One of my teachers in the vet tech program I went through (The top one in CA and one of the best nationwide) was in charge of intake for vet school at UC Davis for years. He said that he ALWAYS loved to see on vet school applications that someone had been an RVT, since they then had a much better idea of what they were getting into, as well as knowing that they could handle the job.

There are a LOT of things you can do with a degree as an RVT. I manage a retail pet store. Other people who graduated with me are pet food representatives, going to vet school, dog trainers, running a doggie day-care, one is a feline behaviorist, one works in a local kid's zoo, at least one works for fish and game, and one is in further training to become an "animal cop". This is just people that I know of, in ONE graduating class of vet techs. There is no end to the places that this could be a starting point for...

Personally, I went through somehting somewhat similar with vet tech school. I got to within a month of graduating, and realized tha the job was pure hell for me. People in the veterinary field suffer from burnout and compassion fatigue, and in my area one of the results of that problem is that people in the veterinary field here are VICIOUS to one another. It was always ALWAYS the vets vs the techs vs the kennel people vs the receptionists. My sister in law has a thick skin and handles it all with grace. I do not, and I did not. I found myself riding my motorcycle to work one day thinking "Gosh I hope a car runs me over so I don't have to go in today", and I quit the next day.

I may not be making a ton of money managing a feed store, but I love it, and I feel like it will look better on my resume later to have been a successful manager of a retail store than to have been a failure as a vet tech.

Random: I met my husband while I was in vet tech school, got engaged three weeks later, and married less than a year after that...our relationship had nothing to do with my performance or my decision to leave the field, so I have no idea why this keeps being brought up.