As with vets themselves, there’s something a little odd about veterinary technicians and technologists. Demand is going up strongly for at least two reasons: technology is advancing so there are more treatments that can possibly be given and we humans are demanding more care of our animals as well, many of whom we now regard as family members, and to be treated as such. But wages for such technicians are not all that high, something which the economist in me regards as odd. Then I remember that wages are not all in the form of money. So many people enjoy working with animals that doing so is payment in and of itself in a way.

The difference between technicians and technologists is in the college degree that is required to do the job. To be a technician you’ll need a two year college degree (or an Associate’s) while a technologist needs the full four year college degree (or Bachelor’s). The difference in what is actually done in the job is about the level of responsibility, the amount of independence from the direct oversight of a vet allowed while working.

Our EQSQ personality tests make it fairly easy to define who would be good at this sort of job: the empathizers or female brain types. Almost all technicians and technologists work with small animals, and as with vets themselves this interaction, not so much with the pets, but with their owners, requires a great deal of empathy.

Veterinarians have a slightly odd career path. While the job, as we know, involves caring for animals, and this can be in one of the three areas of small animals (ie pets), large (farming) or research, there’s a great deal of similarity between what a vet does and what a doctor does. Indeed, training is very similar. almost without exception a college degree is required even to get into the training program, which is a further college degree in veterinary science. Over and above that a State license is required.

The oddity is that after this training, very similar to those of doctors for humans, the incomes are only a third to a half as large. The attractions of dealing with patients who don’t talk back or complain must be rather large then

There’s another similarity with doctors as well: most of the competition for jobs comes in attempting to get the training itself. Once you’re in veterinary school, or graduated, there’s no problem in finding a job in the area and field you want. The difficulty is in getting into one of the 26 or so schools in the first place.

As for our EQSQ personality tests it’s a little difficult to tell really, whether it is systemizers or empathizers who do best. I think it’s another of those professions where the sorting into types comes after entry, rather than before. Those who deal with small animals and pets are likely to be the empathizers: dealing not just with animals but also their worried owners. Those who deal with farm animals need less (there is controversy over whether sheep do in fact think, let alone whether a human can divine what it is they are thinking) and those in research will be like most research scientists, intense systemizers.