Your 2nd choice - if vet school wasn't a possibility?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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Clarinet playing band geek, right here. I get fresh reeds and test out my lungs every once in a while.

I think I would still work at the ASPCA.

If it couldn't be vet related at all... I'd go back into law enforcement.

For a dream job, I'd probably be a voice actor on cartoons, because you don't have to dress up, and it doesn't matter what you look like. You just convey the feeling.
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hoodle said:
If not vet school, I'd go into academia for sure. Microbiology graduate school. I'd also want to take more classes in computer science, and also in history, especially how infectious disease interplays with history.
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We had a lecture and a half on the history of microbiology in our Bacteriology class just last week. I LOVE that stuff. Jenner, Pasteur, crazy Civil War stuff, you name it. It appeals to the history minor in me. :cool: I don't think I'd go to grad school for microbio (I like big critters for the most part), but scary viruses like Ebola have always been very intriguing to me.
 
Electrophile said:
We had a lecture and a half on the history of microbiology in our Bacteriology class. I LOVE that stuff. Jenner, Pasteur, crazy Civil War stuff, you name it. It appeals to the history minor in me. :cool: I don't think I'd go to grad school for microbio (I like big critters for the most part), but scary viruses like Ebola have always been very intriguing to me.
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I wanted to work in a biosafety 4 lab since I read The Hot Zone in 4th grade. I even considered doing a dual DVM/PhD program in pathology so I could. Then I realized that I couldn't deal with harming lab monkeys. Stupid ethics getting in the way of getting to work with ebola.
 
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I LOVED The Hot Zone! I read it in 8th grade and it scared the crap out of me. My dad got to meet Colonel Nancy Jaxx of USAMRIID once. I was so jealous. :D

I know I'm too klutzy to work in a lab like that. I *hated* working with powdered crystal hormones in grad school because if we got like a crystal 1000 times smaller than the head of a pin on us anywhere and tracked it upstairs to the lab, it would completely and utterly screw our MCF-7 breast cancer cell assays big time. I once got a tiny oil drop of diethylstilbestrol in my eye dosing mice once and it freaked me out. I can only imagine working with a crazy virus that turns your insides into goo that leaks out of every orifice in like 5 days! :eek:
 
lol, my response to ebola is run awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! The Hot Zone is a great book though!

If we're talking fantasy jobs I would like to be a lyricist for that girl band mentioned earlier in the thread. Or maybe the Minister for Agriculture, or both! :D
 
Dancer. No doubt about it.
 
I would put my soon-to-be-attained (this Friday :)) MBA in Management to good use and start a small business as a consultant of study skills/time management/career planning. I would target high schoolers, college students and professional students. I would focus on those with science interests.

I am still thinking about it...so far, all the ideas are in my head. I don't want to be one of those road motivation speakers. I want to coach one-on-one and get paid for it. :luck:

Right now, I need to go look at some immunofluorescence slides, and then go study for tomorrow's "Management Informational System" final so I can graduate in 4 days. I am so unmotivated these days to do anything. I feel really tired. I need a self-motivation talk. "STAND UP Tiger1, stop reading SDN and start walking..." :laugh:
 
Starship captain. But since that job is imaginary -- and probably would be pretty difficult to come by even if it existed -- I'd settle for astronomer or professor of astrophysics.
 
I'd make wire & bead jewelry to sell in funky shops on the New England coast, write short stories, and redesign our property to accommodate a couple of goats and some chickens. I'd also continue to work at the animal shelter, likely on a volunteer basis.
 
I am interested in too many things.
-field research biologist in the African savannah or Madagascar
-pastry chef! is it odd that so many of us choose that? Animals and cupcakes rule!
-America's Next Top Model (I am halfway serious, that's the bad part)
-For a time in my younger days I wanted to be a fashion designer, but I am pretty over that.
-Open my own wildlife sanctuary
And my dream job: professional surrogate mother to baby zoo animals. I saw someone who actually had this job title on Animal Planet's "Growing Up..." show. She exclusively did big cats but I would take any.
 
I would want to be a CSI....or a grand prix international rider...or Running a big thoroughbred breeding facility, like Lanes End.....I WISH!!!!!!
 
Parrot breeder and nutritionist. Nutrition is my favorite thing... It's so debateable and interesting. :)
 
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Kara31191 said:
Parrot breeder and nutritionist. Nutrition is my favorite thing... It's so debateable and interesting. :)
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You can certainly be a veterinary nutritionist! That's one thing I'm interested in specializing in is holistic nutrition. But yes, nutrition and behavior, the two things I like most, is something that no two experts can agree upon except what a third is doing wrong. :laugh:
 
chyactnate said:
I would want to be a CSI....or a grand prix international rider...or Running a big thoroughbred breeding facility, like Lanes End.....I WISH!!!!!!
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Ditto!!!
 
I want to make dessert! Cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, cookies, ice cream, muffins, etc.. If I couldn't do that, then I think I'd enjoy being a real estate agent or an architect. Wow, I guess I'm all over the place. This is interesting though!
 
kekemapa04 said:
This question actually came up in my WSU interview and I was not prepared for it, but I am very happy with the answer I gave! I would love to go back and coach gymnastics! I love having an impact on children and it is so rewarding to see them gain the self esteem that will help them throughout life! Every time I go home my old coach/boss tries to get me to come back and it is always so hard to say no...I wish I had the time to even do it part-time!
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it came up in my interview, too, but i think that's just how they formatted them. i would have gone into forensics, probably as a federal agent or officer. i love putting puzzles together and this would be another way to do that. i couldn't imagine being and RVT for the rest of my life, i want to call the shots.
 
I had put some thought into this when, after 5 rejections, my hope began to falter. I would go into social work and with that go into couseling.

Wishful thinking....dressage trainer.
 
1) definitely law school
2) cop/firefighter comes in a close second to law school (although I've already been a firefighter for 5 years!)
 
If vet school doesn't pan out, I may apply to the college of public health instead. I was thinking about veterinary public health anyway, so I guess I could do it minus the DVM. I'd like to do disaster prep/response.

Definitely don't want to go to law school. I've been a legal assistant for over 6 years now and I know I'm not leaning towards that area.

I could always be a lobbyist and try to get legislation passed to ban cat declawing in the U.S. :D That would be a tough job!

Run a sanctuary for injured and abandoned animals.
 
I would want to be a
-Chef
-Dancer
-Dog Trainer and Behaviorist
:love:
 
.
 
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Wow this is fascinating to me that we have so many foodies here!
I am Martha Stewart reincarnated, I swear. I LOVE gourmet cooking - and hey, if cooking isn't science, I don't know what is! I chose cupcakes as my wedding cake this summer and made them alllll myself, in 3 flavors: triple chocolate fudge & mexican vanilla cream cheese frosting, pineapple cupcake & citrus cream cheese frosting, orange cupcakes & mocha cream cheese frosting. Yum!

- I would totally be a snorkel/dive instructor for a luxury resort in the caribbean. Work 4-8 hours a day, spend the rest of the day on the beach. Every morning get up and snorkel beautiful reefs in the Bahamas, straight out of Discovery Channel's Blue Planet series with Richard Attenborough narrating in my head. Who's with me?! :D
- Work for the CDC in disease prevention/control. This was my backup plan instead of vet school.
- I'm insanely hooked on Forensic Files TV show. I love forensics. Is it more than a little scary that I'm constantly mentally working on the 'perfect crime'?
- Anything to do with western history. I love history! Museum curator or something.
- Never work again and instead throw myself back into full time dressage, and compete for fun. Work with some fancy dressage trainer, train up perfect dressage horses, breed em, and sell em for a million dollars a piece.
- A writer. Everyone has told me I should be a writer, and I know I could do it, but I really don't want to, but I guess its a back up skill.
- Own and run a self sufficient small animal & horse sanctuary, being the on site veterinarian. I will do this, probably not until I'm 50 or so, though. Its my daydream that I can escape to at any boring moment of my day. I mentally arrange the fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and dog runs, redesign the horse barn over and over, and work out how many volunteers I'll need, design little fun cat play scapes in their air conditioned indoor housing units...
- Gardener. I know you can't make money at it, but I love it! Nothing feels more productive in this life than planting a garden and then having it bear vegetables/fruit. I imagine its like having children. They are all each my little children! :laugh:
 
InfiniVet said:
Work for the CDC in disease prevention/control. This was my backup plan instead of vet school.
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This is actually a job that vets can do.
 
Oh totally, I know. :) But it was my alternate dream job. My first choice is small/mixed animal private practice.
 
Since I am living my life backwards (career, family, THEN vet school), have spent too much time (20 years) in the "CSI" world of law enforcement, and my daughter (youngest kid) just graduated high school last month, I have decided that if vet school doesn't happen (and since I have nothing else to do but to reapply every year til I die!!!), I want to be a pre-school teacher (toddlers!). I'd get to take naps, eat snacks, play with toys all day! Sure beats doing what I am doing now!
 
I'd be a pirate.

Or drive around in a van solving mysteries.
 
- Become a wedding planner. I love weddings.
- Open a doggie daycare/sanctuary.
- Become a dietitian and counsel people on their diets.
- Open a small, cozy home-style restaurant.

(Unrealistic: If I had the least bit of talent in any of these, I would become a singer, dancer or model. Would also need to grow about 10 more inches to be a model.)
 
I'm delighted to be the..I believe I counted right....FOURTH violist on this thread. But certainly not one with a viable alternative career in music!

If the vet school thing doesn't work out, I'd groom and exercise racehorses until I was too old. I groomed for A circuit hunters a bit as a kid, and was told flat out "do NOT start out on the bottom, you can't work your way up. Go earn some money and come back to this game on your own terms." Turns out finance makes you want to gouge your eyes out with rusty spoons! So if the "compromise" with vet med doesn't work, I think it is full circle back to the bottom. Happily.
 
lailanni said:
So I was thinking to myself for fun, what would I be doing if vet school wasn't a possibility for me?

If there was no chance that I'd be going after a DVM, what would I be doing in this alternate universe?

My second choice: Pastry Chef. Yes, Pastry Chef. :D

I'd still do a lot of volunteer work with animals and shelters, but I wouldn't want to be a tech or assistant for my whole life. My second great love is baked goods! :love: Becoming a vet is of couse my first choice, but if that never panned out I'd be quite happy opening my own bakery.

How about you guys? Your second choice? Is there anything outside of vet med you could be happy doing?
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o gosh, i absolutly could not leave the animal feild. i would either be a farmer, rancher or on the pro rodeo circut.
 
-something to do with biomedical research (probably study director)
-dancer (if only i could get that darn body back!)
-have some sort of animal sanctuary
-food critic
yes, i said food critic :)
-world traveler (if only that were a profession)
-professional student
seriously, i love to learn :p
 
animal behaviour XD
yeah, i know, lame answer..but just can't be bothered with humans!!
 
professional international show jumping rider competitor trainer breeder

that didn't exactly pan out. yet.
 
I would be a physiotherapist or sports medicine (human) doctor...since I want to be a equine sports medicine vet :)
 
rexosaurus said:
-food critic
yes, i said food critic :)
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Oh oh, I listed this too! What could be better than being paid to eat good food?

I'd marry a chef, but the chefs I know don't like to cook when they're off the clock...:rolleyes:
 
I don't think I could give up on science, either. So I would probably go to medical school and become a surgeon.

But if this were an ideal world, I would become a comedy actor and join the cast of The Office. LOVE that show!:love: Plus, I was quite the actor back in high school (back when I had a life and some free time).

Or I would combine my love for animals and acting and get my own show on Animal Planet. Become the female version of Steve Irwin (RIP) or Jeff Corwin. That would be a sweet job.:D
 
trust fund kid for sure. actually, that might be my first choice...you can do that and still be a vet if you want
 
I mentioned band geeks quite a while ago, but never what sort I actually was. I'm curious though - lots of sting players and a clarinet... anyone here play the (French) horn? That's my instrument of choice. I'd love to play in an orchestra, but I've neglected my horn in lieu of horrible things like organic chemistry.
 
If I weren't going to vet school, I would want to work in television/film production or casting :) Or be an A-lister myself. I'm such a pop culture junkie.
 
I have no idea what I would do... open a coney island and eat horrible food all day? Sounds good to me.
 
A high school or middle school band director!! Or an MD. Or a high school/middle school biology teacher. But I'd work for residence life at a college first maybe....I don't know because I've wanted to be a veterinarian for so long now I don't know what else to be!
 
im thinking podiatry....:laugh:
 
twelvetigers said:
I mentioned band geeks quite a while ago, but never what sort I actually was. I'm curious though - lots of sting players and a clarinet... anyone here play the (French) horn? That's my instrument of choice. I'd love to play in an orchestra, but I've neglected my horn in lieu of horrible things like organic chemistry.
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ughh, ditto. I played violin for 8 years and have barely touched it since starting undergrad. I miss orchestra!!


hmmm...if I HAD to be something else...probably a pianist
 
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