Deciding my future career path and tertiary study I need to get there are big decisions! A special thank you to the DVM 2's for organizing the career week for us.
Career Week is great preparation for what we actually do at FPV, we learned from people who have years of industry experience. It was a fantastic week, fun the entire time listening to experienced speakers sharing their experiences with us.
First and foremost, we have Dr. Paul Chelliah Suppiah which is the president of Veterinary Association Malaysia having 30 years of clinical experience. He introduced us the 4 pillars of veterinary profession which is the Veterinary Statutory Body, Veterinary Authority, Veterinary Education and Veterinary Fraternity. The core business of Veterinary Association Malaysia is to promote veterinary profession, have continuous professional develpoment, strengthening the professional relationship with National and International Bodies and not forgetting to take care of their member's welfare.
The second speaker is Dr. Ardhy bin Adnan from Department of Veterinary Sciences Malaysia (DVS). Vision : A competent veterinary authority serving the animal industry for the sake of human welfare; Mision : Provide quality veterinary services as an assurance for public health and sustainable livestock industry for the sake of human welfare. Their objective is to strengthen and mantain animal health status conducive to the animal industry, giving public health assurance through the control of zoonotic diseases and wholesome food production from animal based producs, encourage sustainable livestock production and value added industry, explore the use of technology and optimum use of sources in animal based industry and to promote animal welfare practises.
The speaker coming up next is Dr. Bahsharudin Mohd Sharif which
is into veterinary researching. He graduated from UPM in 1995. He mentioned
that it is not an easy job to be a veterinarian as we need to have a lot of
knowledge in order for us to be able to carry out our responsibilities. We are
lucky enough to secure a place in UPM since there are still thousands of people
outside who doesn’t have a chance to enter this course. According to Dr.
Bahsharudin, in order to sustain in this field, we need to have time, patient,
passion and discipline. It is okay for not having much experience but having a
good mentor is important. He also said that “what comes easy wont last long,
what last long wont come easy” which I learned a lot from him.
Dr. Melissa Phoon is a specialist in small animals. She became
a clinician in private clinic and now working as a certified veterinarian under
Royal Canin. She have great passion for animals. She told us that becoming a
clinic vet is a tough job where you will need to multitask, catch animal’s
urine, help animals to trim their nails, deal with fierce animals or
unreasonable owners. When she is working in Royal Canin, it is a quite
different aspect because she will have to stay in the office and manage the
company’s profit. Sometimes there will be events held and she will get to
interact with animals and their owners.
We also have Dr Yew Ee Ling as our speaker during career week. Dr Yew worked as a Technical & Regulatory Veterinarian at Agritech Enterprise Sdn. Bhd. For now, she is the Technical & Sales Executive of Zoetis Malaysia. She introduced to us lots of company such as Bayer, Merial, Virbac, Hipra, MSD and etc so that those who are interested in these market will know where to go upon their graduation. She gives technical advise to companion animal vets, involve in marketing activities and assist in managing product launching. She also told us to “thank a farmer for your next meal”.
Dr Eve Foong is currently working as a wildlife veterinarian
in Sunway Lagoon. There are many challenges that a wildlife vet will need to
face which is the great diversity in animals, limited studies on a specific
animal, limited record on animal health condition, unclear management
direction, staffing, inconsiderate customers, physically and emotionally stress
and you will get bites and scratches. Her daily routine is checking on warded
animals, husbandry, observing animals, updating records, attend to treatment or
other problems and planning. She also emphasized that there are much
improvements can be done such as the medical facilities and animal welfare.
Both profit and animal welfare need to attain a balance in order for her to
survive in the field.
Well, we also have Dr. Chua Chee Heng, a Techno-Commercial manager. He took up the vet course in UPM and later on worked for a small animal company which he found out that he don’t like to work as a veterinarian. He thought of being a radiologist after going to UK but he ended up working as a human resource manager. He switched his job to become a counseller and he love this job very much. In order to success in life, he told us to set a target that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound.
Besides, we have Prof. Dato’ Dr. Muhamed Sharrif Mohamed
Din, which field of expertise is aquatic medicine and he have research interest
in fish and shrimp disease. He got his Doctor of Philosophy degree and master
of science in University of Stirling, Scotland, and in 1975, he took his
veterinary course in University of Agriculture, Faizalabad. He went to a lot of
countries to give talks and teach students from all over the world. He is a
very inspiring speaker and he won a lot of awards. “No dream is too big, the
sky is the limit”, he wants us to be brave so that we can live up to our
dreams.
Lastly, we have Dr. Rebecca Tan as an Equine veterinarian.
It is an extremely difficult job to become an equine vet because when you work
in that industry, customer will prefer to listen to foreign equine vet rather
than a Malaysian equine vet no matter how good are you. They prefer to pay more
to seek advise from foreigners. She aslo told us her stories when she is in
DVM, she often sneak out to the equine hospital to give them food, take care of
them and of course she wants more hands on experience on the things she likes.
She worked very hard and she tried her very best to read up about horses since
the knowledge in our syllabus about horses are limited. I look up on her attitute
because I can feel her passion towards equine. Now, she is doing confidently
pursuing her dream.
What the public think you are doing
VS
What you are actually doing
Thanks for watching ! :D
