It is very admirable that you have taken up the task of caring for and curing animals of illnesses. This is one of the most satisfactory and commendable professions of all time and the most respected as well. Not just that, taking the path in veterinary science could be your life’s most rewarding decision and might bless you with the most rewarding career as well. So, enough of the introduction, let us now take a deep dive into the specifics of what is needed for a career path as a vet and how to accomplish the same, in a step-by-step manner with no steps skipped.
Basic Eligibility:-
There are two levels to which an aspirate vet can reach. First is the undergraduate program in the name of Bachelor’s in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry course for which a class 12 (+2) exam with Physics Chemistry and Biology is considered as eligibility and the marks scored in the 12th examination is crucial for the admission process. Higher the better as usual with the general ballpark percentage for admission kept at around 60% and above. Second, comes the Master’s Degree in Veterinary Science or Animal husbandry, for which the Bachelor’s degree in the respective branch, once again, the better the marks, the better the prospects of getting into the master’s program. Please note that these processes are on top of the NEET exams which the student should appear to get in the BVS program. The marks obtained in the NEET exam are crucial to getting admission into any of the government-recognized Veterinary Colleges. To ace NEET, practice the previous year’s question papers like NEET Question Paper 2018.
One can always enroll themselves into a pre-veterinary club that can throw a lot of insight into the basic knowledge that is required of a vet and the career path in general. This is where a student gets to taste how being a vet would be, for real, as the student gets to be an understudy of sorts for a licensed vet. Alternatively, an aspirant vet can lend helping hands at animal shelters to gain the insights required to have time with animals and eventually help out with animals that are under monitor and treatment by vets.
Additionally, on top of the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, one can obtain specializations in the field of Veterinary Science, especially in the field of surgery, dentistry, nutrition, etc although it is best done abroad. Nutrition as of now is a pretty hot subject to Veterinary Science and one can take the business route as well through this specialization.
Job prospects:-
During your Graduation and Master’s degree, you need to have a grasp on what sort of job prospects that a vet would have. The job varies in nature and day-to-day activities that are to be performed and it starts from the government sector to the private sector. The employment opportunities for a vet are plenty and are the most handsome paying jobs in the private sector but with minimal job security.
It would be a good venture to start a private clinic and to take care of the practice there but the onus of running the entire venture would rely on the candidate. Alternatively, there are only a handful of government clinics that have national recognition and could be good places for a vet to get his practice going.
Salary of a vet:-
There are different levels/ cadres of positions in a veterinary hospital starting from the run-of-the-mill veterinary doctor with the basic degrees under his belt to the complex veterinary technologist positions.
The entry-level job of a generic Veterinary Doctor could fetch around a mere 2 lakhs per annum for a person who is just starting his career and this could go up to 5 lakhs per annum for a mid-level person with around 10 years of experience and based on the amount of experience and cases taken up during the years of service, the senior level position for a Veterinary doctor could go up above 10 lakhs per annum.
A Veterinary Doctor with a specialization in Surgery, a Veterinary Surgeon, could start for the same 2 to 2.5 lakhs per annum at the entry-level, but things get progressively better for him/her as the experience gets gathered and we are looking at a 6lakhs per annum package for a mid-level person in this position. Once there is ample experience and a good number of surgeries under the person’s belt, we are looking at anything about 17 lakhs based on the sector that the Veterinary Surgeon is in. Private hospitals could pay more than 20 lakhs or more for a senior-level Veterinary surgeon.
Another position that an aspirant Vet student can strive for is the Veterinary Dermatologist. This position is quite an important one and that it is a position that is in demand. A Veterinary Dermatologist is considered to contribute more to the community by actually tackling disease spread and looking at more cosmetic aspects as well as health aspects of the animals brought into the vet.
A Veterinary Technologist is a crucial position in the Veterinary Science domain. One look at the responsibilities that position comes with and you will understand the significance of the same. The person has to take care of the first aid of animals and stabilize them when they are brought in to the vet for the sake of surgery. The position involves analysis of crucial parameters of the animal’s vitals including the blood and urine. This is crucial for the industry and a very skilled job. Sadly though, the position of a Veterinary Technologist is often the low-paid job in the domain. This is a position in which a vet carries out his professional responsibilities while striving to learn more and do some specialization to forward his career. This is the base level job in the Veterinary domain starting with an entry-level salary of below 2 lakhs per annum, moving up to a maximum of 4 lakhs per annum down in the career path.
