Veterinary Voices

Hosted by Julie South | Veterinary Recruitment Marketing Strategist

Business Management Marketing

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Episodes

321

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-NZ

About the show

Most vet clinics are proud of their culture. They know it's special — it's what makes them tick. What they don't know is how to share those stories in ways that mean something to other vets and nurses. That's culture storytelling. And Julie South — founder of VetClinicJobs — shows vet clinics how to do it. You'll hear real vets and nurses talking about what it's actually like to work at their clinics. Not the polished corporate version — the real moments that show how teams handle pressure, support each other, and why someone would actually want to work there. That's the kind of proof that builds trust before anyone's even looking. You'll also learn which stories to share and when, how to stay visible to great people even when you're fully staffed, and why the quiet months between hires are actually your biggest opportunity. Each episode gives you something specific to do that week — a story to share, a shift to make, a pattern to break. If you're tired of starting from scratch every time someone resigns, this podcast shows you how to become the clinic people are already watching.

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August 18, 2026Episode 28511 min

The Cake Problem: Why Your Best Recruitment Evidence Is the Stuff You Never Think to Mention - ep 285

"The Cake Problem": Why Your Best Recruitment Evidence Is the Stuff You Never Think to Mention Every Thursday, one vet bakes a cake for the Large Animal team meeting. Nobody asked her to. It's not in her job description. And it's exactly the kind of thing that never makes it into a job ad — even though it's the realest proof of "great team culture" a clinic will ever have. In episode two of the REAL+CULTURE+STORY series, Julie South unpacks the E — Everyday Evidence. Episode notes This episode covers: What REAL+CULTURE+STORY actually stands for: REAL is the evidence, CULTURE is where it lives, STORY is how it gets told Why job-seeking vets and nurses are now asking AI tools directly what it's really like to work somewhere — and what happens to a clinic's chances when there's no real evidence for the AI to find The Decision Gap: the space between reading a job ad and hitting apply, and the questions vets and nurses want answered before they will Why a repeated habit is stronger proof of culture than a single great day — one good day can be staged, a pattern can't Three steps any clinic can run this week: Spot it, Source it, Share it The episode closes by setting up next week's letter — A, for Actual People. If you'd like to start using peer-to-peer culture stories to give your recruiting an edge, email julie@vetclinicjobs.com . About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

August 11, 2026Episode 28411 min

The Message vs The Moment: Why 'Small, Hardworking, Friendly Team' Doesn't Work - 284

The R in REAL+CULTURE+STORY: Why "Great Team" Job Ads Don't Work One letter. One question every vet clinic job ad needs to answer: is what you're claiming real, or is it just window dressing? In episode one of a new series, Julie South starts unpacking the REAL+CULTURE+STORY Framework — the 16-letter framework behind every Culture Story Centre her team builds — one letter at a time. Episode notes This episode covers: Why vague job ad claims — "collaborative and values-led," "small, hardworking, friendly team," "no one gets left behind" — are interchangeable between clinics and give vets and nurses no reason to stop scrolling The Decision Gap in action: if a clinic doesn't answer the questions vets and nurses ask before applying, AI will make something up, pull information from an unrelated clinic, or send them down a rabbit hole R is for Real — the difference between the message (what a clinic says about itself) and the moment (something that actually happened and proves it's true) A worked example turning "small, hardworking, friendly team" into a specific, peer-to-peer moment Three homework steps for any clinic's job ad this week: Spot it, Source it, Share it The episode closes by setting up next week's letter — E, for Everyday Evidence — the second letter in REAL. If you want a second pair of eyes on how long your last job ad took to fill, or where your Decision Gap sits right now, email julie@vetclinicjobs.com . About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

August 4, 2026Episode 28311 min

What Every "Vet Clinic Job Ad" Elephant Has In Common - ep 283

What Every "Vet Clinic Job Ad" Elephant Has In Common Eight weeks. Seven elephants. One pattern. In the series finale of The Elephant In The Room, Julie South brings it all together — and names the single thing every elephant in this series had in common. Plus something you absolutely need to know before the next series begins. Episode notes This episode recaps all seven elephants from the series: The clinic with a reputation it hasn't found a way to publicly undo — and prove it's come a long way since The Decision Gap — the gap between the views a job ad gets and the suitable applications it receives; not an exposure problem but a trust problem, where vets and nurses read vanilla, blah, identical-to-everyone-else wording and decide it's not enough to make the leap of changing jobs The skills shortage — real, but it's the ceiling not the floor; two clinics in the same town, same shortage, wildly different outcomes After-hours — two words in many job ads that almost never say what a vet or nurse needs to know Competitive remuneration — the two words that signal a salary exists and nothing else; research from VetStaff and Unitec Te Pukenga (2023) shows salary is the number one thing vets and nurses want to know The new graduate experience — mentoring programmes that drift from weekly to monthly to nothing, and the smaller group who leave the profession entirely because the job failed them Corporate or independent — half the profession says it matters, almost no job ad says which one it is The episode argues that every elephant is the same thing wearing different clothes: information that vets and nurses need before they apply that isn't in the job ad. And that in most cases, it doesn't need to be in the ad — the ad's job is to signal the vacancy. But clinics need somewhere vets and nurses can go to verify the claims. Because they're hiring critical thinkers. And critical thinkers check. The episode closes by opening the door to the next series — the REAL+CULTURE+STORY framework — which is how that peer-to-peer culture evidence gets built. If you'd like a copy of the VetStaff/Unitec Te Pukenga research, email julie@vetclinicjobs.com. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

July 28, 2026Episode 2827 min

Corporate or independent — does your job ad say? - ep. 282

Everyone in veterinary has an opinion about corporate versus independent ownership. Strong ones, in both directions. But almost nobody says which one they are in the job ad. In the seventh episode of The Elephant In The Room, Julie South looks at the question that sits in the back of every vet and nurse's mind when they're reading a job ad — and gives you one practical check that takes about thirty seconds. Episode notes Research VetStaff undertook with Unitec Te Pukenga in 2023 found that ownership type is roughly a fifty-fifty issue in the veterinary profession. Slightly more respondents said it mattered to them — but plenty had positive and negative experiences in both corporate and independent environments. This episode is not about which is better. The elephant is about disclosure. Some corporate groups advertise with their brand loud and clear — transparent, straightforward, and attracting the vets and nurses who want exactly what a larger group offers. Others make a deliberate business decision to preserve the local identity of their acquired clinics, for good reasons that serve both clients and teams. The result is that vets and nurses who care about ownership type may not know what they're looking at from the ad alone. They find out through their own due diligence — checking whether the contact email matches the clinic's URL, Googling the group name, asking at interview. When it matters to them and they didn't know earlier, it can feel like something was left unsaid. The episode argues that clinics — corporate or independent — have something to gain by being upfront. The vets and nurses who want what you offer can find you faster. The ones who don't can rule themselves out before anyone wastes time finding out three interviews in. This is the seventh episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

July 21, 2026Episode 2819 min

The New Grad Experience — What's Promised vs What's Real - 281

Some vets and nurses leave the profession far too soon. You probably know of at least one yourself. In this sixth episode of The Elephant In The Room series , Julie South looks at what happens when a new grad arrives at a clinic and the support that was promised turns out to look very different in practice — and asks one question that every new grad and every clinic owner should be able to answer. Episode notes Many vet clinics advertise a mentoring programme for new graduates — and mean it. But meaning it and having something formal behind it are two different things. This episode looks at what happens when a mentoring programme exists in name but not in structure: the weekly catchups that become fortnightly, then monthly, then disappear entirely because there was nothing documented to hold them in place. And the harder version — where the new grad didn't clarify at interview what support would look like, the clinic didn't know what expectation had been set, and the new grad arrives to find they're largely on their own. The episode covers three outcomes for new grads who don't get the support they need: those who find their footing anyway, those who leave for a clinic that will support them, and a smaller group — real, if not large — who leave the profession entirely. They didn't fail at the job. The job failed them. The episode also looks at what the clinics that do it well have in common — week-by-week milestones, documented, a mentor who shows up and follows through — and why those clinics get talked about through new grad cohorts in a very different way. The closing question is for both audiences: new grads are encouraged to ask to see the mentoring programme on paper at their next interview. Clinic owners are asked what they would point a new grad to if that question came up tomorrow. This is the sixth episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

July 14, 2026Episode 2808 min

Competitive Remuneration - two job ad words that say nothing - 280

What's the single most important thing vets and nurses need to see in a job ad? Research says it's pay. By a country mile. And yet most vet clinic job ads say the same two words: competitive remuneration . In the fifth episode of The Elephant In The Room series, Julie South looks at why clinics won't put salary ranges in their ads — and why that decision is costing them more applications than they realise. Episode notes In 2023, VetStaff — New Zealand's only specialist veterinary recruitment agency and a sister company to VetClinicJobs — undertook research with Unitec Te Pukenga asking vets and nurses across New Zealand and beyond what it took to click on a job ad. The results were unambiguous. Almost 97% of respondents rated salary as important or most important when considering a new role. Salary band information was the second most compelling element of a job ad — at 41%, just behind the headline at 43%. Yet most vet clinic job ads say "competitive remuneration" and nothing more. This episode explores two reasons clinics won't name a figure — they don't want to lock themselves in, and they're worried about being undercut by the clinic down the road — and why both fears are leading to the same outcome: a completely flat field where every ad looks identical and vets and nurses have nothing to go on for the most important piece of information they're searching for. The episode also argues there's a way through that doesn't require locking anyone in — and that the clinic which names a range, even a broad one, immediately stands out from every other ad in the market. This is the fifth episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

July 7, 2026Episode 2797 min

After Hours - What The Job Ad Never Says - 279

If you're responsible for hiring at your vet clinic, do you have dread words? Words you know you have to include in the job ad, but the moment you type them you can already feel the applications not coming? This episode is about two of those words: after-hours. In the fourth episode of The Elephant In The Room, Julie South looks at why " shared across the team " tells a vet or nurse almost nothing — and why the clinics that have genuinely solved after-hours are sitting on something worth saying, and saying nothing. Episode notes Most vet clinic job ads that mention after-hours say the same thing: shared across the team, rostered. Nothing else. Yet behind those words, the experience can be completely different from one clinic to the next. This episode looks at what that difference actually looks like — from a clinic where most of the team want to be on the after-hours roster, to one where one or two people quietly carry the load while the roster looks balanced on paper. The key example: a small animal clinic whose owner doesn't call it after-hours at all. She calls it the Emergency and Critical Care roster. Same obligation — completely different story around it. The financial reward is genuine, recovery time is real and honoured, and being on the roster is a choice most of the team actively make. The episode argues that clinics which have built something genuinely fair and well-supported around after-hours have specific, true things to say that very few clinics are saying — and that vets and nurses who'd thrive in that environment can self-identify from the way it's described. Generic language gives them nothing to go on. This is the fourth episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

June 30, 2026Episode 2788 min

The skills shortage is real. But it's not why your ad isn't working - the elephant in the room - ep. 278

The skills shortage is real. But it's not why your ad isn't working - the elephant in the room - ep. 278 Two clinics. Same town. Same skills shortage. One's been advertising since-forever. The other has been running a different kind of recruitment programme — and has had multiple suitable applicants within weeks. Same shortage. Completely different outcomes. In the third episode of The Elephant In The Room, Julie South talks about the difference between a ceiling and a floor — and which one your clinic is likely dealing with. If your ad has been running for a while with little to show for it, this one's for you. Episode notes The veterinary skills shortage is real — one hundred percent. But this episode argues it's not the whole explanation for why some clinics can't fill their roles. The shortage sets the ceiling: fewer vets and nurses available, more vacancies, more competition for the same applicants. That's the same for every clinic in every region. What the shortage doesn't explain is why one clinic's applicant pool is smaller than the clinic down the road's. Same ceiling. Different floor. The episode looks at why clinic managers and practice owners reach for the shortage as the default explanation — not because they're wrong, but because nobody's ever taught them there might be something else to look for, or where to start looking. The answer lies in culture storytelling: giving vets and nurses enough real, specific, current information about what it's like to work at your clinic that they can self-identify — see you as their kind of clinic, and themselves as your kind of people. A generic job ad that sounds like every other job ad can't do that. An ongoing culture story can. This is the third episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

June 22, 2026Episode 27713 min

Why your job ad gets views but not applications - The Elephant in the Room - ep. 277

If you've ever looked at your job ad dashboard and wondered why the views are high and the applications aren't — this episode is about one of the reasons. And it's likely not the one Seek (or other job boards) will tell you about. In the second episode of The Elephant In The Room, Julie South looks at the gap between believing a job ad and trusting it enough to act on it — and why spending more for more exposure doesn't close that gap. It just means more people landing on the wrong side of it. If your clinic's numbers don't quite add up, this one's for you. Episode notes This episode argues that high views and low applications often isn't an exposure problem. It's a trust problem. Three ways the gap between a job ad and reality can surface are explored: On day one — a vet or nurse who meant to ask about the vet:nurse ratio at interview, didn't, and discovers on the job that the ratio promised in the ad only held true when the clinic was fully staffed At interview — a vet or nurse who does ask about new grad mentoring, and learns the mentor named in the ad left months ago with nobody stepping into the role since Before either of those — a vet or nurse who finds a different version of the clinic's story online, doesn't know which version is true, and quietly doesn't apply at all None of these are framed as anyone's fault — but the episode argues they're still the clinic's job to fix, because an ad that was accurate two years ago might not be anymore. The episode closes on why peer-to-peer evidence — team members speaking specifically and by name — carries more weight than anything management says about itself, and offers clinics one question to test their own ad against reality. This is the second episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

June 16, 2026Episode 2767 min

The reputation that travels everywhere except the job ad - ep. 276

There's a clinic not too far from you right now that everyone in the profession knows about. The vets know. The nurses know. The locums know. You can see it in the turnover — always hiring, always starting over. And nobody says publicly why. In the first episode of a new series — The Elephant In The Room — Julie South talks about the reputation that travels through private chats and late-night conference conversations, but never makes it into the one place it might actually do some good. And about the clinics that have done the hard work to change things — and are still being judged for who they used to be. If either of those sounds familiar, this episode is for you. Episode notes This episode explores why veterinary clinic reputations circulate privately — through WhatsApp, Messenger, and word of mouth — but never surface publicly where they could inform a hiring decision. Two kinds of clinics are examined: Clinics where the reputation is earned and nothing has changed — where high turnover is the visible signal and toxic behaviour continues to be tolerated Clinics that have genuinely changed — new leadership, new culture, fixed rosters, addressed after-hours loads — but are still carrying a reputation that belongs to a version of themselves that no longer exists The episode argues that the only thing that shifts a reputation is evidence: real voices from current team members, captured and published in a form that travels as far and as fast as the original reputation did. This is the first episode in The Elephant In The Room — a series examining the things everyone in veterinary knows and almost no one says out loud. About your host Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs. Julie has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons. Struggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs