do all these different things that come with being a vet, and what I've discovered in the career research since is that, um, if you want a rewarding career, you cannot be the jack of all trades, but more specifically in this scenario. 

Steve Oehley: I was just out of my depth in almost every scenario of being a vet. and so the first six months was a really steep learning curve. And I would say it was only about 18 months or two, even [00:13:00] maybe two years into the role that I really started finding my feet and started enjoying the job. and I actually look back on that time now as, one of the most rewarding periods of my career because it took a lot of resilience to be able to survive that first year of clinical practice. 

Steve Oehley: I learned lots, you know, being a mixed animal vet is actually a really varied career. You're dealing with farmers, you're dealing with, urban people, you're dealing with like, A complex herd health situation or an individual medical case surgery, you know, everything in between. So it does give you like a broad exposure into different types of work. 

Steve Oehley: Um, but yeah, definitely that first six months or a year was extremely hard. Um, and I actually remember, sitting down with my direct boss and then the director of the company when I was maybe a year or so into the role and them essentially telling me what I [00:14:00] already suspected, which was that I wasn't doing a very good job. 

Steve Oehley: and that, you know, massively added to my imposter syndrome and added to me feeling like I didn't belong there. But, the good news from that story is that I did push through and I got to a stage, two or three years out that I was actually, had actually become quite a competent vet and started to. 

Steve Oehley: Find the role and find the the profession rewarding and definitely if I look back on the first five years of my career as a vet, despite the initial struggles, I would say that. I found being a mixed and large animal vet, a relatively rewarding early career 

Megan Sprinkle: for either people going through vet school or young vets who are maybe feeling similarly to the imposter syndrome and having moments of really struggling to get certain things to. 

Megan Sprinkle: Probably them, everyone around them seems to be doing just fine. What helped you get to that point from that time when [00:15:00] you had your boss and you're probably boss's boss sit down with you and have this hard conversation. What did you do? Did anyone help you? Like, how did you finally get to the point where you were starting to feel like, okay, I feel like I, Know what I'm doing a little bit more. 

Steve Oehley: But firstly, what I want to say, Megan, is that, um, in your first six months as a vet, as a qualified vet, if you're feeling like an imposter, it's because you are, because in your first six months, you are going to be a little bit out of your depth and you are the junior face in the business. And you haven't had that like regular interactions with the clients and develop that confidence. 

Steve Oehley: And. To answer your question, I didn't go out of that meeting with my bosses and think I'm going to do anything differently. I just kept plodding along, kept working, kept turning up and inevitably, what starts to help kind of dampen the imposter syndrome that's [00:16:00] always there in the back of our minds is practice. 

Steve Oehley: I mean, we know from the research that confidence. Isn't some magical thing that, you know, some elixir that you drink or someone's luckily born with it, confidence comes with practice. And so, you know, if you're a young vet and you're feeling a bit of imposter syndrome, just think about yourself in five years time, the vet that's done hundreds of surgeries, the vet that's talked to thousands of clients, the vet who's been in the job for literally years. 

Steve Oehley: That is what dampens the imposter syndrome. That's what builds your confidence is time and practice. there is some other stuff to this. The one thing I hadn't mentioned is, um, despite that, challenging conversation, I was in a workplace that was a pretty supportive environment. And I think if you are in a environment where you're not being [00:17:00] supported, and you've been completely thrown in the deep end with no support whatsoever, that can potentially lead to sort of what, uh, a sports commentator said the other day is scar tissue, which is that you have like a really bad experience where you weren't supported and then so then you develop a potential sort of like, there's a certain procedure that you don't want to do because you had a bad experience and you weren't supported through that. So it is really important to, to get yourself into environments where you are supported. Um, but that's a two way street. It's not just, it doesn't just come from the clinic. 

Steve Oehley: It comes from you being an open minded person, you taking advice from other people. As a career coach for vets, I've talked to. Literally hundreds of vets on the phone about their situation. and I'll hear people that tell me that, you know, they've been to three, four, five workplaces where the culture has been bad. 

Steve Oehley: And I have to be honest with you. If you start hearing someone's been, in [00:18:00] three consecutive workplaces or more where the environment's been bad, it starts to make you wonder how that person might be contributing to the bad environment because you're 50 percent of every relationship, whether you like it or not. 

Steve Oehley: And so if you're open minded, if you're kind, if you're asking for help, asking for feedback. That's going to help create that supportive environment. 

Megan Sprinkle: I think that's very wise and it's hard to hear. So it's better if we know how to , ask ourselves that question. So I myself have sat down with myself when I was having issues at work and asked, is there something that I'm doing to contribute to this? 

Megan Sprinkle: And it is. Like I said, it's not something that's easy to hear. I think it's a little bit easier if you're asking yourself, because maybe you get a little less defensive if somebody else is saying, well, maybe it's [00:19:00] you, but it's important. I think that we do have a lot of control. probably more so than a lot of people think, and it's important to ask. 

Megan Sprinkle: It's like, this is the situation for some reason I'm really not having fun here. What's going on? What am I doing? Is there something that I could be doing different to help? And I want people to see that as empowering, because that means that you do have some control of making your environment better or making those choices that is going to Put you in a better place than you're currently feeling. 

Megan Sprinkle: And some of it is mindset. and again, very hard to wrap your head around sometimes because you're very sciencey and it's like, what's the physical thing that I can do to solve a problem? But, uh, yeah, so very good point. some people probably went "ouch", but 

Steve Oehley: I think that, I think the other thing that I want to say here is that, in my experience, some of those people [00:20:00] that are potentially in a situation where, you know, workplace after workplace, they're. 

Steve Oehley: Experiencing bad environments. Often the natural defensive thing is you don't want to look inward and say, Oh, maybe I'm part of the problem because that feels quite bad. But, you've really got two choices here. As the one choice is you choose to ignore it and say, everyone else is the problem and I'm perfect, or at least I'm not even going to look at myself. 

Steve Oehley: And I can guarantee you you're setting yourself up for a very long and miserable career. Because if you're going to have workplace after workplace where the environment is bad and you're not willing to reflect on how you're contributing to that, it's definitely going to lead to a miserable career. The second choice is to take a concrete poll and which is essentially to say hard enough and to actually look, inward at yourself and it's an uncomfortable conversation with yourself, [00:21:00] but if you begin to reflect on what part you may be playing, it's going to lead to a happier career. 

Steve Oehley: And I've actually I was actually coaching a vet recently. who said that she had had previous bad experiences, and it was only thanks to the self reflection and the self awareness work that she started to see. Actually, I am contributing to These relationships and as a result, she has actually turned her own career around where she's now considered someone that's conscientious and thoughtful of others. 

Steve Oehley: And then, of course, inevitably, your environment ends up improving when you're doing your bit. Like, think about, if you think about the nicest person that you've ever worked with, the person that, when they walk into the building, they've got a smile on their face, they make people laugh, they're very generous with their time. 

Steve Oehley: I don't imagine that there's a workplace. where they're going to extremely suffer because people want to have them around. And so that's just an [00:22:00] example of how you can choose to be the person that creates an environment where you want to be around, because if you're a positive impact in that environment, you are actually being the change that you wish to see in the world. 

Megan Sprinkle: And it's a lot easier place to start because you can definitely control yourself. You can't always control other people and maybe just drop the idea that that's with all human relationships, even at home. So if you're having issues, maybe think about how you're contributing to those issues too. But yeah, you're, you're right. 

Megan Sprinkle: And, and you make a good point. It's going to set you up for a really miserable career because you're just going to take that everywhere you go. Whether you completely change from clinical to industry or if you leave Vet Med altogether, it's just going to follow you if you're not willing to look at those things and see how, how can I personally develop myself to. 

Steve Oehley: [00:23:00] Yeah. 

Megan Sprinkle: So back to you and your job, you, you actually stayed with that company for several years, and continued to work with mixed animal practice, but how does your, your story go with, being the clinical veterinarian and eventually maybe self reflection and, and deciding what is supposed to be my next step. 

Megan Sprinkle: Was there a moment that kind of hit the wall kind of moment where you're realizing, Maybe I need to do something different. What was that for you? 

Steve Oehley: Yeah. So I actually had to hit the wall moment. So, to give a very, I guess, brief summary of, how my career got to this stage. So I had five years in New Zealand as a mostly large animal vet, but doing a bit of small animals in between, and reflecting back on those five years, it was definitely more positives than negatives. 

Steve Oehley: Enjoyable experience working with great people. I think that's one of the things with the vet industry is that generally people do tend to be quite caring and nice individuals. And so, [00:24:00] you know, five years in the New Zealand industry had a pretty good time. And then we decided to move to the United Kingdom to do what a lot of New Zealand vets do, which is to do 

Steve Oehley: what we call an OE or an overseas experience, and typically people go to the UK, they work over there because it's easy to find work and then use that as a base to travel Europe. in my case, the original plan had been to go and to do short term locumstance and various places near London, but an opportunity presented itself. 

Steve Oehley: And in my mind to advance my career where I was offered a leadership position at a large animal clinic in Northern Ireland, and while it sounds great on the surface, the reality of the job was a lot different. So So for a bit of context, I've never been a particularly strong surgeon, I can do surgery, but I'm not particularly efficient at it. 

Steve Oehley: It's definitely not a strength of mine. And I think strengths is a really important message that I [00:25:00] want to convey in this interview is that, if you're working to your strengths, the research indicates that you are more likely to be happy and successful in your role. And the opposite of that, of course, is if you're not working to your strengths 

Steve Oehley: you're more likely to be miserable and to not be successful in your role. So I went into a role unwittingly knowing that the surgical caseload was high. The new graduate had done more surgeries in this large animal space than I had. because basically in the UK, it's a lot more sort of ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, a lot more surgery, whereas in New Zealand, we're a lot more preventative, we don't actually do a lot of surgery in large animals. 

Steve Oehley: So I went into a role with a surgical caseload was high. And as I said before, the new grad had done more gut surgeries than I had and in a sink or swim environment, I drowned. So I was underqualified for the role completely out of my depth and. extremely unhappy [00:26:00] and I ended up leaving that role, but at that stage in my life, I wasn't self reflective enough to be like, I need a big change. 

Steve Oehley: Um, and so I spent the rest of my time in the UK, just doing short stints here and there. That was fine. Did a bit of travel, came back to New Zealand and we decided to move to a beach town in New Zealand called Papamoa and I took up a job at a corporate small animal clinic. Now, bearing in mind before this, the only small animals I'd done was a little bit of small animals in New Zealand, plus some locum work in the UK. 

Steve Oehley: And it was fine on, in short stints. But when I came to New Zealand to this corporate job, I found, I found myself in a role where I was doing 30 consults a day, with quite draining high demanding clients, um, and inevitably when you're doing sort of 30 consults a day with draining clients. Day after day, week after week, you end up burning out. 

Steve Oehley: And of course this [00:27:00] impacted my personal life. and I knew I'd been grumpy at home, but the sort of like the, the breaking point for me was coming home from work and my partner said to me, Steve, I don't look forward to you coming home from work. And so that was the day that I realized. It's something needed to change. 

Steve Oehley: So I sought out a life coach. I got life coaching for a year, got some career advice as well from a trained professional. And in doing this work, I identified my strengths in communication and relationship building, leading me to a role. , an industry role for, , a company called VIRBAC. 

Steve Oehley: So I was doing a marketing and technical advice role for VIRBAC and I finally found a job where I could be my best self at work, was actually really good at what I did. and like making an impact. and so this was really the [00:28:00] turning point in my career, but it was also a light bulb moment, not just for my career, but to say like, you know, I've had this experience where I've, Gone down this path almost by accident, you know, my parents thought I should be a vet, I should be a clinical vet. 

Steve Oehley: And as I said before, you know, I look back on my years of being a clinical vet mostly in a positive light. Um, but for me personally, you know, there's lots of vets out there and I'm sure there's some vets listening to this podcast if they're being really honest with themselves. Clinical vet is not their long term thing. 

Steve Oehley: you know, I want to use the example of builders. Now we don't look at a 22 year old builder and expect every single builder to still be on the tools in 30 years, but yet in the vet industry, it's this sort of like unwritten rule that the only real vet is a clinical vet. 

Steve Oehley: But actually there's so many ways you as a vet can contribute to the veterinary industry and to the world. [00:29:00] And for you as an individual, it's about identifying your unique combination of strengths and interests and seeing where you can best add value to the world, as opposed to worrying about other people's expectations and just being a clinical vet because that's what was expected of you when you were in your twenties. 

Steve Oehley: You know, for some people, and I know lots of people, lots of vets that I do talk to that are very happy being clinical vets, and I, I still work as an emergency vet, part time, and I do genuinely enjoy emergency work as a, you know, not my full income, but as part of my job, and I work with some people there that really do love their job, and I, I've worked with lots of vets who love their job, but there are also lots of vets I come across that, are extremely unhappy, And, being honest, a lot of people that aren't happy, but do nothing about it and just let the years go by and live another year of regrets, not trying to do anything [00:30:00] different with their lives. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. And I'm sure there's a lot of reasons for that. Some of it could be feelings of shame, feeling of the sunk cost fallacy where I've put all this time and effort into something. By George, I'm going to do it whether I like it or not or also 

Steve Oehley: before you continue on, Megan, I do want to go more into the sunk cost fallacy because there is a particular frustration of mine is, if for those who don't know what the sunk cost fallacy is, it's this idea that, I mean, how would you explain it, Megan? 

Megan Sprinkle: It's the idea of, kind of like what I said, that I, I've spent so much time, effort, money, fill in the blank to be doing this, that despite me not being happy or even contemplating like, Oh, wow, maybe there's something different. You choose not to, because to you, it would be a waste to [00:31:00] leave all of that time, effort, 

Megan Sprinkle: so. You feel like it was worth it. but as we know, that's not really a good key to being happy going forward. It's, it's understanding to ask yourself, yeah, you did that. And, and like you said, I learned so much during those years and it's gotten me to this place. All the things that I have learned can help me go to the next step, which may look really different or especially different than I thought, such and such a years ago. 

Megan Sprinkle: So, yeah, it's, uh, it's hard because I, it's something very human that we do a lot and, uh, it is hard to get over. 

Steve Oehley: Yeah, and I think we've got to dispel this myth that, the only real vet is, being a clinical vet, because there's so many ways we can add value to the vet profession, and some of the most influential figures in the vet [00:32:00] profession do not practice as a clinical vet, you know, they most likely did do time. 

Steve Oehley: working in clinical practice. And I think it is important to get that experience and actually, be on the ground. But there are ways that as a leader, you can add value to the vet profession without necessarily being a clinical vet. for example, um, someone who invents the, uh, one of those, um, CRM, you know, one of those computer programs, that, speeds up the workflow for vets. 

Steve Oehley: they might add more value to the vet profession than any clinical vet, because, if it's taking five minutes of note writing for every single vet in the world, you're essentially, taking 5 percent of vet jobs away or clinical vet jobs away, so that they don't need to be done by a vet, and it's, you know, that, that time saves Um, 

Megan Sprinkle: yeah, the impact can [00:33:00] be huge and things outside of the clinic, too. 

Megan Sprinkle: So, again, it's really understanding what you're most passionate about. And the third thing I was going to say about, why people may stay in a place, even though they're unhappy, is that, that they have put an identity, their identity on something that either them or someone else has envisioned. 

Megan Sprinkle: And, Previously, and instead of attaching the identity to something more like a value, meaning like hardworking, that's a value. but you can be hardworking in a lot of different ways and the example of, you know, having impact being a veterinary professional. And really contributing. I mean, we have episodes all over Vet Life Reimagined showing that, but one that, for some reason always comes to my mind as a veterinarian who went into informatics, this was not even a word in my [00:34:00] vocabulary until I met this individual. 

Megan Sprinkle: And it's really working with computers and data to help with efficiency and helping, , really understands like what is the most likely. Differential for a patient and they can do that by looking at data. And that's exactly what he said is he went from clinical vet, which he did have fun and it was rewarding, but he says, I now feel like I have more of an impact. 

Megan Sprinkle: I help more pets doing what I do here. And I, I love it. I'm thriving , and not that. Again, you, you are having an impact as a clinical veterinarian, but it's pairing up again, your personal values where you're thriving and enjoying, working. And we're spending a lot of our life at work, so you might as well enjoy it. 

Megan Sprinkle: I really want people to enjoy their life and, also be a big part of animal health in whatever way their interests and their gifts kind of align to do that. I really want to empower [00:35:00] people to do that. 

Steve Oehley: And I want to make the comment about, the identity of, of being a vet. And I know that there's a lot of people here listening who probably do identify as a vet. 

Steve Oehley: I want to say, when you really think about it, nobody is a vet. We're all human beings. We have families, we have friends, we have hobbies, we have, you know, other stuff we do like exercise and sleep and there's a part of our lives where we contribute to society and absolutely be proud to be a vet in your working hours, but I think it's just a really unhealthy thing to consider yourself a vet and we look at like a lot of other professions, I'm just thinking of some like random ones off the top of my head. 

Steve Oehley: Like, you know, when I was working in my corporate job, there was a guy there who was the national sales manager, and I'm pretty confident that he didn't go around thinking to himself, I'm a national sales manager. National sales [00:36:00] manager is my job title. 

Steve Oehley: , and again, you can be proud to be a vet, But it's just a dangerous notion to tie your identity with being a vet because it's all well and good when things are going well, but then if you find yourself in a situation, even if you're in the job of your dreams right now, in 10 years time, you could be really bored and really actually need a change, but you're so heavily invested in being a vet because you've tied it to your identity, and that's where it makes it extremely hard to change is if you tie your profession to your identity, And the point of this isn't to say like, again, the point of my conversation isn't to say whether or not you should or should not be a vet. 

Steve Oehley: Um, you could be happy being a vet for the next 30 or 40 years, but, it's just not a good idea to be tying yourself who you are to a profession. 

Megan Sprinkle: Someone once very wisely told the [00:37:00] story about when she took over a veterinary practice from an older veterinarian who actually, he was a beloved veterinarian in this town. 

Megan Sprinkle: everyone loved him. So it was actually really hard for her to come in because everybody was like, no, I want Dr. So and so. They just loved him so much. And he ended up retiring and passing away. And. What she said was that, a lot of people still were very sad and would ask for him when they first came in. 

Megan Sprinkle: But after about six months, people stopped. Because she was their vet now. And so, it's kind of a depressing story. But that was the, that was the job. It was a job and yes, people probably still remember him for being kind or whatnot, but it's still like they eventually move on. They need a vet, so they'll take the next person who's coming and putting forth effort to be their vet. 

Megan Sprinkle: So 

Steve Oehley: I'm glad that you [00:38:00] shared that story because what they actually loved, what the clients actually loved wasn't the fact that he was a vet. Because anyone with a vet degree can be a vet, but what they loved is probably his personal qualities, the fact that he probably was kind, that he was nice, maybe had a good sense of humor, maybe he was just very empathetic, maybe had a, like, really good particular way with the animals. 

Steve Oehley: Those are all his human qualities that actually have nothing to do with being a vet. they might make you good at being a vet. They are his human qualities. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yep, that he could take anywhere else. And they'd also be very appreciated. And so I wanted to go back just a little bit. When you said you, you got the coach, the life coach and career coach, and they helped you understand what your strengths were. 

Megan Sprinkle: And these are the same things that you also help people [00:39:00] do today. what did you do to kind of get to that? Cause that was the first time you actually mentioned your natural skill or interest in the human connection. I guess people forgot to maybe sit and ask you some of these questions before and just kind of said, Ah, you get good grades in science. 

Megan Sprinkle: You like animals. Here. Do this. I'm sure you're getting a little bit deeper. So what kind of questions do you go through? What kind of activities do you do to try to get more down to maybe a deeper why? Or, some other qualities like we were talking about empathy or good sense of humor that you were able to better understand, you know, some decisions after that. 

Steve Oehley: Yeah. So I think the, the key, part here firstly is, if you look at all the career, um, advice from like the top resources around the same thing comes back over and over again, which is self awareness. [00:40:00] and self awareness is not something that I can answer and, you know, the, probably the 10 minutes we've got left in this podcast, but, , essentially it's understanding yourself. 

Steve Oehley: Um, and some things are easy to do, like doing a strength assessment, but there's other work like daily reflection and daily journaling, meditating, and other things that you can do that really do take time. And if you're serious about investing in yourself, it's about. Developing these things over time journaling is not typically something people find rewarding on day one, but after you've been journaling for a few months, you'll start to notice. 

Steve Oehley: It does make an impact on your life, but particular to your question about strengths. what I encourage my clients to do is do the Clifton strength assessment, which is a research based, assessment, which Basically highlights strengths that are common to all people and will list your top five strengths as they apply to you. 

Steve Oehley: So, when I did my strengths assessment, it came out as number one being futuristic, which is [00:41:00] the ability to see future possibilities. this is one of the reasons is I've ended up in the coaching space, is because I am very good at seeing future possibilities for people in their careers. 

Steve Oehley: Number two for me was strategic. So that's the ability to strategically think about how you're going to get from here to that future possibility. Number three for me is communication. Number four was ideation. So they're a strong ability to come up with ideas. And number five was input, which is their word for resourcefulness. 

Steve Oehley: And the reason that I share my top five strengths is not because I expect you to care about my strengths, but more that when I got these results, I saw myself from a perspective. I'd never seen before. I knew I was good at communication. I knew I was good at strategic thinking, kind of knew I was good at like thinking of ideas, but I'd never really Understood futuristic as a talent and a [00:42:00] strength. 

Steve Oehley: and that forced me to really rethink myself and rethink where I would be best suited to work. And that's really just scratching the surface of how you can use strengths. , and with clients that I work with, it's then about taking those strengths and seeing what other common themes within those top five strengths in terms of potential job ideas and career ideas. 

Steve Oehley: so you can see where you can best add value within clinical practice or outside of clinical practice is to take your top five strengths and figure out what are the common themes coming through here? What is, you know, when I did mine, it was like, marketing, sales, coaching, journalism. and so when you combine a few of those, I started doing a podcast, I did an online coaching program. 

Steve Oehley: Oh, that was the other one was entrepreneurship as well. So, you know, started my own business and now I, coach other people in their careers and really do use most of my strengths on a daily basis. [00:43:00] 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, we do share one of the top five, but I also have very different top five. But we also share a lot of commonalities. 

Megan Sprinkle: We both like entrepreneurship. We both like helping people see the possibilities. So I think another thing just to add is while these assessments can be really helpful,, I think you can take these strengths and still use them in a lot of different ways. 

Megan Sprinkle: So I just want to acknowledge that, you know, having coaches, having mentors is still a huge part of one, having a support network because change is hard and having people around you to support you through those changes or those, hard questions to ask yourself, I think is really helpful. And. You with those strengths, you still may not know all the possibilities that could come, in applying them. 

Megan Sprinkle: So I am glad that you had coaches. I'm glad that you are supporting other people in going through these [00:44:00] activities. and now you're, you're adding to your different, ways of giving back . So you're going to help kids now understand career possibilities. 

Megan Sprinkle: And I love that this can kind of come full circle because I, even in the United States, when we have these undergrad degrees and. We like to tease poor undergrads that they're have an undeclared major and they're just trying to find themselves or, or, or whatnot. It, I mean, you're young, you don't, how do you know what you want to do for the rest of your life? 

Megan Sprinkle: So we ask a lot of them not to mention putting pressure on kids, even younger , than that, like high school and in, in your situation, they kind of have to make a decision at high school, you know, a longterm track. And so being able to have someone come in and be able to understand their strengths and, and opportunities from an early age, I think is really important. 

Steve Oehley: I still, offer like next step vet coaching to veterinary [00:45:00] professionals. It's just that, I have sort of taken my focus more towards, , school kids. As that is like something that, , I guess it's more in demand at the moment, um, and the vet coaching space is very much still quite a new thing for people and, and it's taking a lot of time and a lot of energy to, to convince people that it's something maybe that they, they could benefit from. 

Steve Oehley: So. , if someone is still wanting help in their careers, , they can go to nextstepvet. com. and I can share how I can help them. but my focus is actually, moving a little bit , to younger people and giving them a bit of early guidance, in an area that is, You know, something that people are prepared to pay for. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yes. And you also have parents who might be interested in, in helping their kids. Cause while there are some that probably have visions for their kids, there's also some who really want their kids to be happy and they don't always know how to support their kids and, and [00:46:00] exploring, you know, how to, Get experiences in these things. 

Megan Sprinkle: I've had a dad once he found out I was a veterinarian and, and he's like, my daughter, she's like seven or whatnot. And she said she wants to be a veterinarian and well, how can I help her? How do I support her? I don't know what to do. And so, you know, just being able to, kids who do have very unique. 

Megan Sprinkle: Dreams that are very different from what their parents may do or have ability to support them is really helpful to have, support for them, whether they do have an idea or they have no clue, having adults that believe in them and can support them is is really huge. So it's very exciting. 

Steve Oehley: Yeah, I think that the other thing that I'd want to say there is that to tie it back to vet is for those people listening where they'd think, you know what? maybe actually becoming a vet wasn't the right choice for me. Maybe I wasn't suited to being a vet. [00:47:00] I just want you to look at your career and think Not to see studying vet and becoming a vet and doing this challenging and varied profession as a waste of time, or, you know, I'm so down about my situation because it hasn't worked out the way that I wanted. 

Steve Oehley: as you've probably figured out from listening to this, I might have been better suited to going into journalism or, or something else completely different. But I do not regret. Becoming a vet because I've met some awesome, amazing people. It's an awesome profession and in so many ways, and it has challenged me in ways that a lot of other professions wouldn't have. 

Steve Oehley: I think I've developed resilience. I wouldn't have developed being in a cushy office job. I've learned lots about Understanding people, you know, when you're communicating with a farmer in the morning and then communicating with someone in [00:48:00] high heels in the afternoon, you have to learn to sort of adapt to those different conversations and communicate in a way that they both understand. 

Steve Oehley: And there's just so many aspects to being a vet that. Does teach you about life and so I would just say that if you are considering something different for yourself Don't see being a bit as a waste of time or a terrible choice or whatever I would actually look back at it with positivity in terms of what? 

Steve Oehley: This career has given me and there's just so many skills that I now taking into my career development business like resilience and not getting , down if, if one week things aren't going to plan, communicating to a wide range of people, communicating complex ideas in a simple way. All of these things are things that I've learned as a result of being a vet. 

Steve Oehley: and yeah, I definitely look back on my vet career. It's a good thing and I still want to contribute to the vet industry in some shape or form. it is a good profession and I know we do have our [00:49:00] challenges and you know, there are definitely some challenges and definitely like, higher rates of mental health issues and stuff. 

Steve Oehley: Let's not ignore that, but it doesn't mean that there's not positives with the profession as well. 

Megan Sprinkle: Absolutely. And just as a final question, 

Megan Sprinkle: what is something that you are very grateful for right now? 

Steve Oehley: I am grateful for a number of things, but if I'm going to just say one thing, I'm really grateful to have a loving daughter that so, so we've got a two and a half year old daughter and she constantly reminds me to be present, to enjoy the moment. 

Steve Oehley: Um, and also just that, you know, there's more important things to life than your job and for those people that have kids or thinking about having kids, it is just, something more special than any achievement at work. is, um, [00:50:00] having that connection with your, um, your child. So yeah, really grateful for my daughter. 

Megan Sprinkle: I hope you enjoyed this fascinating veterinary story. We can make an impact in so many places. Check out the show notes for lots of resources. Please make sure you are subscribed on your podcast app, subscribe on the YouTube channel and follow me on LinkedIn, where I hang out the most. You can contact me on LinkedIn, on the website at vetlifereimagined. 

Megan Sprinkle: com. And brand new is that you can text me to send me a text message. Find the link at the top of the show notes below that says, send us a text message. I want to thank our longtime sponsors, fire consulting, and we'll use who support the podcast over on our hosting platform. Buzzsprout. You can support the podcast to just check out the show notes for a link. 

Megan Sprinkle: And I hope to see you next time on that life reimagined.