I trained and worked as a veterinarian for five years before deciding on a career change that led me to McKinsey. I'll never regret walking through that door, though I regularly walk back through it to borrow from my experience in medicine. Many of the skills I built in that field have been surprisingly helpful in my role as a consultant.
High scores and expectations
Like a lot of teenagers, I pursued studies based on the grades I received in high school. My strong grades meant my career counsellor pointed me in a lot of the usual directions: medicine, law, or finance. My high ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) saw me go into veterinary science.
That's not to say I just walked into the career without intent. I'm naturally very curious, and I love to solve problems. Hands-on work in surgery and dealing with problems that pop up satisfied me, as did diagnosis through reasoning. I also love animals so lots of boxes got ticked through that profession.
However, after a few years as a vet, I stopped getting the same level of fulfillment. I got the sense that the world was much bigger, so I pushed myself to explore other challenges. I looked at the business side of things and considered a specialty. At the end of the day, as a doctor, my impact was at an individual level. There is huge merit in that, but I wanted to change the world in another way.
The path from pets
As I explored a lot of grad programs and careers options, consulting felt right. I could apply those diagnostic, logic-based, problem solving skills I’d built in medicine to something big and interesting.
My re-training was self-driven but structured. I built my own online curriculum via Coursera and took a short course through General Assembly. I chose to go down the digital path because of the intersection of creativity and conceptual problem solving. I like to work directly with technology, designing flows and screens to build apps.
It would be a lie to say I was never worried or apprehensive about the pivot, but I tried not to dwell on it too much. If it kept feeling right, I took it as a sign that it was the right move.
Soft skills for hard times
There are two things that I’ve really taken from my time as a vet to my projects as a digital designer.
The first is diagnostic approach. There are parallels between diagnosing a patient and solving a client problem. Learning a patient’s medical history is another form of research, questioning symptoms could be equated with first principles, and a differential diagnosis is like a problem statement.
Second – and I didn't realize this until years later – are the soft-skills of connecting with people in very challenging and sometimes personal moments. As a vet, I needed to be present in difficult situations because I didn't always have good news to deliver. I wasn’t part of the family but I was there helping people through grief. I learned how to hold the space and be empathetic without overly investing, because otherwise I couldn't get on with my job.
I link this to the ability to deal with unpredictability. Medicine showed me how to be adaptable, as biology doesn't always work in the way you think it will. My role today, whether it be running design workshops with clients or designing flows for apps, requires me to quickly think through the potential paths and outcomes, and make adjustments based on the information available.
Sure, I don't get to cuddle as many puppies as I used to, but I get plenty of that at home with my Miniature Norwegian Forest cat, Theo.