Clinical Assistant Review

I did enjoy the insight quite a bit as I got to work with animals and help in saving them. However, I felt like the staff were quite rude to me and viewed me as incompetent because I was younger and this made working there quite unpleasant. Perhaps with a nicer staff, the insight would be more enjoyable.

I did not feel very valued by the staff as they were very cold towards me and didn't seem to respect me or even see me as their equal. However, I did feel valued by the customers as they relied on me to help heal or even save their animals.

I did not receive a lot of guidance and support during the insight. The only support I got consisted of sitting on the side and watching the staff in the first few days. I think I would have benefitted more if they actually taught me and got me involved rather than making me watch them do their work.

I think that I developed quite good communication skills with people as I talked to people about their animals' issues in a calm and respectful manner and this will help me in all areas of life. I also developed somewhat greater knowledge on animal diseases as well as gaining experience, which will help me in my degree studies and perhaps provide me the edge over others when trying for a job in veterinary.

The insight was not very structured. I do understand that the place was busy so there was not a lot of time, but it seemed that they did not really make an effort to ease me into the job and then extend my knowledge to a much greater level from there.

From the staff, the atmosphere was quite cold and tense as I personally found them quite rude and disrespectful. Dealing with problems such as animal diseases and potential death made the insight quite sad but the emotion felt here really helped me to understand the importance of veterinary and helping people and their animals.

In terms of personal training and development, I do not think the company invested much in me at all. Most of the knowledge I received from the insight came from me watching while the other employees did their work, or even from the customers themselves, rather than the actual staff teaching me actively.

I do not think the insight helped me understand what it would be like to have a full time role with the company. I am sure that if I procured an actual job there, I would be treated much more fairly than I was during my insight so I believe the experience would be much more enjoyable.

The insight did not really help me understand company culture as the staff were cold and callous; they did not show real concern for the animals and did not really help me. Again, I am sure that this is not representative of the entire company as I am sure that the whole company is passionate about saving animals' lives and are much more welcoming.

I think the insight was somewhat valuable in helping decide my future career path. It did make me want to do veterinary even more as I felt a sort of connection with the animals. However, I did already know that I wanted to pursue veterinary before undertaking this insight so it just motivated me further.

I was reimbursed for travel expenses and was paid extra on top of this.

There were practically no opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the company.

There were no networking opportunities for me, as stated above.

No, I did not find out about activities that employees can get involved in outside of work.

I would definitely recommend the insight if you are planning on doing veterinary in the future as it will provide you with experience that should give you the edge over the competition. However, I would recommend you to visit the branch you are interested in working at first beforehand to go and meet the staff and ensure you will be fine with working them as the staff could potentially make or break the insight.