How To Find Your Place In and Out of Clinical Equine Practice featuring Dr. Cara Wright

Ever wondered how a career leap within the veterinary field actually goes? Dr. Cara Wright joins us to share her journey from clinical practice into equine professional services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health.

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Find out how Dr. Cara is leveraging her new platform to make a positive impact in the veterinary world, and how personal milestones like her engagement and triathlon pursuits intertwine with her professional evolution. Amidst the laughter and candid revelations, we traverse the emotional landscape of departing from hands-on clinical work, embracing the multifaceted world of veterinary industry opportunities. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for any veterinary professional contemplating a bold career shift.
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Hear the first interview ever recorded for TWV - featuring the very same Cara Wright!

Check out Cara's recommendation for airplane headphones

Connect further with Cara - cara.wright.dvm@gmail.com

Chapters

• 0:08 Veterinary Medicine and Career Transitions
• 9:15 Transitioning From Clinical to Industry
• 12:32 Equine Vet Practice and Challenges
• 17:52 Time Management and Travel Tips

Transcript

Stacey Cordivano: 0:08

Are you looking for positive change within veterinary medicine? If you want a community that's focused on progress rather than perfection, you're in the right place. Hey there, I'm Dr Stacey Cordivano, and I want veterinarians to learn to be happier, healthier, wealthier and more grateful for the lives that we've created. Welcome to the Whole Veterinarian Podcast. Our guest today is a repeat fan favorite, Dr Cara Wright. Cara is a huge supporter of the Whole Veterinarian and even volunteered to be my very first interview way back at the beginning of this venture.

Stacey Cordivano: 0:47

She's an excellent gift giver, an I on the disc profile, an Enneagram number seven and an all-around vivacious human being and friend. She currently works as a professional services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health and keeps her hand in equine medicine with relief coverage and chiropractic work on the side. When she's not training for a triathlon, you'll find her planning her next amazing travel adventure or reading a novel with her two tiny dogs. I really appreciate the vulnerability that Kara shares with us in this interview. The narrative often goes oh, I'll move to industry to get out of the rat race that is clinical veterinary practice. But I think Cara is honest about her new job being just as difficult to manage, even though it's hard in its own new way. She also gets the chance to explain some of the additional ways she's able to make a difference in her new role, which is exciting and inspiring. Thanks again to Cara for joining me again and we hope you enjoy the conversation.

Platinum Performance: 1:40

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Stacey Cordivano: 1:59

Okie dokie, I'm back again with Dr Cara Wright and I would just like to point out the difference in this recording and the very first recording I ever did for this podcast, which was with you, and I was so nervous. I'm going to link it in the show notes just so people can compare how bad it was. Not your answers, but my questions.

Cara Wright: 2:24

I mean both. Honestly, it was so fun, though it was exciting, it was exciting.

Stacey Cordivano: 2:31

I was sitting in Carter's room with like pillows surrounding me. Oh my gosh.

Cara Wright: 2:36

How are you? I'm doing great. Those were the days right. Those were the days.

Stacey Cordivano: 2:44

Okay, right, those were the days. Okay. Well, thanks for coming back on, you know, as a solo guest for the first time since then, and you know a lot's changed. It's been almost four years, so I feel like we have a lot to catch up on for listeners. But basically, maybe give a little rundown on where you're at in life right now.

Cara Wright: 3:05

Yeah. So I guess last time I was here I think I had just moved to California, I was working in private practice and then now fast forward to 2024,. I am just about coming up on my two-year anniversary of being a professional services veterinarian at Merck Animal Health, which is super exciting, but definitely was a bit of a change when that happened. I'm still triathloning, I still have a wiener dog and a fluffy dog. I'm still. Everything's the same, except the job, I think. Well, you're almost married, oh my God, stace.

Stacey Cordivano: 3:39

What we're not allowed to talk about that.

Cara Wright: 3:41

I'm pushing the business out on the internet. Oops, didn't know that was off limits, but yeah, that's a change, right, I mean lots of good changes.

Stacey Cordivano: 3:54

I guess a lot, and I'm wondering if you hear it too, but what did the transition look like for you? Why this choice? I mean, I know that it's been on your radar for a long, long time, but kind of, why the choice for you at the moment and how did you navigate that?

Cara Wright: 4:18

Yeah, those are some good questions in there. So a tiny bit of background for some of you out there. When I was a new graduate, maybe two or three years out of school, I had met one of the professional services vets with one of the companies and I was like, oh man, their job is awesome. I thought that they took people out to dinner and just got to talk to people all day and did presentations and I thought that that was really cool, because when I was in vet school and even during my internship, I thought I was going to go back and do a residency and end up being a teacher like, and being out of veterinary school Like I thought that's what I would do. And then I realized that wasn't what I was going to do. But then I thought, oh, like, being an industry vet like kind of seems similar to that.

Cara Wright: 5:01

So I had actually looked into a role like this, you know, like I said, a couple of years out of school, and I started talking to my, my sales reps from the different companies and asking them. You know what the job was like and I talked to a couple of professional services vets and you know everybody was super nice, but they in general were kind of like oh, that's cute, You've only been out of school for a couple of years, like come back later, and I understand that. Now, no-transcript as best presentation on the day. And my favorite one was about a mud bath experience in Napa which basically, like TLDR, reminded me of a dairy vet school when you went to the dairy and everything was just cement walls with hoses everywhere. This was that, with this mud bath in the middle of the room and then these ladies who hosed you down when you got out, and it was horrifying.

Stacey Cordivano: 6:25

I can't believe

Cara Wright: 6:27

Oh, you know what, next time I see drinks on me I'll tell you this story. So, anyway, practiced public speaking was the kind of the big piece of advice that they gave me. So then, fast forward through private practice, through moving overseas, doing relief work for a few years, coming back to the States, back to private practice, and so at that point I guess I'd been I'm so bad at math just 10 or 11 years out of school, maybe 12.

Cara Wright: 6:56

And I kind of got to the junction in a lot of people's careers. You're thinking about what is next. Are you going to stay at this practice and be an associate? Are you going to look into practice ownership, either at that practice that you're at, or going out on your own, or what that would look like? So I was at the juncture of you know, what am I going to do next? Am I going to stay here? Am I going to start my own practice? And you know, is California my home. You know, I just didn't really know what that was and this job was posted and I was like you know, maybe it's time to dust off my CV and see what happens. So I applied for the job, sort of forgot about it for a few months because everything takes forever at companies and then ended up interviewing and getting the job. It felt very random and fast at the time, but it is something I had thought about several years prior but then had sort of just pushed it. I guess I kind of had forgotten about it.

Stacey Cordivano: 7:47

Yeah Well, you felt like you had to be like much older and wiser.

Cara Wright: 7:53

I did Right. And then you know, most of the other professional services vets that I had seen were people who had done their 20 or 25 years in practice and had owned a practice and sold it and were specialists, and they didn't look like me. So, yeah, you're right, it sort of didn't pop up to be the thing that that was at the front of my brain pop up to be the thing that that was at the front of my brain.

Stacey Cordivano: 8:18

So what do you think? I mean, I guess who knows right, but what do you think helped you land the job at this juncture? Like, like you said, you are mid-career. Have you gotten any feedback or do you have any thoughts on for you specifically how that worked out?

Cara Wright: 8:29

I do think it was a matter of sort of the right time, the right place for what the team was looking for. And obviously you know my manager can correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like they were hiring on fit for the team and personality for the team and just sort of how it would balance out altogether. You know, like I said, I'm not board certified, I haven't owned a practice for 25 years, I haven't done all those things, but I think I mean, I don't know, maybe I'm just cool to talk to States.

Stacey Cordivano: 9:06

I mean, yes, I can vouch for that. I mean so, okay, Shifting slightly, do people ask you, like, what's your advice? So, like, besides Toastmasters, like do people ask you that, like, clearly, clinical practice, depending on people's situations, may not work for them anymore and a lot of people do look to industry. So do people ask you for your advice on the transition?

Cara Wright: 9:31

Yes, they do. So people do ask me for advice on that transition and I guess that's a little bit of a two-part answer, because my other answer and this is something that's been talked about in a lot of places, including on your podcasts with other guests as well but I think just because full-time clinical practice the way it's looked forever isn't working for you, doesn't mean that other forms of clinical practice. You know you can make it look different and it might work. But that's kind of a tangent to that conversation. But as far as industry goes, my advice for everyone would be start talking to the people you see doing the job and ask them about it. You know what you see potentially as a practice owner or an associate. You know you see your rep come to town and you're like, oh good, I'm going to go get some free drinks and dinner, like this will be super fun. But that is. That is a small part of the job is hanging out with clients and having a good time.

Cara Wright: 10:25

There's a lot of other stuff kind of behind the scenes. There's opportunities to do research, there's a lot of education and writing and it's pretty cool because once you get in you see that there are so many ways that you can go as a veterinarian in industry Something that I didn't know and forgive me, I don't recall her exact title, but she was one of the big people running marketing for Merck Animal Health North America and she was a veterinarian. One of the vice presidents of, you know, companion animal and equine is a veterinarian. So there are a lot of really cool things you can do, and if you want to do research, there's tons of that. If you want to do education, there's that option as well. So I guess my advice that was a really long answer is talk to the people who are doing the job that you think you want and learn as much as you can about it, because it is not just going out to dinner and like giving you a baseball hat.

Stacey Cordivano: 11:19

Okay, so kind of on that topic, what was the transition for you? Like, right, like, even if you're really interested in this job, it's still a big part of your identity to be a practicing equine veterinarian and you're going into this whole new world of, like, corporate language and layers and bureaucracy and probably rules that we're not used to following. How did you navigate that?

Cara Wright: 11:47

Well, the first thing I did is at our very first team meeting, when I was meeting everyone else on the equine team for the first time, when I had to stand up and introduce myself, I started sobbing about how I felt like a sellout, because I'm no longer a full-time clinical practicing veterinarian and I wasn't sure if I made the right choice. So I guess the first thing you do is you cry about it in front of all of your team.

Stacey Cordivano: 12:11

So the transition was easy then front of all of your team.

Cara Wright: 12:17

So the transition was easy then it was great, no, but seriously, that was actually a really important moment for me because I did deal, and I still am dealing with some feelings of guilt for leaving full-time clinical practice. I am making up for it, in my opinion, by doing relief work on the weekends for equine practices that need coverage. I am seeing a few chiro horses here and there, which keeps me happy. It keeps my hands on the horses and I do think that, being in this job, I can help people who need help in practice in a different way, which I think is really important. But that is something that is a bit of a struggle, you know, especially at this time when we're spending a lot of time talking about the equine profession and keeping people in it. But, that being said, I think for anyone that is struggling with full time clinical practice again like there are ways to make it work for you. You know, the old model is just not what everyone has to do anymore.

Stacey Cordivano: 13:17

Yeah, A thousand percent. We need to be thinking outside the box. I said it a million times, but, um, and I think finally, like whether that message is spreading or the message that, like, people are just desperate enough to take what they can get right, Associates or employees are in the driver's seat of how to create the life that they want as an equine vet. Um, so yeah, good reminder for sure. So you mentioned that. You know it's not all dinner and drinks and obviously there's a big learning curve and probably like imposter syndrome and things like that. But what else like goes into it for you, good and bad?

Cara Wright: 14:11

taking all of those classes that we forgot we took, like immunology and, you know, parasitology and all these things. I mean it was like, yeah, it was tricky, and then you know, do you talk about imposter syndrome? I'm sitting here trying to like learn this stuff and I'm like, oh my gosh, like was I supposed to have learned this? It was like a little traumatic. I was a little like, uh, are they sure they should have hired me? Like this looks like a foreign language, right, but it's just like anything, like anything, and like we all learned it but we all forget it. Because you narrow down to what you do day to day. You're not reading papers on. I mean, maybe you are y'all, some of you out there are probably reading papers on immunology, but most of us are probably not reading like deep science, which is what I feel. Like you know, our role is right as educators or as PSVs or or whatever is to like help people figure out what science is doing. You know, I do have a friend that reads the AAP proceedings from cover to cover every single year but, like most people don't do that. So you know, in this role I can learn those things and help help people figure it out.

Cara Wright: 15:09

So the learning was really tough in the beginning. The travel is really hard and I don't know if that's just because I'm 40 now, so I'm old, and it's like harder on your body, but so it's a lot more tiring than I anticipated. And another struggle I had in this job and I'm doing better, but the lack of structure when I'm not traveling was a really big challenge for me, right? Like I know what I need to do. Everyone expects it's going to get done and it's going to get done well, but there's no micromanaging, there's no scheduling.

Cara Wright: 15:41

You know you don't come to work and look at your schedule and say, oh, like dentals and then a lameness. And then you know you're like, oh, I have all these things to do. And like, oh, maybe this thing, I'm not giving this talk for another two months but like, oh, wait, I forgot, I'm traveling for the next five weeks, so I better do it now, right? So like that kind of learning how to manage my time was slash is still a little bit of a challenge for me. But yeah, the travel. Honestly, like I don't. I don't know what people do in hotels. Like why would you bring your combat boots and then run around in circles on the third floor but like people do that all the time.

Stacey Cordivano: 16:18

It's like really bizarre. So do you try to sleep on the top floor now?

Cara Wright: 16:22

Yeah, I do Huh, and away from the elevator. I think part of it is like I'm generally like a bit of a light sleeper, but like I think part of it is like I'm generally like a bit of a light sleeper but, like I mean, it is wild out there sometimes.

Stacey Cordivano: 16:35

So if you could distill it down, is that a little bit what you might say your primary role is is to get information from the textbook or paper form into veterinarians hands. To be more applicable.

Cara Wright: 16:59

Or am I like distilling your job down too much? I do think education and helping people figure out what's important out there is part of the job.

Stacey Cordivano: 17:04

for sure Got it. What's one thing you'd say you love about it currently?

Cara Wright: 17:08

I love the fact that there are so many things that I am doing and you know me really well so like having five different projects at the same time.

Cara Wright: 17:20

What? No surprise? Yeah, like I feel really happy about it. Like there's a research project that I'm working on right now and not only am I trying to organize it, but like I got to go out and like see some horses for it, so like that sounds super fun. I'm working on another program and then sometimes I get to talk to marketing and they ask us to do things, and then I'm reading papers that then have to get revised, or, you know, there's always something going on. So there's a lot of just different stuff which for me, is really important.

Stacey Cordivano: 17:52

Cool. And then I also wanted to circle back to one thing. Time management is tricky for a lot of people, like whether it's me you know in my own practice, like juggling kids and the work that needs to be done, or someone who you know doesn't walk in with a schedule that's like that by the minute. So do you have any tips or tricks that you've learned along the way?

Cara Wright: 18:16

That's a work in progress, for sure. I think, being kind to yourself, if sometimes the only thing you can do is the easiest thing on your to-do list, even if it's not the most important, I think that's okay, because I think sometimes at least for me I'm like oh, these two things are easy, but I really need to focus on this big thing. But that's not always the case, right? Like sometimes you need to do a little bit of something to get some momentum.

Cara Wright: 18:43

And I do think and this is the same, I mean I did this when I was in clinical practice like block out your time that you want for your things and then work around it, right?

Cara Wright: 18:51

So you know, for me that's I want to go on a bike ride or whatever, like put it in and make it happen, and then you can do all your other stuff around it, and so it's the same thing for me. You know, when I've got stuff to do, I actually have figured out I do a lot of really good work on Saturday evenings, cause like that's a time that like there's nothing else happening in my life that I'd rather be doing, so I can actually sit down and focus for longer than I usually can in a different day, and so I think that's another way that if you have the flexibility, like, figure out what works for you. If you're a morning person, like do stuff in the morning, if you're not, like no one says that it has to be nine to five- if you're not like, no one says that it has to be nine to five, right, yeah, all right.

Stacey Cordivano: 19:35

Well, let's wrap up with one other thing that I'm going to ask you for advice on, which is any tips you've learned for making travel suck less, because I agree it may be age, but it's not been great lately yeah, it's, it's a whole thing.

Cara Wright: 19:49

Um so number one Don't be cheap, like me, and avoid buying really nice noise canceling headphones forever. Just buy them. It makes a huge difference on the airplane, not not if there's like lots of loud noises, but just to like kind of quiet, that like airplane noise and just the din of everything. Um, that has made a big difference to me. I actually have found another weird time management thing. I get a lot of work done on airplanes and I think it's because, right, you're sitting there. You're like, let me hammer this out while I've got a couple hours.

Stacey Cordivano: 20:24

Yeah, so pay for wifi. That's another good tip.

Cara Wright: 20:27

Yeah, exactly. Or get an industry job. You'll fly so much You'll get free Wi-Fi oh, okay, yeah, so many miles, guys, so many miles, and then hotels. So this is actually I am old for sure, because I'm very particular about my pillow now, and so I bought like a memory foam camping pillow that rolls up and it fits in my carry-on or I attach it to my backpack. I'm like a memory foam camping pillow that rolls up and it fits in my carry on or I attach it to my backpack, and that has actually been a huge bonus for helping me get better.

Cara Wright: 20:57

Sleep in hotels is just having a pillow that is slightly more comfortable for what I need and the other thing that I have started doing. So here's a tip If you ever stay in a really fancy hotel that gives you slippers, you should take those slippers and then you should use them every time you go to the Hilton Garden Inn, which does not give you slippers, and that is also. It's just like nicer to be walking around. You know, bring flip flops, bring something in your hotel room. And then white noise machines right, get an app on your phone and that can be helpful. And then white noise machines right, get an app on your phone and that can be helpful. It doesn't help the people like tap dancing upstairs, but it does help with just some of like the weird hotel you know if the fan is blowing or whatever. A white noise machine can be slightly more helpful.

Stacey Cordivano: 21:41

Cool. I also found a white noise machine on Amazon. That's like the size of a quarter and like the same depth Little. So if you're worried about I don't know your phone being on all night, then that's another option.

Cara Wright: 21:55

Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, for sure.

Stacey Cordivano: 21:58

Cool, all right. Well, thanks for all the updates and kind of insight into how to merge industry life with the little bit of outside clinical practice as well. I think it's kind of a conglomeration to hear about for people, so I appreciate your time.

Cara Wright: 22:14

Absolutely. Thanks for having me back. It's exciting to be here four years later.

Stacey Cordivano: 22:19

Thanks again for listening to today's episode. I so very much appreciate you spending some of your time with me. I know how valuable it is. If you want to do me a favor, please share this episode or any of the episodes with a friend to spread the word, and you can also hit subscribe or follow wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you never miss another episode. I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon.