Curious Circus: Career Week 2015 @ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UPM

Upon our second week of semester 1 as new student of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), we had have our Career Week 2015 organized by Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FPV) and Veternak, held in Auditorium FPV for three days (14^th,15^th and 17^th September 2015).

The concept of this programme is to expose us, DVM1 to various veterinary-related career ranging from serving in government services to non-government association; experts from small animal practices, pharmaceuticals, poultry, wildlife, aquatic to equine medicine shares their experiences and prospect of each sector with us. On the first day we had Dr Paul Chelliah Suppiah, the president of Veterinary Association Malaysia talk us about the roles and four pillars of veterinary industry. I plan to get a student membership of the association after this. Dr Ardhy Adnan from Department of Veterinary Services showed us the job scopes of a veterinary officer. I started to get familiar with DVS when I took Veterinary Public Health course back in diploma, and it was not surprising to understand the main concern of DVS is human welfare, where work under DVS will deal with livestock, meat inspection, and monitoring zoonoses.

These poster are truly a masterpiece! So pretty!

On the second day, first speaker Dr Melissa Phoon shared her expertise in both small animal medicine and scientific communication researcher of Royal Canin. I can definitely relate when she talk about the ‘Veterinary Olympic’ where a less fancy and hectic life of clinician in a hospital. I guess most vet go through the same frustration when communicate with pets owner who had a common misconception of injection can cure everything lol. When I was having my internship in veterinary clinic, our vet once told us that dealing with customer is much tiring than taking care the animals. Well, I should brush up my communication skills by now for this :目. Dr Melissa also reminded us the ups and downs in this field – the satisfaction of saving one, and the distress of losing one. When I was young I fear becoming a vet one day will mold me cold-bloodedly and eventually turn numb, accustom to their death. Today I still looking for the answer or the best shoes that I should put myself in. Growing up to a less sentimental me (and through attending clinical cases), I learned that it may not be ‘cruel’ but humane to let go of these old, weak, suffering patients to freedom from pain. Appreciating them professionally is different from callousness that I used to think. After all, wisdom is addressing highs and lows in life with indifference. ‘We have the gift from God to save life,’ I was moved by Dr Melissa’s words. I have always wanted to enroll in small animal practices, but I enjoyed Dr Eve Foong’s talk on her experiences in Sunway Lagoon Wildlife Park as well. Future is full of possibility, I will not limit myself in a particular field for now and will explore as many as I can indeed.

On third day we have speaker talked on psychology, aquatic medicine and equine industry! Dr Chua Chee Heng shared some tips on how to find a suitable job for each individual, by grouping our personality according to the Holland's Theory - realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising or conventional (RIASEC). Next speaker—— Prof Dato' Dr Mohamed Shariff Mohamed Din, who I admire most, as usual, never fail to inspire me. 'No dream is too big, the sky is the limit,' he told us. Omg I'm so in love with these powerful words! He taught us fish disease during diploma final year too. I am always impressed with his great success, whether it is inventing test kit white spot syndrome in shrimp, or discover new species of parasite and named it after his youngest son, or become one of the member of OIE in Malaysia...... I even feel so proud to have him as my academic advisor! Lolol. Anyway aquaculture industry is growing in Malaysia and venture into it is a good path too. Finally, we had our 'horse lady', Dr Rebecca Tan to talk us on equine industry. In fact, she didn't prepared slides to show us as 'she is not trying to sell equine industry to us'. And 'she might be harsh but if we survive her speech, we will learn a lot'. She told us how she been busy during her student life and how much she love horses (she never say that but I know she do!). It was fun to listen to her story. She said she spend all her free times at equine unit untill Uncle Balu have to chase her away lol. I get attracted to her 'aura' as she is so strong, brave, passionate and determined in things she want to achieve. I can almost feel her toughness, both mentally and physically. It is hard to express with my limited vocabulary and poor grammar, I wish Dr Lim were there too. :p Wait...veterinary industry is so small that maybe they know each other? After all, Dr Rebecca, Dr Gaya and Dr Chua were course-mate! Okay. Time to submit assignment 2! Hope everyone enjoy reading! :D