Recruit4vets joins in the ‘Wear it, Beat it’ fun to help stop Heart Disease!

Recruit4vets joins in the ‘Wear it, Beat it’ fun to help stop Heart Disease!

Did you know? Heart and Circulatory disease takes the lives of more than 400 people in the UK each day. So what better way to spend our Friday then supporting this charity and to help raise money for the British Heart Foundation’s lifesaving research. 

All of our team here at Recruit4vets have their own individual, personal reasons for taking part in this fundraising, but together as a team we had a great day showing our support.

Here are some photos from our day wearing ‘Get Reddy’ day in the office.

            

  

For more information about Wear it, beat it event click here.

What to expect now you are qualified and registered Veterinary Nurse.

What to expect now you are qualified and registered Veterinary Nurse.

Firstly, congratulations from all the team here at Recruit4vets on becoming a qualified and registered veterinary nurse!

We understand the pressures as a veterinary nurse student looking to qualify, and we also understand it is not the typical, easy student life which some people associate graduating with. The great thing about being a veterinary nurse student is that the course is purposely designed to set you up for the hard working life you are about to embark on.

We recently spoke to a few veterinary nurses who talked about their student life;

Juliette, Askham Bryan College 2014 Graduate ‘I travelled 80 miles to and from College every day, it was very hard and tiring along with all my assignments, exams, dissertations and so on, but I knew this is what I wanted to do as a career and I was willing to work endlessly to ensure I graduated as Veterinary Nurse, which I did and I can honestly say, although it wasn’t a walk in the park, it was most definitely worth it’

Now you are qualified here a few simple things to consider to help you get on the right track;

1.      Plan your next move

Think about your future career.  Are you currently working in the type of practice that you want to be in? Are there any career opportunities? Is it a small animal practice, referral practice, hospital practice?  There are a wide range of practices out there and they all come with a range of positions, whether you want to specialise in surgery or neurology; all of these factors should influence where you want to work.

2.      Understand the advantages and disadvantages of locum work.

Locum work can offer excellent opportunities to work in a wide range of practices from small independent practices to advanced referral work. As a locum veterinary nurse you do have to be flexible; usually on location but lots of practices do provide accommodation. Locum work is very well paid and locum nurses are in extremely high demand throughout the UK.  If you have an interest in travelling overseas locum work can provide a high salary and flexibility to allow you to do this. To make things easier recruit4vets also pay towards your CPD! Find out more on CPD funding.

3.      Are you secured with an agency? As a veterinary nurse, your days are long and arduous so it is then the sensible decision to let an agency take on the burden of securing interviews for you.  As a recruitment agency, it is our job to find you the perfect job.  We take an interest in your future career, the type of position you are looking for and are able to organise interviews for you at a convenient time.

Recruit4vets are a trusted and respected veterinary recruitment specialist who has over 13,000 veterinary nurses we work with, we also work with some of the most trusted, well established practices in the UK. We have 100’s of new job roles added each month.

4.      Do you want to further your career?

When working within a practice, there are several options to think about going forward whether it is CPD, taking on extra responsibilities or taking on an extra course outside of practice.  There are a wide range of courses available from ECC, training on becoming a head nurse or if you have a particular interest in exotics, or small animals; there are courses on all of these and these will influence where you will want to work in the future.

5.      Plan ahead.

Once you have a few years’ experience with working in a veterinary practice you will then understand how practices operate and will have developed into a very good veterinary nurse.  You may also have further qualifications and an understanding of where you would like your career to go.  With this level of experience you can really start to specialise your skills and be the ‘go to’ person within your practice or you could start to take on further responsibility with positions like deputy head nurse, or head nurse.

Recruit4vets can help you on your journey, we pride ourselves on being more than a recruitment company, our dedicated team here undertake numerous training development courses and work closely with all our candidates to ensure that we know the veterinary industry as well as our candidates do so that we can relate and understand firstly, what your careers goals are and secondly how to get you there.

For more information, or to discuss how we could help you now you are qualified, please call our experts on 01423 701 321 or email us at info@recruit4vets.co.uk

Why use a specialist recruitment agency?

Why would you use a recruitment agency rather than going directly to the employer yourself?

As recruiters we spend 8 hours a day every day talking to clients, gathering information on who is hiring, who is firing, who is expanding, who is contracting, speaking to candidates gathering information on which practices are the best to work for, who are the dogs, which are investing, which are stagnating, which are high tech, which are antiquated.

In a nutshell we get to know which practices are the best to work for and which are to be avoided.

We also know which practices are hiring but not advertising and which may be open to employing that star candidate but are not necessarily advertising a vacancy.

That is why registering with a specialist veterinary recruitment agency can dramatically improve your chances of finding your dream job.

At Recruit4vets we have been providing recruitment solutions to veterinary practices since 2006 and over the last 8 years we have build up a detailed bank of information on virtually every veterinary practice throughout the UK, we know how often they recruit, how often they employ locums, their staff turnover and they probably have staff working at the practice who we have placed their ourselves.

As a specialist veterinary recruitment agency we have built lasting business relationships with many of the practices owners and we understand their requirements, what they look for when employing staff and have an understanding of whether you will be the right fit for their practice. We also have built trust so that we can often get you into that interview before your peers. On many occasions a CV simply isn’t good enough; it will be the recruitment consultant selling your skills to the client that gets you that all important interview.

We review CV’s and cover letters on a daily basis and we know exactly what information will likely get you to the top of the pile when clients are reviewing CV’s, we can also offer interview tips which will help you secure that perfect job.

We speak to hundreds of employers every month and we know what the market salary rates are and we can offer advice to both you and the client and help with your salary negotiations, most people feel uncomfortable negotiating salaries with a new employer, we can act as a buffer.

We also understand how the recruitment process works and will point out the pitfalls to stop any negotiations breaking down.

Our services will save you a vast amount of time, will open the door to lots more vacancies and put you at an advantage over your peers. 

What’s more it’s completely free of charge!!

To find out how Recruit4vets can help you with your next career move please contact us on 01423 701 321.

New school of Veterinary Medicine

You may have heard that The University of Surrey has announced that it is going to launch a new school of Veterinary Medicine?

Well, this is looking to take place in 2014 and will be based at the University’s Manor Park site in Guildford.

According to the University, the new school will embrace the “One Health – One Medicine” philosophy.  The degree programme will also emphasize research, veterinary pathology and livestock medicine.

The new School at Surrey will collaborate with key partners to deliver their programme. Collaborators include: the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) , the BBSRC Pirbright Institude, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), Fitzpatrick Referrals, Liphook Equine Hospital and Westpoint Farm Vets. Extending relationships with regional Veterinary practices is also on the cards for the coming year.

The University is also in consultation with the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) who plan to assist them in the development of a timetable for considering the new programme against their accreditation standards. The RCVS believe that the monitoring process of this could take a number of years.

The University certainly have already laid the foundations for the new school through its teaching and research activities expansion in its Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. This includes the launch of the BSc programme in Veterinary Biosciences in 2009 and the new MSc in Veterinary Microbiology. A new MSc in Veterinary Pathology is currently under development also.

I think over the next 12 months we can expect them to be recruiting new academic staff along with attracting the first cohort of students for 2014.

"As a research-intensive University we have the expertise, reputation, technical and business skills which our students can benefit from, allowing us to train the veterinary leaders of the future. Combining state-of-the-art facilities, our unique partnerships and a campus location, the new School will provide a stimulating environment not only for undergraduates, but for the professional development training of qualified veterinary surgeons."

-          Professor Lisa Roberts. Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

"This is good news for the UK veterinary research community. The Pirbright Institute currently works in close collaboration with the University of Surrey on research that benefits animal health and welfare; we very much look forward to building on this established and growing association as the new school of veterinary medicine is launched. There is an important place for trained veterinarians in scientific research and we are delighted that the University has decided to emphasise these areas in particular."

-          Professor John Fazakerley, Director of The Pirbright Institute

Why you shouldn't take a Counter Offer

Using a job offer as a bargaining chip with your current employer may seem tempting but all too often it ends badly. If you want a raise, then negotiate one on its owns merits or prepare to move on.

1. Employers often make counter offers in a moment of panic but after the initial relief passes,  you may find your relationship with your employer has changed for the worse. You are now the one who is looking to leave, you are no longer part of the 'inner circle' and you may be top of the list if your company needs to make cutbacks.
2. Even worse, your company might just want time to search for a replacement, figuring its only a matter of time before until you start looking around again. You might turn down your other offer and accept your employers counteroffer only to find yourself pushed out soon afterward.
   80% of people who accept counteroffers either leave or are let go within a year. 
3. There's a reason you started job searching in the first place. Whilst money is always a motivator, more often, there are other factors that drove you to look for another job, personality fit, your boss, boredom with the work, lack of recognition. These factors aren't going to change, and will likely start bothering you again as soon as the pay rise wears off.
4. Even if you get more money out of your company now, think about what it took to get it. You needed to have one foot out of the door to get paid the wage you wanted, and there's no reason to think that future salary increases will be any easier. The nest time you want a raise, you might be refused altogether on the grounds that 'we gave you that big increase when you were thinking about leaving'
5. You may be told to take the other offer, even if you don't really want it and then you'll have to follow through. Using another offer as a bluff is a really dangerous game.
6. Finally, your new employer is very unlikely to consider you again for any job offers.