Early Career Insights: Choosing the Associate Position That’s Right for You

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2026 issue of EquiManagement. Sign up here for a FREE subscription to EquiManagement’s quarterly digital or print magazine and any special issues.

Whether you’re choosing an associate position for the first time or looking for a new opportunity, it is important to understand your nonnegotiables. Perhaps you want to live close to family, limiting your geographic options. Maybe you want to have strong mentorship to build your confidence and skill set. If frequent emergency duty feels overwhelming, you might want to limit your search to only large practices or those that participate in an emergency cooperative. Thinking deeply about what you absolutely need to thrive and what would simply be nice to have will help you evaluate offers.

Clearly understanding your vision for your career will help guide your choices. If you desire to be a successful sports medicine clinician traveling the upper-level horse show circuit in five years, your first job could hold the key to your future. In this case, mentorship will be of more value than compensation or location in your formative years. If your three-year goal is to start your own practice, have a family, and live near your parents, you must be careful about signing a noncompete clause or restrictive covenant at the practice that hires you as an associate. Making sacrifices now can allow you to live your dream later.

When looking at potential positions, try to visit a practice for several days and spend time with each doctor. Ask the associates what they like best about the practice and if they have any pain points. Note whether the office staff or the veterinary technical staff seem harried or irritable. Did the team make you feel welcome? Consider asking about the practice’s values and mission, then try to discern if everyone is living up to those objectives. 

7 Pillars of a Healthy Practice Culture

Finding a practice with a healthy culture will help ensure your experience as an associate is a good one. The best cultures follow the seven pillars outlined by the AAEP’s Commission on Equine Veterinary Sustainability’s Culture ­Subcommittee:

• Safety that’s physical, psychological, and mental.
• Security, which flows from comprehensive benefits, parental leave, and leaders modeling a balanced life.
• Connection and community, which includes relationships with colleagues, involvement in organized veterinary medicine, and networking ­opportunities.
• Mattering at work, requiring alignment of mission, vision, and values; involvement in decision-making; and recognition.
• Professional and personal life, dealing with finding integration and balance, having autonomy over schedule, and setting boundaries.
• Communication, both within the team and with clients.
• Opportunities for growth, including mentorship, onboarding, reviews, engagement measures, and effective feedback. 

Factors That Predict Engagement and Satisfaction at Work

Research shows these factors predict levels of engagement at work and satisfaction in the veterinary profession:

• Alignment of employees’ values with the practice’s mission.
• Relationships between staff members and owners.
• Working conditions, level of collegiality, and compensation.
• Culture and opportunities to pursue personal and professional growth. 

Final Thoughts

Keep notes on each practice you visit, and when considering job offers, follow your intuition of where you belong, guided by your careful observations of these four factors. 

Related Reading

• Early Career Insights: Understanding Your First Employment Contract
• Early Career Insights: Establishing a Successful Mentor-Mentee Relationship
• Early Career Insights: How to Choose the Right Veterinary Internship Position

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