Dr. Sidrah Nisar was both excited and overwhelmed to land a $125,000 salary right out of veterinary school in 2019.
“I had more money than I could handle,” she tells CNBC Make It.
Little did she know, she would soon be more than doubling that annual income by switching from full-time positions to contract work as a relief vet.
Nisar’s sister, who’s also a vet, introduced her to an app called Roo that connects vets to clinics in need of coverage. Nisar started picking up shifts through Roo in May 2023 and left her full-time job in September of that year.
“I love being a relief veterinarian because I get to meet new people, talk to new people, learn new things every time I go into a new hospital,” she says.
In her full-time positions, Nisar worked 40 to 50 hours a week. Now, she works 50 to 60 hours a week, but on a schedule she can dictate, and with higher hourly rates. In 2024, Nisar earned $366,000 from shifts she picked up on Roo. She earned an additional $18,000 as a brand ambassador for Roo, plus another $2,000 from vet shifts she picked up outside of Roo to bring her total income for the year up to $386,000.
Vets on Roo earn nearly twice as much per hour as the average full-time vet, and on average make $1,266 per day, the company says. Working full-time hours at that rate would easily help vets make more than the median $125,510 a year veterinarians nationwide earn, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Still, contract positions like the relief vet work Nisar does aren’t for everyone. Here are three of the main differences to consider.
1. Pay consistency
While a full-time position may come with rigid time-off policies or daily schedules, it also comes with a regular paycheck. Losing that guaranteed pay is “the one setback of being a relief veterinarian,” Nisar says.
“With being a relief vet, you kind of always have to be hustling and looking for work.”
Nisar credits the Roo app with making it easier to find shifts that work for her, but acknowledges the possibility that there could be a time when she struggles to find enough shifts to meet her financial obligations.
For now, Roo has a lot of hospitals available in Nisar’s area, “so that’s never a significant worry of mine,” she says.
2. Work-life balance
When she worked full-time in animal hospitals, Nisar says she was “consistently just thinking about my job when I wasn’t at work.”
That quickly changed when she switched to relief work. Since she works at a number of different hospitals and may not return to some, Nisar is better able to separate what’s happening at work from her personal life.
“My work-life balance has definitely changed since becoming a relief veterinarian,” she says. “I definitely am able to leave work at work and I don’t bring it home with me versus being a full time vet.”
Like any workplace, drama and interpersonal conflicts can arise at animal hospitals where employees see each other every day and develop close relationships, for better or worse. As a relief vet, Nisar is largely able to stay out of any issues that can come up, or can choose not to return to hospitals where she doesn’t enjoy working with the staff.
“[It’s] significantly less stress,” she says. “When you’re doing relief [shifts] you go in, you do your work, and then you leave.”
3. Mentorship opportunities
While Nisar is happier doing relief work than she was in full-time positions, she doesn’t recommend it for veterinarians just getting out of school because they still have a lot to learn that likely won’t come as easily if they’re bouncing from clinic to clinic.
“Doing that full time job and learning from your mentor is very, very important,” she says. “My advice to new vets is to do your full-time job first and having a mentor there and then stepping into relief [work] if that’s something that you feel that would suit you best.”
And for experienced vets, Nisar says relief work still isn’t right for everyone and you “have to have a certain personality” to be successful.
“You are going into a brand new clinic most of the time and you’re meeting new people,” she says. “You have to be patient. You have to be flexible because you’re doing what they want you to do. You’re there to help them.”
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