Equine veterinarian medicine students and their future job
Summary
Equine veterinarian medicine students do not feel prepared for their future job and experience negative effects such as signs of burn-out. These effects can influence their person-job fit (PJ fit). This study investigated the relationship between the competences of the Veterinary Employability model and students’ perceived PJ fit. The competences can be divided into five orientations; veterinary capabilities; professional commitment; effective relationships; psychological resources; self-awareness. Expected was that the higher the score on the competences within every orientation, the greater the perceived PJ fit. In addition, passion is added as a moderator to the relationship of the competences – and the orientations of the competences – and PJ fit. Self-reports of 54 students from various universities and origin were gathered with an online survey shared by e-mail and other social media platforms. A cross-sectional study design was used. Results showed only a positive statistically significant effect (p < .05) for the relationship between the competences and PJ fit. When passion was added as moderator, no statistically significant results were found (p = .05). No positive statistically significant effect (p > .05) was found for the relationship between each orientation of the competences and PJ fit, nor for these relationships and passion as moderator (p > .05). Passion seems to be a better predictor for PJ fit than competences. Further research should investigate the construct used in this study and their unique variance. Finding the best predictor for PJ fit could decrease the dropout of young equine veterinarians experienced by Altano Gruppe.