Frequently Asked Questions

IndeVets was founded in 2017 to bring balance, fulfillment and joy to veterinary medicine. In an industry burdened by extreme burnout, we’ve created new ways to work so veterinarians can achieve professional success without personal compromise. We’ve done this by empowering vets with deep-seated support and choices that allow them to vet the way they want. Our associate vets choose roles that are tailored to meet their needs and evolve as those needs change. All this, plus partnerships with thousands of clinics across the country who share our high clinical standards. We are redefining the industry by growing the business of our partner hospitals with the best vets who are once again fueled by passion for vet med. Officially certified as a Great Place to Work®.

As practicing vets ourselves, we had first-hand experience with the burnout that has become our industry’s status quo. Insane hours, little-to-no support, office politics, too much focus on production, and piles of vet school debt are all too real these days. We knew there had to be a better way, and we decided to fix it.

Hop on over to our veterinarian careers page.

You’ll need to have the experience in general practice to handle working alone on occasion, the confidence to help guide the hospital clinical team, and the personality to get along in a collaborative environment. We do have a strict No Jerks policy after all.

Here’s the checklist:

• High quality, independent post-grad hospital experience including any or all of the following:
  • Small animal GP with dynamic and consistent mentorship
  • ER experience with dynamic and consistent mentorship
  • Completion of a contemporary and challenging internship program
• Established confidence with ability to work independently in our hospitals while being actively supported by the IndeVet community
• Ability to work a minimum of 25 hours/week
• Active veterinary license/DEA license/CDS license (if applicable) or ability to apply for a license in the state in wich you’re applying to work
• Strong clinical skills
• Excellent client communication
• Internship training is a plus

We’ll tell you up front, we’re thorough.

We want to make sure we hire the best, both for our benefit and yours.

Here’s how it works:

1. Application
Apply on our site with your resume and a cover letter

2. Intro Call
We’ll set up a quick phone call or video chat with one of our IndeVets so we can get to know each other and answer your questions.

3. Clinical Skills Assessment and Interview
If it feels like a love match (or close), we’ll provide a clinical case study for you to complete to make sure we’re all on the same page with high-quality medical standards. Then you’ll meet one of our friendly (and practicing) clinical leaders to discuss the case and learn more about you. This can be virtual or in person if it works for you.

4. Finishing Touches
Finally, we’ll check your references, request a drug screening, and conduct a background check. If we’re both feeling it, we’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse!

Nope. Our IndeVets take advantage of several approaches to their schedule:

• Full Flex: Puts you in complete control of your schedule. Each month you create your own personal schedule choosing when, where, and the type of shifts you want to work. This approach allows you to change it up from month-to-month to meet your needs.
• Long-Term Placement (LTP): This program is a 13-week commitment to a hospital you love. You’ll work at least one shift, one day per week at the same clinic and you even get a bonus at the end of the commitment. You can combine LTPs with your regular IndeVets shift work to create your ideal schedule or set up several LTPs.
• Associate IndeVet in Residence: This is a six-month commitment to a practice of your choosing. You have a consistent schedule on days that work for you. Plus, you get a flat bonus from the practice at the end of the residency.
• Schedule Design: For those who don’t want to be concerned with setting your schedule each month, this program is built for you. Your Strategic Support Manager will set a schedule for two months at a time ensuring you are set up at highly rated clinics. And just for letting us do the work for you, we’ll pay you extra.

Please note, in a few areas of the country these options may not be available just yet.

The number of hours you choose to work on a weekly basis is up to you. We know the ideal work schedule means something different to everyone, so our structure is designed to be flexible.

For benefits purposes only, we do have minimum requirements to be part-time or full-time. Part-time starts at 25 hours/week, while full-time starts at just 34 hours/week. Please note, these are average weekly minimums, which are calculated over a quarter or 13-week period. Not the two-week pay period.

Nope! How much you work is your choice and can change as your needs change. There are some docs that choose to work more than 50 hours a week, but that’s up to them. As long as you meet your weekly minimum over the 13-week quarter, you’re good.

Yup! Whatever works for you, works for us. Most of our shifts are 8, 10, or 12 hours. Weekend shifts (if you’re into that sort of thing) are sometimes shorter, but the choice is always yours. We know that when you choose where, when, and how often you work, it leads to better health and happiness.

To keep your life simple, we built the IndeVets App. It’s an easy-to-use app where you can find and book shifts right from your phone. You can filter for distance, shift type, shift incentives, and favorite hospitals — and book with the click of a button.

Not necessarily. Some shifts are flexible, allowing you to choose your own hours within a larger window. And some shifts provide an extra pay bump when the clinic wants to further entice our vets to grab their shifts.

Some clinics need help with specialty shifts like Surgery, Dentistry, Day/Overnight ER or Urgent Care. When you grab one of these, there is a premium applied to your hourly rate.

We ask that you pick your shifts 30-60 days out, at a minimum. Our doctors and hospital partners prefer as much notice as possible to avoid unnecessary anxiety.

We know vets are planners and we’ll even reward you for that with our Early Bird Scheduling bonuses. Just get your schedule done on time and we’ll give you a bonus.

Absolutely. In fact, if you want to work there on a regular basis, we can set you up with a Long-Term Placement at one or even a few of your favorite clinics.

All kinds! Corporate groups, private practices, ERs, and urgent care hospitals. We encourage you to try out as many practices as possible when you first start. We have thousands of hospital partners so it’s easy to find your happy place.

You’ll find it’s unique that IndeVets get the opportunity to work with so many new teams, doctors, and their support staff. We’re big on clinical growth and will champion you as you learn how others do things. You may even get to teach hospitals a thing or two!

When a practice chooses to partner with us, we conduct a thorough assessment before they can post any shifts with us. We start with a detailed questionnaire about their practice and their protocols. This is how we look for red (and green) flags. We also give them our minimum standards of care and our communications policies.

During the onboarding process, hospitals are asked to complete a hospital profile that is shared with our vets. This helps alleviate a ton of anxiety by making sure you know how things work before you show up. It’s also really helpful for the hospital — they don’t have to go through all the details with every new IndeVet.

You’ll also have access to reviews on every practice from your colleagues through the IndeVets App (our scheduling platform).

We stay on top of this. Our IndeVets have left thousands of reviews — and our hospitals have performed! They’re averaging a 4.7 rating out of 5.

Most of our IndeVets work shifts within 45 minutes from their homes. Depending on your area, this could be much less or a bit more. In some cases, the hospital will compensate you for your travel time.

We pay by the hour. We do not work on production, and we do not pay by the shift. That means if your shift goes long, you are paid for the entire duration — including those few extra minutes to work on records. And you never clock out for breaks including lunch or dinner.

We offer highly competitive compensation to all our veterinarians. And you can always pick up more hours at any time to earn more. Nearly all of our vets also choose from a variety of shift incentivizes which consistently bump pay significantly higher.

Every two weeks. All of our Associate IndeVets are W2 employees on payroll with benefits.

IndeVets helps you take charge of your career, create your dream schedule, and find your happy place. Along with the positive emotional and physical effects of a proper work/life balance, we have a pretty epic benefits package that includes:

• Health insurance, including dental & vision, and dependent coverage for spouses, children and domestic partners, including plan premiums fully funded by us
• Generous PTO (including paid time for CE)
• Company-Paid Short-Term Disability Insurance
• Paid parental leave
• A generous stipend for whatever helps improve your physical or mental health.
• And many more!

Want to get more specific about what to expect? Check out the full package.

Not necessarily. If you pick up a specialty shift like Surgery, Dentistry, Day/Overnight ER or Urgent Care there is a premium applied to your hourly rate.

Yes, tons! The easiest way to earn more is to grab a few more shifts that work with your life. You can do that whenever you want. Beyond this we have many other choices you can make:

Pick up Promoted shifts. If a hospital really needs the shift covered, they will further incentivize by promoting it. When they promote a shift, they agree to pay a premium on the hourly rate you get paid. The upside is anywhere from an additional $10-$20/hour on top of your hourly rate depending on what shift you choose! One or two of these shifts a week can make a big impact on your paycheck. And get this, you don’t work any more hours to earn that.

Lock in a Long-Term Placement. This is a 13-week commitment to a hospital you love. You’ll work at least one shift, one day per week at the same clinic. You can combine LTPs with your regular IndeVets shift work to create your ideal schedule. Since you are committing for a longer period of time, we provide a meaningful boost on your hourly rate for the full duration of your LTP.

Let us design your schedule. For those who don’t want to be concerned with setting your schedule each month, this program is built for you. Your Strategic Support Manager will set a schedule for two months at a time ensuring you are set up at highly rated clinics. And just for letting us do the work for you, we’ll pay you extra.

Set your schedule early. We know vets are planners and we’ll even reward you for that with our Early Bird Scheduling bonuses. Just get your schedule done on time and we’ll give you a bonus.

Your real hourly rate as an Associate IndeVet is actually higher than what you’d be earning as a traditional relief vet. (Yes, really.) This may seem hard to believe, but it all comes down to what we call “the law of diminishing hourly rates.” Here’s what we mean.

Those “high paying” traditional relief vet gigs come with unseen costs. Because you’re an independent contractor, all the benefits that are normally added to your compensation (including healthcare, employer taxes, licensing, PTO, retirement funds) become out-of-pocket expenses. Those things really add up – and bring your real hourly rate down. You’ll also be spending unpaid hours outside of the clinic working on the business. All things considered, relief vets who are charging $100/hour are actually only making an estimated $69/hour.

As an Associate IndeVet, you get those employee benefits that traditional relief vets do not. As long as you work an average of at least 25 hours a week, you’ll get our robust benefits package. You won’t be spending any extra hours “on the business.” You’re paid hourly so that you’ll be compensated for every minute you work, including lunch breaks, shifts that run long, and sometimes even your commute. And as an IndeVet, you can always increase your pay by choosing specialty and incentivized shifts, without adding a single hour to your week.

Our hourly rates are highly competitive. Since we pay our vets by the hour, they are always compensated during lunch, if notes take longer than expected or that one client needs a little more time after hours. And the impact on their mental health is priceless.

Our commitment to your mental health is unmatched in vet med. We have the data to prove it by tracking burn out using the using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) – the first scientifically developed measure of burnout, widely used in research studies globally – and the Areas of Worklife (AWS) Survey. The results to date have told an incredible story. Among the cohorts that completed both the baseline and recheck, burnout profiles decreased from 39% to 4%, and “engaged” profiles increased from 17% to 54%.

IndeVets offers a structured pathway and program for professional and personal development, called IndeAcademy, that includes continuing education, leadership training and positions, and wellness initiatives.

IndeAcademy features three primary course categories or tracks:

• Clinical Excellence
• Leadership and Professional Development
• Wellness and Personal Development 

The IndeVets General Practice Certification (IVGPC) is a RACE certified program that will earn 19 hours of CE credit upon completion. This custom self-paced certification program covers 38 diverse topics in clinical excellence such as preventative medicine, emergency and critical care, endocrine disorders, and more. It allows you to learn at your own pace, with optional office hours for discussions with colleagues.

The Power Skills certification and Leadership Foundations course are certification programs that develop essential communication, leadership, and client relationship skills through interactive learning and practical application.

Yes, the course is designed for both emerging leaders and those with more experience, making it suitable for a wide range of participants.

Yes, completing the IVGPC course earns you a certification that also opens additional career opportunities at IndeVets such as roles as Medical Director at our partner hospitals, Senior Associate IndeVet, or positions at our headquarters.

To become a Senior Associate IndeVet, you need:

• 1 year of tenure as an Associate IndeVet
• Completion of the IndeAcademy Foundations of Leadership course
• Completion of the IVGPC
• Recommendations from both your Director of Clinical Excellence and Strategic Support Manager.

Senior Associate IndeVets can advance to various leadership roles within IndeVets HQ, such as Area Clinical Lead, Director of Clinical Excellence, or Veterinary Success Advisor.

The Medical Director Training course is designed to provide leadership training and support for veterinarians who may take on or are currently in medical director roles. It aims to equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed, enhancing their professional influence in veterinary medicine.

Yes, IndeVets offers a mentorship program where experienced vets can mentor new graduates or vets making a career transition into small animal general practice. Mentors are offered training through the MentorVet Lift program and paid a stipend for their time as a mentor.

Yes! IndeVets offers a 6-month mentorship program for new and recent graduates.

IndeVets offers free, RACE-approved virtual continuing education sessions at least twice a month, featuring industry specialists and wellness topics.

In addition, IndeVets receive a continuing education allowance (plus additional PTO for CE).

Yes, our dedicated social worker leads a course focused on wellness. It is comprised of 12 group meetings, asynchronous viewing and reading, group discussions and activities, ongoing journaling, and self-assessment. This course explores a wide variety of tools to help veterinarians achieve their recovery goals.