Best Careers: Veterinarian

The rundown:

More than 77 percent of all veterinarians work in small practices treating household pets and the occasional ferret or reptilian friend. You will spend a lot of time diagnosing and treating minor ailments, providing vaccines and other medications, dressing wounds, and, if you specialize, performing surgery and repairing broken bones. Other vets deal with horses and, in farm settings, other large animals, in which case you'd spend a lot of time on the road tending to animals where they live—on farms or in zoos, aquariums, and research laboratories. Veterinarians also can pursue a research specialty as a career.

[See a list of The 50 Best Careers.]

The outlook:

Very strong. Employment is expected to grow by 19,700 jobs, or 33 percent, between 2008 and 2018, the Labor Department reports. There aren't a lot of veterinarians—60,000 in 2008, according to the Labor Department; 90,000 in 2008, according to industry data—and demand is strong, especially for those who can provide services in rural areas, says Dr. Kim May, assistant director of professional and public affairs at the American Veterinary Medical Association. The number of U.S. degree-granting colleges hasn't increased in 25 years, so the real battle for success is getting into vet school—the number of first-year students admitted is fewer than 3,000.

Money:

Median earnings for all veterinarians was more than $80,000 in 2009, according to the Labor Department. Pay ranged from less than $47,700 among the bottom 10 percent to more than $142,000 in the top 10 percent. Average starting salaries in 2008 ranged from a low of $41,600 for vets dealing with horses to a high of nearly $65,000 for vets dealing exclusively with small animals.

Upward mobility:

The most significant progression for vets is not in the work they perform but in the income they receive, particularly as experienced vets move into management and ownership positions of the facilities where they work.

Activity level:

High. Being a vet is demanding work, ranging from long hours in a pet clinic wrangling temperamental animals (and owners) to all-season work on farms and in other outdoor settings.

[See a list of the best healthcare careers.]

Stress level:

Up there. Many successful vets would never want to do anything else, but workloads can be grueling and unpredictable at many practices.

Education and preparation:

Vets must graduate with a doctorate of veterinary medicine (DVM) from a four-year program at an accredited college of veterinary medicine. There are only 28 such programs in the United States, so competition for slots is intense (just one in three applicants is accepted). Graduates must pass state exams to obtain a state license before they can begin practicing. Most DVM candidates have college degrees and have taken healthy doses of science courses as undergraduates. Prior work with animals can be helpful to admission as well. Most DVM programs require the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), and a few require more specialized tests.

Real advice from real people about landing a job as a veterinarian:

Practices that hire veterinarians look for candidates who can build and maintain the client base. It might sound simple, but achieving that goal boils down to competency, communication, and compassion. "They're going to look at several aspects—first and foremost are your clinical abilities," says May. "You can be the most wonderful person in the world, but if you can't make those clinical decisions, you're really not going to be who they want." May says dealing with pets also takes compassion and empathy. "Somebody who's hiring you wants to know that you can communicate, that you're compassionate, that you are dedicated and going to provide that level of care to keep clients coming back." Another skill that makes candidate more attractive is business savvy. Not enough vets are trained in the business side of practice management, May says, and having exposure to that discipline can help your resume stand out.

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