Meet Stella:
I decided I wanted to work with animals after going home for lunch from working for a photo gallery and watching the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) animal rescue show back in 2007. I wasn’t looking to be a veterinary nurse as such, but my first role threw me into much of that work and I quickly learned that I wanted to be fully qualified and trained to do what I was doing. I needed to understand the science behind the work.
Fast forward to 2009 and I’m on a vocational course to train to be a registered veterinary nurse (RVN). It was terrifying and exciting all at once. During my two years of training, working full time and being a head nurse I finally made it after one failed attempt at the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).
It isn’t easy to become an RVN. It’s hard work, with a lot to take in, long hours, overtime and college attendance. But when you want it, it’s so worth it. You make the sacrifice because that’s the job you WANT to do not one that you feel you have to do.
Come 2015 I moved back to my family home and only had a little, quiet, part-time RVN job in a small practice and it wasn’t enough for me so I decided to brave it out and go for a career change. I ventured into the world of veterinary sales. This was probably the most terrifying interview series I had but I got the job. After taking a £5k pay cut to become a veterinary nurse originally, to then doubling my salary was a big deal.
I left nursing and went to work for Dechra as a nutritional sales rep. This was tough and there were elements of the job I didn’t like; after a year I burned out. In this particular role, the hours were very long, the admin was never-ending, the pressure was real (sales isn’t easy) and I was so tired and very rarely home. I had a huge territory that was fairly unrealistic when I look back.
This led me to change path again and I went back into nursing as the head nurse for a charity hospital, The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA). I stuck with a management role over a nursing role as I still wanted to pull back from nursing.
Veterinary nursing takes its toll after a while. Many people can do it their whole lives. I am not one of those people. As I got older I started to feel the physical effects of the job such as headaches, bad back, sore knees and shoulders. Some people also struggle with it mentally and emotionally. This does get easier after a few years, but sometimes it still hits you after a particularly bad day.
After a very stressful two years at the PDSA, I decided to go back into sales. I did miss something about seeing people, training teams, helping practices and being on the road, to some extent, and experiencing new places. I took the plunge (whilst I was on medical leave for my bad back!) and interviewed for Veterinary Instrumentation as a territory manager.
Moving back into sales gave me the benefits of extra pay (sales territory management can pay anywhere between £25-30K normally), a car and access to a pension and health service and realistic targets that allowed me to earn bonuses. It also enables me to live wherever I want within my territory and as I’ve struggled to settle down my whole life, this was perfect.
Veterinary Instrumentation specialises in veterinary surgical sales, with an emphasis on orthopaedics, so there’s a lot of new stuff to learn to do the job. You can’t just be a veterinary nurse, you need more than that. You’ll need to learn the main function of what you sell, why it’s beneficial and undertake some sort of sales training as well as continuing professional development (CPD) to know about the surgical procedures.
My day-to-day entails making contact and appointments with veterinary practices and veterinary surgeons. I travel to see practices, provide information and training to teams, help them get set up with new equipment, put orders through, monitor sales figures and do all the admin that goes with it.
I don’t travel as much with this role as the last, however, I have made overseas travel once for a CPD conference as we also cover and attend big veterinary conferences such as AO Vet, BSAVA, BVNA and BVOA. We also attend and provide support and equipment to local CPD courses such as those run by universities or CPD providers.
I do honestly like my sales role with Veterinary Instrumentation. I work with a wonderful team who have been very welcoming. It’s not as frantic as the last sales roles, though it keeps me very busy, and I do enjoy the satisfaction of having helped a practice, a surgeon or a team get into something new or helped them understand a new technique for them to improve their service to pets. I still feel like I’m making a small difference within the animal world somehow. It’s also easier on my old bones!
You can check out my personal blog and IG account, exploring plant parenting and mental well-being.
Hi, I’m Sophie!
I had the pleasure of working with Stella for a short spell, at one of PDSA’s hospitals, in Merseyside.
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