Veterinary Voices

Why Spending More on Job Ads Doesn’t Work By month three of advertising, most vet clinics assume the problem is reach . Not enough applications?   Then not enough visibility. Not enough visibility?  Spend more. Premium placement. Featured listings. Boosted posts. Maybe even a recruitment agency. But the real problem isn’t reach . It’s recognition . In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South...

Energy Vets, Taranaki | Growing a Career That Grows With You  In this REAL+STORY episode, Julie South speaks with Dr Michelle Gosling about what it looks like to build a long-term veterinary career in one place — and why she never felt the need to leave Energy Vets after joining as a new graduate in 2013. Michelle reflects on her journey from new grad to senior large animal vet, working parent, fa...

When a job ad doesn’t deliver suitable applicants, most clinics assume the problem is the wording. So they rewrite it. Add more detail. Highlight mentoring. Emphasise work-life balance. Polish the benefits. And wait. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores what’s really happening in month two of the recruitment cycle—when “posting everywhere” hasn’t worked, and rewriting feels l...

Energy Vets | What Makes the Job Work Long-Term (Part 2) Settling into a role is one thing. Staying in it — sustainably — is another. In this episode, Julie South continues her conversation with Dr Sam Armstrong, a mixed animal vet at Energy Vets in Taranaki, looking at what work feels like once the initial settling-in period has passed. Sam talks candidly about after-hours, workload, seasonal pre...

This episode begins a new series looking at why the familiar recruitment playbook keeps failing veterinary clinics. Julie South starts with the first and most common response to a vacancy: posting job ads everywhere and hoping one platform will finally deliver a different outcome. Using current data from across Australia and New Zealand, Julie explains how rotating job boards and increasing spend...

Energy Vets | Finding Your Feet as a New Grad (Part 1) Starting your veterinary career isn’t just about clinical skills. It’s about how support shows up when you’re new, how questions are handled, and how safe it feels to keep learning — especially when you’re doing it in a new country. In this episode, Julie South speaks with Dr Sam Armstrong, a mixed animal vet at Energy Vets in Taranaki, about...

Closing the Attraction Gap: Why Knowing Isn't the Same as Doing Most veterinary clinic managers know they should attract people before they need them—but knowing doesn't close the gap between understanding what needs to happen and actually making it happen. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores the attraction gap: the space between knowing you should build recognitio...

Energy Vets - Taranaki - New Zealand | REAL+STORY A recent graduate’s view of support, mentoring, and staying in the profession When new graduates talk about support, they’re not talking about slogans.  They’re talking about what happens in the moments that matter. In this episode of Veterinary Voices , Julie South continues the Energy Vets REAL+STORY series with Jade , a recent graduate mixed ani...

When Big Numbers Don’t Matter When a clinic needs to advertise, the decision often feels obvious.  Choose the platform with the biggest database. The most traffic. The largest audience. But what if those numbers aren’t measuring what actually matters? In this episode of Veterinary Voices , Julie South explores why big numbers can feel reassuring — yet still leave clinics stuck advertising for mont...

Energy Vets | Culture Stories in Action (Part 2) Staying in a clinic long-term isn’t just about the work you do. It’s about how you’re supported, how leadership shows up, and what happens when things don’t go to plan. In this episode, Julie South continues her conversation with Greg Hall, Managing Director at Energy Vets in Taranaki, shifting the focus from day-to-day life to what it takes to buil...

Recruitment Momentum: Why Starting From Cold Keeps You Trapped Most veterinary clinics don’t realise they’re stuck in a recruitment cycle — they just feel the exhaustion of it. In this episode of Veterinary Voices , Julie South explores recruitment momentum and why starting from cold every time you need to advertise keeps clinics trapped in an expensive, effort-heavy loop that never really gets ea...

Energy Vets Taranaki NZ | Culture Stories in Action (Part 1) Most vets and nurses know within a few minutes whether a clinic feels like their kind of place — long before they ever see a job ad. In this episode, Julie South is joined by Dr Greg Hall, Managing Director at Energy Vets in Taranaki, for a grounded conversation about what day-to-day veterinary life there actually looks like. They talk a...

Network Expansion: How Culture Stories Amplify Beyond Your Reach Most vet clinics don’t struggle to hire because their roles aren’t appealing. They struggle because the right vets and nurses never see them. In this episode of Veterinary Voices , Julie South explores network expansion — and why job ads keep clinics trapped under their own follower-count ceiling, while Culture Stories travel through...

CareVets Gisborne | REAL+STORY When vets and nurses think about changing clinics, they’re not just choosing a role. They’re choosing the people they’ll work with — and the support around them when things get busy or unpredictable. In this episode of Veterinary Voices , Julie South continues the CareVets Gisborne REAL+STORY series with a different perspective — stepping back from day-to-day clinica...

Vets and nurses scroll past job ads — not because they think vet clinics are lying, but because they’ve seen the same claims repeated over and over again. “Great team. Supportive environment. Work-life balance.” The words didn’t become untrue.  They lost meaning through overuse and under-delivery. In this episode, Julie South unpacks why claiming culture through job ads keeps clinics invisible — a...

A vet in Melbourne is scrolling job ads, actively looking to relocate. She sees a position in Hamilton, New Zealand. Good clinic. Competitive salary. Sounds fine. She clicks through, reads the job description, then keeps scrolling. Three weeks later, she accepts a position in Melbourne. Not better. Just known. What happened? The decision didn't happen at the job ad stage. It happened earlier...

CareVets Gisborne's Clinic Coordinator Rhonda moved from London to Gisborne five years ago. In London, her commute was 90 minutes. In Auckland, she never got out of second gear in traffic. In Gisborne? Five minutes. Through "5 o'clock traffic" means waiting for half a dozen cars at a roundabout instead of going straight through. "I go home for lunch," she says. Like i...

You list protected meal breaks, no weekend work, and flexible hours in your job ad. So does every other clinic in your city. How do vets and nurses decide? They can't tell you apart. So they don't apply. Or they apply everywhere and mean nowhere. Meanwhile, down the road, another clinic fills their position in three weeks. Same benefits. Same salary. Same city. But vets and nurses alread...

What does a locum vet who's worked at five different clinics across New Zealand think when she walks into CareVets Gisborne? "I've actually loved it. " Dr Camille Bonini is an English vet on a working holiday visa with absolutely no reason to sugarcoat anything. She's seen what good looks like and what doesn't. So when she talks about a nursing team that's always...

The $5,000 professionally produced video gets 50 likes. The blurred photo of your team laughing at closing time gets 20 shares. Why? Most clinics think polish equals professionalism equals hires. They're wrong. Shares trump likes because shares reach extended networks - the thousands of vets and nurses you'll never reach from your clinic account alone. But getting shares requires somethi...

Dr Ross Milner has worked everywhere from Antarctica to Fiji — but chose Gisborne as the best place in New Zealand for a vet to settle. In this episode, he explains why, and what day-to-day life as a vet there actually looks like. Dr Ross talks about: what surprised him most about living on the East Coast the kind of caseload you can expect in a regional clinic how the nursing team works (and why...

When Sarah shares a Culture Story from her personal profile, her vet school friends believe her. When your clinic posts the same thing, it's marketing. Sarah has 338 Facebook friends, 500 LinkedIn connections, 264 Instagram followers. Jake and Emma have similar. That's thousands of vets and nurses you'll never reach from your clinic account alone. But most clinics haven't asked...

Dr Loren Cribb has been calling Gisborne home since 2014. She started as a nervous new grad from the South Island and stayed for the trauma cases, the hunting dogs, and a nursing team that's always "one step ahead." This is what it's actually like to work at CareVets Gisborne . The variety: "If you're only wanting to do vaccinations and dentals, it's not the clin...

You're posting about your team. Nothing's happening. That's because you're copying clinics who haven't figured it out either. This episode shows you what you're actually looking at when you see those bland team posts - and why the water cooler conversation you keep having is the actual problem. I'm Julie South. I run VetClinicJobs and help vet clinics across Aust...

Three-minute commute. One traffic light. Equipment that surprises people. And a team so competent that Emma doesn't get called when her team is on call at the weekends.   Emma moved from Auckland four years ago and describes what it's like working somewhere that invests in building capability in-house - whether that's funding her Bachelor's degree or equipping the clinic to han...