Career opportunities for veterinary technicians outside the clinic

Tabitha Kucera, RVT, VTS (Behavior), CCBC, KPA-CTP, FFCP, owner of Chirrups and Chatter Cat and Dog Behavior Consulting and Training in Cleveland, Ohio, discusses various available career paths for veterinary technicians outside of the traditional clinical setting. “There are unlimited opportunities for veterinary technicians. We definitely downplay our amazing skill set,” she says.

Below is the interview transcript:

Tabitha Kucera, RVT, VTS (Behavior), CCBC, KPA-CTP, FFCP: There are unlimited opportunities for veterinary technicians. We definitely downplay our amazing skill set. So just for me personally, I own my own cat and dog behavior consulting business, but I also do organizational consulting for shelters and vet clinics where they want to implement behavior modification or behavior at all, whether it’s kitten puppy socialization or collaborative care handling and/or fear-free handling. And I consult and educate with that organization.

You can also definitely create content via various social media platforms [and] podcasts, I also have one of those. But you can also write. So, I write for various organizations, and this could be a caregiver like a Martha Stewart or The Spruce or something along [those lines]. Those are things I’ve written for in the past. Or a veterinary publication, like VETgirl or dvm360. There are so many writing opportunities. And I’ll be honest: I love my bloggers out there, but I much rather have animal veterinary technicians writing content about animal care than maybe someone that just loves cats.

So if you’re into writing, please reach out. Those are things you could definitely do part-time or full-time. But also, you could do pet sitting. Hospice care is something that is my second favorite thing. Teaching, being a relief vet tech—I mean, I can go on and on and on. There are so many options.

And then even in your practice, if you’re working in general practice, you can create programs. I had a technician who was really into nutrition because, again, lean into your happy. And nutrition wasn’t all of our favorite thing, so he started keeping stock and letting us know when we were out of things, but also helping to calculate calories for caregivers, talk about weight loss plans and also answer questions about nutrition.

So not only was that technician empowered, so they’re happier in their job, but also, they were doing their favorite thing and we were allowing them, since that’s their favorite thing and they’re doing it the most, they’re probably staying the most up to date and educated about that. So again, it’s a win-win for the entire team and definitely the caregivers and pets we support.

This transcript was lightly edited for improved clarity.