This week: a career in veterinary medicine
I was invited a few weeks ago to a local high school to give a presentation on veterinary medicine as a career. It was a nice change of pace from the busy clinic and it felt good to contribute and help educate children. The school was having a jobs fair and I was a guest speaker to answer their many questions.
I was surprised to find a strong level of interest among the students on embarking on a career in veterinary medicine. Most of the children had pets of one sort or another.
But as with many people in Hong Kong, the children had somehow developed the notion that being a veterinarian is a lucrative career. I had to dash some dreams, as many other professions earn much better salaries in the long term.
I was amazed how money-conscious Hong Kong high school students are. When I was a teenager in Australia, my friends and I were much more interested in our future vocation than in how much money we would make. It wasn't until I had completed a couple of years of my first maths and physics degree that I realised I had to find a career that could sustain my preferred lifestyle.
Children are so much more forward-thinking nowadays. In hindsight it was lucky my mother talked me out of being a philosopher. Physics and maths were my ultimatum and compromise, but she typically, as mothers do, wanted me to be a dentist, doctor or lawyer.
During my course in science I quickly realised being a theoretical mathematician was romantic and very interesting, but not ideal for generating a good income in the economic conditions at the time in Australia, which was recovering from a recession. So I made my mum very happy and decided to embark on my lifetime passion of being a vet. I found it humorous at the time, as I was sure my mother didn't really know what a vet was, except that it sounded more respectable and I would have the title 'Dr'.