The Workweek I Designed for Myself

How I found control over my schedule and a guaranteed salary in the same career.

I’ve wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as I can remember.

Like many in this profession, it wasn’t just a career choice. It was something I had worked toward for years. And when I finally started practicing, I was excited to be doing the work I had trained so long to do.

But I also noticed something that isn’t talked about much in vet school.

Loving the medicine doesn’t always mean the structure of the job fits your life.

For me, finding IndeVets meant discovering a way to continue practicing the medicine I love while building a career that actually fits both my personal needs and my clinical dreams.

Becoming the Veterinarian I Always Wanted to Be

When I started practicing, I wanted to learn as much as I could, see interesting cases, and continue developing my skills.

And I did love the medicine.

But I started to notice something about how many veterinary jobs are structured. In many hospitals, the schedule is already set, and doctors are expected to fit their lives around it.

Over time, that lack of flexibility makes the pace hard to sustain, not just professionally but personally.

It made me ask a question I hadn’t seriously considered before:

What would it look like to build a veterinary career that actually fit my life?

Wanting Both Balance and Clinical Growth

What mattered to me was that I didn’t want to sacrifice clinical growth just to gain more control over my schedule.

I wanted to keep learning, see a range of cases, and work with different teams. But I also wanted a career structure that supported the rest of my life.

That’s when relief medicine started to seem interesting.

Relief work offered exposure to different hospitals and new clinical experiences, along with more control over scheduling. But independent relief comes with real trade-offs. You’re essentially running your own business, negotiating rates, managing contracts, and constantly searching for your next shifts.

What I wanted was balance and control over my schedule without losing stability or support.

Discovering IndeVets

When I first learned about IndeVets, it felt immediately different from the other options I had been considering.

IndeVets built a model where veterinarians practice relief medicine while still being part of a structured organization. Doctors are W-2 employees with guaranteed salaries and benefits, which removes the income uncertainty I was worried about with traditional relief work.

But what really caught my attention was something more specific: the ability to intentionally design my own workweek.

Designing a Workweek That Fits Your Life

One of the most unique aspects of the IndeVets model is that doctors choose how their week is structured.

Veterinarians select how many days they want to work, anywhere from one to five, based on what makes the most sense for their life at the time. They also choose the specific days of the week they want to work. Some veterinarians prefer a traditional Monday through Thursday schedule. Others create different combinations that allow for longer stretches of time off.

Once those preferences are set, our scheduling team coordinates placements with our partner hospitals that align with those days. That creates real visibility into your schedule and allows you to plan the rest of your life around it. Doctor’s appointments, long weekend trips, family plans, you name it.

That level of predictability is something many veterinarians rarely experience.

And importantly, control over your schedule doesn’t come at the expense of stability. Doctors receive guaranteed salaries, full benefits including PTO and paid holidays, and my salary isn’t impacted if a hospital cancels a shift.

Support That Follows You Wherever You Practice

Something that surprised me when I joined IndeVets was how much support exists behind the scenes.

Even though you’re practicing across different hospitals, you’re never doing it alone.

IndeVets doctors are part of a broader community of veterinarians who collaborate, talk through cases, and support one another across practices and states.

Every IndeVet is also supported by a Director of Clinical Excellence, practicing veterinarians who serve as clinical leaders, mentors, and managers for their teams. They are there to support doctors both professionally and personally, and they genuinely care about the veterinarians they work with.

That’s the role I serve in today. I support IndeVets veterinarians as they navigate complex cases, grow professionally, and build careers that work for them.

Having that kind of support system creates a really unique professional environment. You get the independence of working in different hospitals, but you also have experienced veterinarians who are always there to help.

A Career That Truly Fits

Looking back, what drew me to IndeVets was a simple idea: my career didn’t have to follow one rigid structure.

I could continue growing as a clinician while also having a schedule that supported the rest of my life.

I didn’t have to choose between professional development and personal sustainability.

Veterinary medicine will always be demanding. That’s part of what makes it meaningful.

But demanding work doesn’t require a schedule that controls your life.

Curious What This Could Look Like for You?

Every veterinarian’s ideal career looks a little different.

Some want to work five days a week and maximize clinical exposure. Others want fewer clinic days and more balance and control over their schedule.

What matters most is having the ability to choose, and a career structure that can evolve as your life does.

If you’re curious about what it looks like to design your workweek while continuing to grow as a veterinarian, it’s worth exploring.