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

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

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

Most clinics have their most honest conversation about culture when someone's leaving.

The vet or nurse is in their last week, and suddenly — they talk. They say what they loved about the team. They describe what made this clinic different. They name the specific things that kept them there as long as they did.

Honest. Warm. Specific. Exactly the kind of thing that would make the right person read it and think: that sounds like my kind of place.

And the job ad? It might still be running. Still saying passionate team, supportive environment, great work-life balance. The same words it said when it went up. The same words every other clinic uses.

In this final episode of the series What Job Ads Were Never Built To Do, Julie South looks at the good stuff that surfaces too late — and what it would take to capture it while it can still do something useful.

If you'd like to talk about what that looks like for your clinic — email julie@vetclinicjobs.com.

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 have a great culture. Your team would back that up. So why is it sooooo! hard to find vets and nurses who want to work there?

The answer probably isn't your job ad. It's everything that didn't happen before your job ad ran.

In this fifth episode of What Job Ads Were Never Built To Do, Julie South unpacks the hidden cost of episodic recruitment — the off/on/off, stop/start/stop cycle that most vet clinics have normalised without ever questioning.

The ad goes up.

The ad comes down.

The clinic goes dark.

And the next time a vacancy opens, you're starting from zero. Again.

Visibility isn't about being findable by name. It's about being present in the professional world of vets and nurses who are keeping their eye out — months or years before they're ready to apply.

What's more - there's a huge difference between being visible and being believed. Third-party voice carries a weight that no amount of your own content ever will.

A job ad is a moment in time. Visibility is a habit.

Resources mentioned:

• One-hour consult with Julie — julie@vetclinicjobs.com

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

Your job ad has a requirements list. Must be a team player. Must thrive in a fast-paced environment. Must do one weekend in four. And you're hoping the right vets and nurses will read it, recognise themselves, and apply.

Here's the problem. So does every other clinic's job ad. Word for word, in some cases.

In this fourth episode of What Job Ads Were Never Built To Do, Julie South unpacks why requirements lists don't filter — and why vanilla clinics get vanilla applications.

When every clinic looks identical, there's nothing for a vet or nurse to identify with. Nothing to recognise. Nothing that says that's my kind of clinic.

The goal of a job ad isn't volume. It's resonance. One application from a vet or nurse who already knows you're their kind of clinic is worth more than fifty from people who are guessing. Most clinics are fishing with a net. This episode is about fishing with a line.

Julie also introduces the concept of recognition and identification — what genuine self-selection looks like, why it doesn't travel on bullet points, and why the question worth asking about your job ad isn't "how do I make it better?" It's "is this vanilla?"

Resources mentioned:

• One-hour consult with Julie — julie@vetclinicjobs.com

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

Your clinic values are genuine. The team really is supportive. You really do care about animal welfare. So why is stating that in your job ad doing absolutely nothing for your recruitment?

In this third episode of What Job Ads Were Never Built To Do, Julie South unpacks why values listed in a job ad are indistinguishable from values listed in every other job ad — and why that makes them wallpaper, however sincerely they're meant.

The problem isn't your values. It's the tool you're using to carry them.

Julie explores the difference between a value that's claimed and a value that's demonstrated, why a job ad can only ever do the former, and what demonstration looks like in practice — from verified anonymous employee reviews to a team member telling their story on a podcast.

And if you're listening and wondering how to make your values fit better in a job ad — Julie has something to say about that too. It's not the question you should be asking.

Resources mentioned:

• Cultural Visibility Stress Test — careers.vetclinicjobs.com
• Email Julie — julie@vetclinicjobs.com

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

There's a glowing quote from a team member on your careers site or in your job ad. It's positive, it's genuine — and it's doing almost nothing for your recruitment. This episode explains why, and what actually works instead.

In this second episode of What Job Ads Were Never Built To Do, Julie South unpacks one of the heaviest loads clinics are asking their job ads and careers pages to carry: social proof.

Specifically — the difference between a testimonial and a review. They look similar. They are not the same. And confusing the two is costing clinics vets and nurses.

Julie explores why solicited quotes — however genuine — are instantly discounted by the vets and nurses reading them, why verified anonymous employee reviews carry a completely different weight, and what happens in the room when a clinic manager is first invited to let their team speak anonymously and unedited.

You'll also hear what "verified" actually means, why it matters that a real human — not a bot — does the verifying, and how VetClinicJobs gives anonymous reviews their own dedicated space ahead of job ads.

And at the end — a question worth sitting with. One that'll give you a more honest read of where your clinic culture sits than almost anything else.

Resources mentioned:

• Cultural Visibility Stress Test — careers.vetclinicjobs.com
• Email Julie — julie@vetclinicjobs.com

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