You’re happy where you are. And then your dream job peeks around the corner…

You genuinely love your work. Your team is great, your patients and their owners are kind and compliant, and you belong. That’s reflected in the data too: veterinary professionals tend to stay in the same role for five to seven years, and it’s not because they’re stuck, they are happy. Your student debt is well in hand, your social life is active, and you made it through the last family get-together without getting lost in the fog of a complex case involving a sock-scavenging Labrador. Life is good.

But for all of us, there is that one role. The one that, if it ever came up, you’d seriously consider. Not for the money, not for the ego boost, but because it just suits you, and always has. Nobody can predict when that job will open up, which is why you need a quiet plan. One that sits in the background, ready to go the moment you catch a rumour, or someone you respect invites you for a not-so-innocent coffee. Here’s how to keep everything quietly simmering, ready for that dream job moment…

Connect With Your Next Practice

Know Yourself Before You Know What You’re Looking For

Some vets know exactly what their dream role looks like. The practice, the location, the kind of work, the culture. Others have a feeling more than a picture, a sense of what the right fit would be without being able to name it precisely. Either way, most people couldn’t tell you exactly why that role appeals, and that knowledge turns out to be surprisingly important when the opportunity briefly surfaces.

You don’t need a complex personality test. But a quick, objective snapshot of how you work best, what energises you, what you genuinely need from a role, can be the difference between recognising your moment and letting it pass. Thankfully some smart people came up with a quick model called OCEAN and in ten minutes you’ll have insights that most people spend years figuring out the hard way.

Once you have your OCEAN results, sit with them for a moment. They won’t hand you a destination, but they will give you a surprisingly clear picture of the conditions under which you do your best work, and the environments where you quietly don’t. That clarity is what makes the difference when something interesting surfaces. Instead of going on gut feel alone, you’ll have a much more grounded sense of whether this is indeed your dream role or not. It also shapes how you show up professionally, which is exactly where we’re going next.

A practical starter: write down three things your current role gives you personally, not clinically. Then three things a genuinely better role would add. Keep it somewhere you’ll find it when the moment comes.

I always assumed I just wanted a good job in a good practice. Turns out I need autonomy more than almost anything else. Once I knew that, I stopped being interested in roles that couldn’t offer it, no matter how good they looked on paper – Mark D, Veterinarian, Brisbane, Australia

Let Your Professional Presence Reflect Who You Actually Are Today

Your professional presence is the sum of what people find, hear, and remember about you when your name comes up. And it’s always on, whether you’re paying attention to it or not. The question, having done the thinking in section one, is whether what’s out there still reflects who you actually are now, because if that dream role surfaces, the people connected to it will be looking before they ever pick up the phone.

This is a checklist exercise, not a rebrand. Work through these honestly:

• Your resume: When did you last update it? Once a year, whether you need it or not, keeps it accurate and ready. You don’t want to be scrambling to remember what you did three years ago when the moment comes.
• Social media profiles: Do they sound like you today, or someone you used to be? The summary, the headline, the experience listed, all of it.
• Published work, articles, or case studies: Still current and representative of where you are now?
• Online professional communities and forums: How you show up in these spaces leaves an impression, intended or not.
• Your reputation in your local veterinary community: When someone mentions your name, what follows?
• Visibility at CPD events and conferences: Are you known for the things you want to be known for?
• The informal professional relationships you maintain: Are they still the right ones, and are you actually maintaining them?

None of this needs to happen in a weekend. Pick one item from the list, the one that’s most out of date, and start there. The goal isn’t a polished personal brand. It’s an accurate, current picture of a professional who knows who they are and what they’re good at. That’s what makes you findable for the right reasons.

A practical starter: ask Claude or ChatGPT to review your social media profiles acting as a practice owner or hiring manager, and give you an honest assessment of what it communicates. The instruction is to assess, not to rewrite. What comes back is often more revealing than any amount of self-editing.

I updated my profiles on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Nothing urgent, just a long overdue tidy. What surprised me was how much had quietly drifted out of date. Took about an hour all up, and I felt better for it. Like clearing out a drawer you’d been avoiding. Jamie L, Veterinarian, Melbourne, Australia

When Something Surfaces, Move With Quiet Intention

You hear something at a conference. A colleague mentions a practice that’s doing interesting work. Someone you’ve always respected sends you a message that’s friendly but not entirely casual. You find yourself thinking about it a week later, which is usually the sign that it’s worth thinking about properly.

The good news is that you’re in the best possible position to handle this well. You’re not desperate, not under pressure, not working to a deadline someone else set. You can move at your own pace, think it through clearly, and make a decision from a position of strength rather than urgency. That’s a rare advantage and it’s worth protecting.

Here’s a calm, twelve week framework for doing exactly that:

• Week 1: Sit with it. Something may be surfacing. Don’t act, don’t talk, just notice. Is this genuine interest or flattery or novelty? Let it settle.
• Week 2: Light desktop research. What do you actually know about this practice, this team, this opportunity? Also a good moment to refresh your OCEAN results and remind yourself what you’re actually looking for.
• Weeks 3-4: Three conversations. A trusted veterinary friend who knows the industry. Your mentor. And a non-industry buddy who will ask the questions nobody inside the profession thinks to ask. No broadcasts, no social media. Three people, in confidence.
• Weeks 5-6: Work through your ideal job prep list. Resume current? Profiles up to date? Everything in section two, checked and ready.
• Weeks 7-8: A warm, unhurried reach-out if the interest is still genuine. Curiosity in the tone, not urgency.
• Weeks 9-10: The real conversation. What would yes actually require? What would need to be true for this to make sense for your life, not just your career?
• Weeks 11-12: A considered decision, made with full information and from a position of strength, not momentum.

The shift from quietly watching to actually engaging happens somewhere around weeks seven and eight, and it’s worth being deliberate about it. By that point you’ll know whether your interest has held, deepened, or quietly faded, and all three are valid outcomes. If it’s held, move. A warm, considered reach-out from someone who isn’t desperate is one of the most compelling things a practice can receive. If it’s deepened, let it. Sometimes the move is made on you, and being ready means being comfortable with that too.

And if it’s faded? Walk away cleanly. You’re happy where you are, and that’s not nothing. One of the most important things the twelve weeks gives you is enough distance to tell the difference between a genuine opportunity and the temporary excitement of something new. Don’t let momentum carry you somewhere you don’t actually want to go.

A practical starter: Write down, privately, what would need to be true for you to reply to a message or pick up the phone. Not a job description, just two or three conditions. The location, the kind of work, the culture. Keep it somewhere you’ll find easily. When that not-so-innocent coffee invitation arrives, you’ll already know whether it’s worth accepting.

I sat on it for three weeks before I said a word to anyone. By the time I had that first conversation I knew exactly what I thought and what I needed to know. It felt completely different to every other career decision I’d made. Rachel T, Veterinarian, New York, NY

Closing Thoughts…

You’re not looking, and you don’t need to be. What you need is to know yourself well enough to recognise the right fit when it surfaces, keep your professional house in order so you’re findable for the right reasons, and stay calm enough to move well when the moment comes. None of that requires disrupting a working life you’ve built and genuinely enjoy.

And if that dream role never appears? You’ll have spent a little time getting to know yourself better, tidying up a drawer that needed it, and building a clearer picture of what a great career actually looks like for you specifically. That’s not wasted effort. That’s just good practice.

At VeterinaryModa we’ve been thinking about exactly this problem. How do you stay quietly open to the right opportunity without the noise and disruption of active searching? It’s the thinking behind Vivra, something we’re building that works in the background and respects the life you’ve already built. Take a look at vivra.vet if you’re curious.

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