Gainfully Employed

Tomorrow is the day. April 15. No, not tax day. I did my taxes back in January and I don't care about the anxiety that you procrastinators might have on the subject. April 15 is the official deadline for informing vet schools about your admission decision. If you got an offer from a vet school, you have to accept or decline it by April 15. 

I accepted the offer from Oregon State, of course. I still can't say that I won't change my mind if another school dangles an offer in front of me, but I'm becoming more emotionally and mentally used to the idea of staying here.

As I had already worked out, if I am going to leave, I need to be out of here by the end of June. And if I stay, I need to get a job for the summer.

That's right. I need to become a gainfully employed, tax-paying citizen, at least until September. Since I landed here two years ago, I've been living off savings and the bit of money the uni tosses my way. They pay my tuition, for which I am extremely grateful. But the rest, well, I couldn't live on it as my sole source of income. 

Living off savings is stressful. No money in, money only goes out. If I'm not thinking about cheese, I'm thinking about money.

Back to this job thing. I decided to start with my personal network, in fact, with one person in particular: the PI of the pregnant cow study. I worked my butt off for her project, going in night after night, showing up during the day when I was called in, and doing a good job on my assigned tasks. The project would not have failed in my absence but I am sure that I made a significant contribution to its success, and I'm proud of that. I did it for the experience, of course, but also for the potential for future opportunities. Or to put it another way, virtue is its own reward but money never hurts.

Turns out the PI of the project has a husband who is also a vet. He owns a clinic in the area. So I bided my time, let the last cow have her calf, waited for preliminary results to roll in, waited for spring break to come and go, then I approached her. (Oh yes, I started planning this months ago.) So, would S, her husband, happen to have any openings in his clinic this summer? I told her I wasn't necessarily expecting to advance my career as a clinician but that I wanted a summer job in the animal care industry if I could get one.

Well, turns out the PI gave me one hell of a recommendation to her husband. At his request, I dropped my CV off at his clinic yesterday. Today, his clinic manager called me. They want to try me out for one night a week, starting next week, with the intent to expand to nearly full time after classes are over in June. I will probably write more in the future about what the job entails, but I am thrilled that it appears to be a position with a lot of client and animal contact, not just a job mopping out boarding kennels. I would have taken the latter job without hesitation, but I'm glad that I might be able to do more.

No, of course I don't have time to start this job now when I'm buried in coursework this term, and defending the thesis on top of that. But I can't afford to pass it up, either. 

The school gig is certainly a nice way to pass a few months, even a year or two, if you have the time. And I'm staring down a long, four-year tunnel of more studying. But I will be happy to have a job again, even for a few months.