What challenges or mistakes did you face?

Overview

Making mistakes and facing challenges is just an opportunity to grow further. Interviewers love to hear how you faced challenges and learnt from them. No one is expecting you to be perfect.

You must show what you learnt and don’t just tell a story, you want to explore:

• How you handled the situation
• What you gained
• What you would do differently

Vet med is full of mistakes and learning opportunities, and coping with setbacks is an important trait to have and showing this through work experience shows that you can adapt to difficult situations.

In the interview

You should discuss:

• When you felt out of your depth
• Did you struggle with animal handling?
• Did you misread any animal behaviour?
• Did you have any communication challenges?
• Anything emotionally challenging?
• Any ethical dilemmas?

Example

‘During my lambing work experience, I misjudged how quickly a ewe needed intervention with its lambing. I later realised I should have contacted the farmer sooner, I was not sure if the ewe was struggling or just taking a break. The farmer came a bit later, and luckily, the lambing all went well. However, I realised I should have called him sooner, as this may have ended differently; this showed me the importance of communication and that lambing delays can have bad consequences.’