How long have you been in recruiting, and what was your journey to it?
I am a licensed veterinary technician, and I've been in the field for a little over 20 years. In that time, I’ve dabbled in all kinds of things, from teaching for the tech program to working for a lab, from zoo medicine to small animal medicine. You name it; I've been there, done it!
Then, I went into practice management and recruiting and started recruiting technicians and support staff. Now, in my current role at Innovetive, I recruit DVMs - which I was really excited about because I love talking medicine. It’s what makes my heartbeat. I’ve basically become a professional matchmaker, and I love it!
What are some challenges in Vet Med you're excited to see solved?
I feel like a lot of people say, “There’s just not enough vets,” and I don’t believe that’s true. The vet schools are definitely pumping out enough graduates, but how are we treating those graduates?
Which brings two big challenges: pay and mentorship.
I can speak from experience on the veterinary technician side, in particular, that they do a lot of hard work and work on a wide breadth of species but often don’t get representative pay for that level of work and expertise.
The other piece, mentorship, is especially important for new DVMs coming out of vet school during COVID, with many of them not having full hands-on experiences. So, coming out into the world and jumping into a one-doctor practice for them is scary.
So, as recruiters, we have to navigate these challenges and use those matchmaking skills to find the right DVM for each practice.
What were your first impressions of working on scout?
I really loved it from the second I joined.
I love that each candidate's profile tells me how many years of experience they have, not just in their position but in vet med as a whole, particularly when recruiting new grads.
Many of these grads come out with little Veterinarian-specific experience, but they’ve still been a technician or assistant before, and they can clearly denote that.
The whole platform is so user-friendly with details like that.
What makes scout different from other sourcing and recruiting platforms?
The number one is the focus on the candidate’s experience & having a fully built-out profile with a little about them. It gives the ability to understand the candidate better right away.
Also, getting a notification when they’ve viewed our job postings or profile, so I’m not having to cold outreach to them. It feels like you already have a connection because they’ve looked at the practice and know a bit about your opportunities.
What are some magic moments you've had on scout?
I’ve had 3 hires in the last 6 weeks, which is awesome.
For the first one, I saw that the doctor had looked twice at the profile, then applied to one of our urgent care positions. But when I looked more into her profile, I noticed she does exotics, so I started a conversation with her, and she’s actually coming on as an exotics doctor! So, even though she applied for that urgent care position, she learned about the practices and what was available - all organically!
For the next hire, I've actually reached out on LinkedIn twice, and she declined my request to connect. Then, I found her on scout and saw she had looked at some of our postings - which helped me know exactly what she was looking for. Because, you know, when I’m targeting outreach on LinkedIn, I can only really see she’s in Austin, and we have many practices in Austin, so I can only target so well. But on scout, I’m able to tailor my outreach really specifically to what postings they're viewing, and it’s just a better experience all around.
The final hire actually had viewed a job, and on that posting, we highlighted the mentorship program, which is really strong in that practice. So, when I reached out, I also noticed she was a more recent grad, so I talked up that program, and the next day she met with the team for lunch and signed the contract within a week.
What piece of advice would you have for other recruiters to get the most out of scout?
Staying consistent.
Every day new people are joining and adding their profiles. So, being on scout every day and then just really having access to it on your emails all the time because, you know, vets are usually looking for jobs on Friday or Saturday nights when we’re not technically “working” as recruiters.
My biggest piece of advice is to be prepared to jump on those messages right away because if they're looking at your profile, they're looking at others.
What has been your favorite part of working with us so far?
Your Customer Experience team is great. I feel like if I ever have any questions, you’re always on it and easily accessible.
And it's so user-friendly. You know, a lot of practices and professionals don't have the money to use external recruiters - it can get really expensive. And those one-doctor practices certainly can’t afford it. So all my friends that are DVMs that are looking right now, I'm like, “Get on scout!”
It's cheap. You can post for cheap. If you wanna boost a job, it's more expensive, but I do think that you pay $500 on scout to boost a DVM job, or you pay $500 on other recruiting sites that are just out there for anybody. This is strictly for veterinarians and veterinary staff, and, for me, it's been a much higher success rate of recruitment.
I just want everybody to use scout. I love it.
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