Congratulations. Seriously. You did the exams, the placements, the all-nighters. Now you're about to start the job you worked so hard for, and you might be feeling a delicious mix of excitement and absolute terror.
That mix is normal. Here's what we wish someone had told us.
The first few weeks are tiring
The first few weeks are tiring. You're using a lot of brain power: new people, new systems, new drugs on the shelf, new everything. It's normal for that to feel hard, and it doesn't mean you're not coping. It means you're learning a huge amount, fast.
Feeling out of your depth is part of it
There will be days you feel like you know nothing. That isn't a sign you're not cut out for this. It's what learning feels like from the inside. Every vet and vet nurse you admire was once exactly where you are.
Be resourceful, not all-knowing
Nobody expects you to know everything. Honestly, nobody knows everything, however many years they've been qualified. The skill isn't having every answer in your head. It's knowing how to find it.
So build yourself a "who can I ask?" and "where can I look this up?" list, and make it as long as you like:
- Who can I ask? The vet or nurse on shift with you, your grad mentor, the head nurse, a colleague at another branch, the lab, a referral practice, a uni friend who's seen one before.
- Where can I look this up? Your formulary, the data sheet, your practice protocols, the textbooks on the shelf, your notes from vet school, trusted clinical resources your practice uses.
Checking a dose, looking something up mid-consult or saying "let me just check that and come back to you" isn't a weakness. It's good medicine. It's part of the job, at every stage of your career. "Can you have a look at this with me?" is one of the most professional sentences you'll ever say.
You bring more than you think
When you're new, it's easy to forget the value you bring. You've got the most up-to-date knowledge in the building. You've been taught the latest evidence, guidelines and techniques, sometimes ones your colleagues haven't come across yet. That's genuinely useful to a team.
And at the same time, you'll meet plenty of things you never saw at vet school. That's not a gap in you. It's the difference between learning medicine and practising it, and every single one of us has been there.
What's common, and when it's not OK
We say "that's normal" a lot to new grads, because so much of what you'll feel really is. But "it's normal" can also be used to brush off things that aren't. So here's the difference, as honestly as we can put it.
- Common: feeling wiped out after shifts in the first few weeks. Worth talking about: exhaustion that doesn't lift on your days off, or weeks of poor sleep.
- Common: taking a while to get used to team dynamics and how things are done. Not OK: being shouted at, belittled, excluded or bullied. That isn't a rite of passage.
- Common: feeling out of your depth with some cases. Not OK: regularly being left alone with cases beyond your experience, with nobody to call. That's a support problem, not a you problem.
- Common: staying a bit late sometimes while you find your rhythm. Worth raising: routinely working well beyond your hours with no breaks.
- Common: doubting yourself after a tricky case. Please reach out: dreading every shift, feeling hopeless, or feeling like you can't go on.
If anything in the second half sounds familiar, please talk to someone: your grad lead, a senior colleague you trust, HR, your GP, or Vetlife, who are there 24/7 on 0303 040 2551. You deserve support, and you deserve a workplace that's safe to learn in.
You'll have unexpected outcomes
Everyone does. What matters is how you look after yourself and learn afterwards. Talk to someone. Don't carry it alone. And if something does go wrong, our post on what helps after an unexpected outcome or complaint is there for you.
Protect the basics
Eat lunch, even if it's in ten minutes. Drink water. Sleep. Leave on time when you can. These aren't luxuries. They're how you keep your brain working well enough to do the job.
Comparison is a trap
Your friend from uni seems to be doing cat spays in their sleep while you're still nervous about a dental. Everyone's first year looks different, and social media shows the highlights. Run your own race.
Your support network matters more than you think
Find your people: a mentor, a nurse who has your back, your uni friends, someone outside vetmed. You don't have to do this alone.
We put five of our biggest lessons into a free guide, 5 things we wish we knew as new grads. It takes about 10 minutes, and it's the advice we'd give our younger selves.
If you'd like a bit more
Confidence is the thing new grads ask us about most. Confidence is Queen is a 2-hour recorded course on what confidence really is and how to find yours, from £25 + VAT, and it counts as CPD.
And if you'd like proper support through your first year, we work with graduate schemes across the profession. Your grad lead may be able to support a place on our Signature Programme, and lots of employers fund places from their CPD budget. Our Ask your employer page makes that conversation easier.
