Living and Working at Energy Vets Taranaki with Dr Sieara Claytor - Small Animal Veterinarian - 1031

Energy Vets, Taranaki | Starting Out as a New Grad In this REAL+STORY episode, Julie South speaks with Dr Sieara Claytor, a 2025 graduate working in her very first full-time veterinary role at Energy Vets in Taranaki . Sieara moved from the United States to study in Australia and has now started her career in rural New Zealand. Six months in, she’s already managing emergencies, assisting in surgeries beyond routine desexings, handling after-hours responsibilities, and working across two clinic branches. Rather than focusing on “graduate programs” or formal structures, this conversation looks at what support actually feels like day to day — senior vets scrubbing in alongside her, nurses staying late when needed, multiple vets available when things get busy, and space to ask questions without hesitation. Sieara also talks about adjusting to rural life, commuting without traffic lights, wildlife cases, pig-hunting injuries, and the reality of after-hours in a regional clinic. If you’re a new graduate — or someone mentoring one — this episode gives a clear sense of what challenge-with-backup looks like in practice. In This Episode 00:00 – Introduction to the REAL+STORY series with Energy Vets 01:05 – Sieara’s background and first impressions as a new grad 03:30 – Rural caseload: emergencies, variety, and learning fast 04:52 – What support in surgery actually looks like 06:43 – Realising you’re more capable than you thought 07:56 – Moving countries and adjusting to rural life 09:16 – How after-hours really works 11:32 – Differences between the two clinic branches 12:50 – The early-career lens on Energy Vets Hiring Link If you’re an experienced small animal vet exploring your next step, you can find out more about current opportunities at Energy Vets Taranaki About Julie South Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and host of Veterinary Voices. She works with veterinary clinics that want to show what working there is really like — not just list job requirements. Through VetClinicJobs, she helps clinics make their culture clear and recognisable, so vets and nurses can tell whether a clinic is Their Kind of Clinic long before a vacancy appears. 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

You can listen to Living and Working at Energy Vets Taranaki with Dr Sieara Claytor - Small Animal Veterinarian - 1031 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Living and Working at Energy Vets Taranaki with Dr Sieara Claytor - Small Animal Veterinarian - 1031 is an episode from Paws Claws & Wet Noses | Veterinary Podcast by Julie South | Veterinary Recruitment Marketing Strategist.

This episode is 15:22 long.

This episode was published on Mar 6, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Paws Claws & Wet Noses | Veterinary Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.