Finding the right workplace culture as an LGBTQIA+ veterinary graduate

Workplace culture can play a significant role in a veterinarian's early career, particularly for new graduates and LGBTQIA+ professionals evaluating potential employers. In this interview, Tripp Oliphant, DVM, discusses practical ways to assess a hospital's environment during the job search process, from observing interactions among team members to speaking with support staff. He also reflects on the factors that can contribute to long-term professional growth, arguing that a supportive workplace may ultimately matter more than a higher starting salary.

Below is the transcript, which has been lightly edited for improved clarity.

Tripp Oliphant, DVM: I think the biggest thing for any veterinarian, including a new grad, especially a new grad, is going to be culture, and it’s a vocabulary word that we use as a buzzword. We want good culture, we want good culture, and it's a very easy thing to explain that culture is important, but you don't really know culture until you have been around it, and so I would encourage people, if they can take one or two weeks and really just kind of go through the day to day at those hospitals and see how the day to day is, how the flow is, how do colleagues talk about each other, and how are they talking to you about colleagues, right? Are the doctors respected? Do they like the medicine that they're practicing? Talk with the doctors, but also talk to the support staff, because they're the ones who are working with those individuals every single day, and it may be that this doctor is not very open to your lifestyle or the way that you are, and they may be very honest with you about that.

I think another big thing is listening to conversations without you being involved, listening to conversations when people are not in the room and not always focusing. I think the biggest thing is it's very easy, especially in veterinary school, to come out and they give you a very large offer with this great salary—we all have student loans that we have to pay back, a lot of us do, and so that can be very enticing—but I would venture to say you're going to be so much happier if you choose the hospital that you feel truly accepted and you love the culture. The money will come, you will grow, you'll get a better salary, and you'll be a better veterinarian if you're in a community or an environment that is sustainable for your growth as a veterinarian, and you feel supported, and so I would say just really focus in on those things.