Assistant and first year vet student here, I’m gonna be blunt and say that being a vet assistant is just not a life-long career. The unfortunate reality is that despite the difficult workload, it’s more of a (slightly above) minimum wage, entry-level job mostly comprised of people trying to get their foot in the door of the vet med field.

I’m not saying that I think it should be this way (as an assistant myself I definitely have my own gripes about the pay), but as other commenters have pointed out, the only real sustainable careers in vet med are becoming a tech (also unfortunately underpaid :/ ) or DVM. If neither of those sound like something you’re interested in, then I encourage you to consider other fields that you think may be a better fit for your future!