0:08

Are you looking for positive change within veterinary

0:10

medicine ? If you want a community

0:12

that's focused on progress rather than

0:14

perfection , you're in the right place . Hey

0:17

there , I'm Dr Stacy Cordivano , and

0:19

I want veterinarians to learn to be happier

0:22

, healthier , wealthier and

0:24

more grateful for the lives that we've created

0:26

. Welcome to The Whole Veterinarian

0:29

podcast .

0:36

Platinum Performance is proud to support

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the Whole Veterinarian . For

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nearly 30 years we've stood beside

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veterinarians with advanced nutrition

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for the health of your patients and practice

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. At Platinum Performance , we

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know the power of nutrition starts

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within .

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Hey there , I hope you are doing well . This

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episode is a little different . You're just going to be

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hearing from me no interview . Today

1:00

. I want to share

1:03

some of the insight that

1:05

my fellow sustainability

1:07

and equine practice alumni have shared

1:10

with me . Rachel and I have

1:12

been interviewing for a tech

1:14

or assistant position for the last two

1:16

weeks or so . I asked

1:18

the best group of people that

1:21

I know some of their favorite questions

1:23

on how to really dig

1:25

in to get to know a

1:27

technician applicant . I

1:29

want to share those with you today . It's

1:32

always hard to add

1:34

a person to the mobile

1:36

team . We spend a lot of time

1:38

together in the car . It's

1:40

a grueling job some days

1:42

. It's also great sometimes because you

1:44

get to stop for ice cream , but there's

1:47

a lot of time together , potentially more than

1:49

in a hospital setting . I

1:53

have always been hesitant

1:55

to add team members , but it's definitely time

1:57

. Rachel needs the help this spring

2:00

. She didn't even really have a slow

2:02

season this winter , like we're used to , so it

2:04

is definitely time . There's

2:07

just a collective wisdom in the alumni

2:09

group that is SEPS . I

2:11

want to share , with their permission

2:14

, some of the awesome questions that they found

2:16

. One that I found

2:18

personally helpful that

2:21

I think just found online was

2:23

the question what

2:25

is one thing that your friends or family

2:28

members might say that they would

2:30

like to change about you ? I

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got a lot of really great answers and some

2:34

good insight to who they are as

2:36

a person that they wouldn't

2:38

probably have brought up if I hadn't asked

2:41

that question . Another great

2:43

one from Dr Shalyn Crawford

2:45

was do you get carsick and

2:47

can you work on a computer in the car ? I

2:50

don't know that . I actually would have thought about

2:52

that , but a huge part of the role

2:54

that we're hiring for is to help with billing

2:57

and exam notes while

2:59

Rachel's driving Really

3:01

important , although I will say Dr

3:04

Lisa Kivitt , who I'm going to quote here in a minute

3:06

, has found amazing

3:09

goggles that will help with motion

3:12

sickness . If you need that link , let

3:14

me know and I will send it to you . Let's

3:18

hear from Dr Kivitt . One of the ones

3:20

I love that she suggested

3:23

was what's an

3:25

embarrassing moment or a big failure

3:27

in your career thus far ? How

3:30

did you handle that or move on from it ? I think

3:32

that opens the door to a

3:35

good discussion about

3:37

what people consider a failure

3:39

and what they do to recover

3:41

from it . Another one I loved

3:43

was Dr Caitlin Daly suggested

3:45

asking people about the last book

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they read or movie they watched or a TV

3:50

show that they're binging . That's

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really important because , like I said , we spend a lot of time

3:54

together . Having something

3:57

to talk about , that you're maybe on the same

3:59

page as your technician

4:01

in the car , can be really great and it's

4:03

a good way to find out what they're into

4:05

. I also made sure to ask what hobbies

4:08

they had outside of work to see if there was

4:10

anything that was in alignment . Dr Julie

4:12

Setlage gave us a great question

4:15

. She said to ask

4:17

what motivates them to get out

4:19

of bed and come to work . I think inherently

4:22

, people are going to say horses , but the

4:24

ones that expanded a little bit more

4:26

on that was helpful to

4:28

see how they operate

4:30

on their day-to-day basis . She also

4:32

suggested asking how do you like to

4:34

receive feedback on your performance ? I

4:38

got some great answers from that

4:40

. A lot of the people we had interviewing

4:42

were fairly young , so I wasn't even

4:44

sure that they would have an

4:46

answer to that , but I was shocked at how

4:48

many did and most of them said they wished

4:50

they had more , which was really important

4:53

to know and also great to hear , because

4:55

I think that's beneficial for everybody

4:57

. And then Dr

5:00

Louise Batt suggested bringing

5:02

up the idea of core values and seeing what

5:04

they thought of were their core values

5:06

, to see if they were in alignment with our practices

5:09

core values . So I made sure to

5:11

send them the list that I love from

5:13

Brunet Brown ahead of time for

5:15

their ride along interviews . I didn't ask them this

5:17

in their initial Zoom interview but

5:20

I did ask them to think

5:22

about it before they came to ride along with

5:24

us so we could chat a little bit more in depth

5:26

with them as we are driving around . And

5:37

then Dr Kavit mentioned this too , but she

5:40

suggested asking people to

5:42

define some well-known

5:44

horse ailments like colic

5:46

laminitis , navicular syndrome . She

5:49

found it a good way to really

5:51

weed out who were actually horse people

5:53

and who just trail

5:55

road a few times , and she was like I don't

5:57

care how technical they get , but it is a

5:59

good weed out and this go

6:01

round . We were really lucky that we had a lot of people

6:04

apply with true , actual horsemanship

6:06

experience , but that's not always the case

6:08

. The other question that I

6:10

found to be pretty helpful and

6:13

it was a good way to segue into

6:15

the questions from them . Portion

6:17

of the interview was to ask is

6:20

there anything in the job description that

6:22

sounds scary or

6:24

you don't want to do it ? And then also

6:26

, is there anything that you wish was in

6:28

the job description that you didn't

6:31

see listed ? So that led

6:33

us into a good kind of discussion about

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skills that they were excited

6:37

to try but really didn't have any experience

6:39

on . It was a way to find out some

6:42

of their interests that we didn't even have

6:44

listed on the job description , so I

6:46

thought that was a good point of reference . So

6:48

, like I said , this is a quick episode but

6:51

hopefully helpful to you . Share it

6:53

with a friend if you know someone looking for a tech

6:55

. We are also creating

6:57

a two page interview

6:59

outline template with a bunch of

7:01

these questions and kind of

7:03

a brief overview on

7:05

maybe how to get started . I know that

7:07

for me , hiring was always a

7:09

daunting process , and the sustainability

7:12

and equine practice seminar alumni

7:14

is so knowledgeable in this , and

7:17

so we wanted to put out a resource using

7:19

their ideas to share with everybody

7:21

. It'll be a free download . I'll link it in the show

7:24

notes . It'll also be on the seminar

7:26

website , which is just SEP eminars

7:28

. com , and

7:31

you can download it for free . Check it out , bring

7:33

it into your next interview and we hope

7:35

that you find it helpful . I hope you have

7:37

a great week and I'll talk to you soon . Thanks

7:41

again for listening to today's episode

7:43

. I so very much appreciate you spending

7:45

some of your time with me . I know how

7:47

valuable it is . If you want to do

7:49

me a favor , please share this episode

7:52

or any of the episodes with a friend to

7:54

spread the word , and you can also hit

7:56

subscribe or follow wherever

7:58

you listen to podcasts to make sure you never miss

8:00

another episode . I hope you have a great

8:02

week and I'll talk to you again soon .