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How to Hire a Veterinarian: A Practice Guide to Associate DVM Hiring

By VeterinaryHire Team Published
A gray-haired practice owner in navy scrubs and a white coat talks with a veterinarian candidate in a light blue shirt across a consult table in an exam room.

To hire a veterinarian, decide exactly what the job is, put a complete offer on paper (pay structure, sign-on bonus terms, benefits, schedule, and mentorship), and start recruiting months before you need the doctor to start. New graduates usually commit before graduation, and experienced associates compare written offers line by line, so the practice with the clearest, most complete offer tends to win.

This guide is for practice owners, medical directors, and practice managers hiring an associate DVM, whether that's a new graduate or an experienced doctor. It's the veterinarian counterpart to our guide on hiring a veterinary technician.

The market for veterinarians in 2026

BLS counted 91,100 veterinarian jobs in 2025 and projects employment to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, with about 3,100 openings a year. The median annual wage was $130,100 in May 2025 (BLS). The AVMA's broader count, which also includes practice owners and veterinarians without employment information, estimated 133,475 U.S. veterinarians at the end of 2025 (AVMA).

The new-graduate market has loosened a little. In the AVMA's 2026 Senior Survey, taken about four weeks before graduation, 58.0% of graduates had already accepted full-time jobs, 28.2% had accepted internships, residencies, or graduate programs, and 7.4% had no offer yet. The no-offer share has risen from 2.1% in 2022 (AVMA News, October 2026). Even so, 86.2% had already accepted a full-time job or an advanced-training position before graduation.

On the long-term picture, an AVMA-commissioned forecast by Brakke Consulting concluded that its projections "do not justify a conclusion of overall excess capacity or capacity shortage by 2030 or 2035" (JAVMA News, December 2024). National numbers don't tell you much about your town, though. A rural mixed practice and a suburban small animal hospital face very different candidate pools.

Two things follow for employers. First, timing matters. Nearly six in ten graduates had a full-time job lined up about four weeks before graduation, so a practice that starts recruiting in late spring is choosing from a smaller group. Second, experienced associates are mostly employed already. You're asking them to leave something, and the offer has to give them a reason.

Decide what you're hiring for

New graduate or experienced associate? A new graduate costs less in base pay but needs time, case support, and a lighter schedule at first. An experienced associate can carry a full schedule sooner but may bring a noncompete from their last job, a production history they expect to be paid on, and firm ideas about medicine. Be honest about how much mentoring your doctors can actually give. If the answer is "not much," hire experience.

General practice, emergency, or urgent care? The schedule, caseload, and pay structure differ enough that one listing shouldn't try to cover them all. If a GP role includes emergency or after-hours work, say so and say how it's paid. In the 2026 AVMA survey, 10.8% of new graduates entering full-time work received emergency case compensation.

Full-time, part-time, or relief? A part-time associate who works three fixed days a week is an employee with a smaller schedule. A relief vet who covers shifts is a different arrangement with its own contractor and DEA questions. If you need coverage while you search, our relief veterinarian guide explains how to set it up.

Build an offer that competes

Average starting compensation for 2026 graduates who took full-time jobs was $131,784, and $133,056 for those entering private practice. Among all veterinarians, average professional income for 2025 was $163,014 (AVMA News, October 2026). Use the BLS state and metro data to adjust for your area. For a fuller breakdown, see our veterinary salary guide.

Salary, production, or ProSal

Among 2024 graduates in full-time practice jobs, 67.4% were paid a base salary plus production, 31.7% a salary only, and 1.0% entirely on production (AVMA, Economic State of the Veterinary Profession 2025). The AVMA says associates on straight production typically earn 18% to 21% of production, not more than 25%, with a lower rate on product sales than on professional services (AVMA).

If you offer production, write down exactly how it's calculated: the percentage, which revenue counts, whether it's billed or collected, and whether a shortfall carries forward. Negative accrual, where a production shortfall is deducted from later pay, is the term candidates and their contract attorneys look for first. Our veterinary production pay guide walks through the math with worked examples.

For a new graduate, a guaranteed salary for the first year, with production starting after that, takes away the worry of being slow while they learn your hospital.

Sign-on bonuses and repayment terms

Sign-on bonuses are now standard. In 2026, 58.7% of new graduates entering full-time employment received one (AVMA News, October 2026). The AVMA describes the usual structure: the new hire agrees to stay for a minimum period, often one to three years, and leaving sooner can mean repaying some or all of the bonus (AVMA).

The repayment clause is where offers differ. Spell out:

  • The retention period. How long the associate has to stay.
  • Prorated or all-or-nothing. Under a prorated clawback, the amount owed shrinks each month. For example, with a $20,000 bonus and a 24-month period prorated monthly, an associate who leaves at month 18 would repay 6/24 of it, or $5,000. Under a cliff, they'd owe the full $20,000 until the last day. Candidates and their attorneys strongly prefer proration.
  • What triggers repayment. Most clauses apply when the associate resigns. Say whether repayment applies if the practice ends the employment without cause, or if the practice is sold.
  • Tax treatment. The AVMA notes that a bonus paid as wages is supplemental income subject to withholding. A bonus structured as a forgivable loan becomes taxable income when it's forgiven. Have your accountant set this up.

Student loan assistance

Debt drives a lot of new-graduate decisions. The 2026 class averaged $227,588 in veterinary school debt among graduates who had any, and the average debt-to-income ratio rose to 1.5 to 1. In the AVMA's 2026 census, educational loan repayment was the benefit veterinarians most wanted and didn't have, yet only 19.9% of new graduates entering full-time work received it (AVMA News, October 2026).

There's a tax-efficient way to offer it. Under a Section 127 educational assistance program, an employer can pay up to $5,250 a year toward an employee's qualified student loans tax-free to the employee. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act made the student loan option permanent and indexes the limit for inflation after 2026 (IRS). The plan has to be in writing and meet IRS rules, so set it up with your accountant or benefits provider.

CE, license, DEA, liability coverage, and dues

These are cheap relative to salary and expected by most candidates. In the 2026 census, the benefits veterinarians most often reported receiving were continuing education expenses (80.0%), license fees (79.2%), paid vacation (74.6%), and association dues (71.4%) (AVMA News, October 2026).

List each one with a number: the CE dollar amount and the paid CE days per year, which licenses and registrations you pay for (state license, DEA registration, and any state controlled substance registration), which professional dues you cover, and whether you pay for the associate's own professional liability policy. AVMA members can buy professional liability coverage through AVMA Insurance Services, and license defense coverage is an optional add-on there. Tell candidates what your hospital's policy covers and whether you pay for their individual policy.

Relocation

In 2026, 34.6% of new graduates entering full-time employment received a moving allowance. If you're hiring outside your metro area, include a dollar amount and say whether it's reimbursed or paid up front, and whether it's subject to the same repayment terms as the sign-on bonus.

Mentorship for new graduates

Mentorship was the top reason 2022 graduates gave for accepting a job offer, ahead of location, pay, and benefits. Eighty-four percent said a desire for mentorship played a role, and mentorship has ranked first every year since the AVMA started asking in 2020 (AVMA).

"We offer mentorship" doesn't count. Candidates ask what it means in practice, so answer before they ask:

  • A named mentor, and how often you'll meet (for example, a weekly case review).
  • Longer appointment slots and a reduced schedule for the first few weeks or months, with dates.
  • Who's on the floor to help with surgery and emergencies while they build confidence.
  • When production pay starts, if it applies.

The AVMA and MentorVet also run Mentoring@AVMA, a free remote program for early-career AVMA members. It's a good addition to in-house mentoring, not a substitute for it.

Noncompetes: where things stand in October 2026

There's no federal ban. The FTC's 2024 rule banning most noncompetes never took effect. A federal court in Texas set it aside on August 20, 2024. On September 5, 2025, the FTC voted 3-1 to drop its appeals and accept that ruling (FTC), and it removed the rule from the Code of Federal Regulations in February 2026 (Federal Register).

The FTC still goes after noncompetes case by case. On September 10, 2025, it sent warning letters to several large healthcare employers and staffing firms urging them to review their noncompetes, and said it encouraged all employers to do the same (FTC).

State law decides most of this, and it varies a lot:

  • Maryland voids noncompete and conflict of interest provisions for licensed veterinarians and veterinary technicians (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-716).
  • Utah voids veterinarian noncompetes entered on or after May 6, 2026, unless the veterinarian owns at least 5% of the business. The same law voids new nonsolicitation agreements with veterinarians (Utah S.B. 111, 2026).
  • California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming make most employee noncompetes void. Washington has enacted a full ban that takes effect June 30, 2027. Alabama and Maine restrict them specifically for veterinarians (Foley & Lardner, July 2026).

Many of the healthcare noncompete laws states passed recently are written around physicians, nurses, and similar professions. Don't assume yours covers or excludes veterinarians. Check the statute's definitions or ask an employment attorney.

Where noncompetes are still allowed, the AVMA's guidance is that the radius usually covers the area where 80% of the practice's patients come from, and one to three years is standard for the time limit (AVMA). A broad noncompete costs you candidates. Many associates will walk away from one, or ask for something in return. Put the terms in the listing or the first conversation so nobody finds them at the contract stage.

Where veterinarians look for jobs

  • Veterinary colleges. Career services offices, job boards, and externship programs connect you with final-year students. The AVMA keeps the list of accredited veterinary colleges. Hosting externs lets students see your practice before they apply.
  • Professional associations. The AVMA Career Center, your state VMA's job board, and specialty organizations for ER, equine, or other focused roles.
  • Veterinary job boards. Doctors filter by location, practice type, and schedule, so fill in every field.
  • Your own team and network. Former externs, relief vets who already know your hospital, and referrals from your associates.

For posting prices and which boards suit which roles, see where to post veterinary jobs.

Write a listing doctors will answer

Veterinarians read listings for specifics. Our veterinarian job description template gives you a starting draft. Make sure it includes:

  • Pay structure and a range. Base, production percentage, and how ER work is paid. Many states now require a pay range in job postings, and our vet tech hiring guide lists them.
  • Caseload. Appointments per day and appointment length. For reference, the AVMA's practice owner survey found veterinarians saw about 15 patients a day on average in 2024 (AVMA).
  • Support staff. Credentialed techs per doctor on a typical day.
  • Schedule. Days, hours, weekends, holidays, on-call.
  • Medicine and equipment. Surgery, dentistry, imaging, in-house lab, and anything you refer out.
  • Mentorship, sign-on bonus, and noncompete terms. Briefly, with the details saved for the offer.

The interview and working interview

Many practices pair a sit-down interview with a working interview where the candidate spends a day seeing appointments alongside an associate. A candidate who isn't licensed in your state yet can't treat patients there, so plan the day around shadowing and case discussion. If they do real work, pay them. Our veterinary working interview guide covers pay rules and how to structure the day.

Questions that tell you something:

  • Walk me through a case that didn't go the way you expected. What did you do next?
  • How do you talk to a client who can't afford your first treatment plan?
  • How many appointments a day felt sustainable at your last job, and how much support did you have?
  • What would you need from us in your first 90 days?

Let your associates and techs spend time with the candidate without you in the room. The candidate will ask them about workload, turnover, and leadership, and their answers will decide a lot of hires.

Verify the license and DEA registration

State license. A veterinarian needs a license in each state where they practice. The AAVSB's license lookup points you to each state board's verification tool, since the boards keep the official records. New graduates usually pass the NAVLE before applying for a state license (AAVSB), so ask where they are in that process and set the start date to match.

DEA registration. A practitioner's DEA registration depends on authority under state law, and a separate registration is required for each state where the practitioner dispenses controlled substances (DEA). That means a new graduate or an associate moving from another state usually can't get a DEA registration for your state until the state license comes through, and some states require a separate state controlled substance registration too. A current DEA registrant can check another registration through DEA's Registrant Validation Toolset. Until the new doctor's registration is active, sort out with your state board how controlled substances will be handled.

Make the offer in writing

The AVMA tells job seekers to have any offer reviewed by an attorney and, if there's no employment contract, to ask for an offer letter that states the terms (AVMA). Expect that, and make it easy. Put these in one document:

  • Start date, and that it depends on licensure.
  • Base pay, production terms with a worked example, and ER or on-call pay.
  • Sign-on bonus amount, retention period, proration, and what triggers repayment.
  • Student loan assistance, CE dollars and days, licenses and dues paid, liability coverage, health insurance, retirement, and paid time off.
  • Schedule and caseload.
  • The mentorship plan, if you promised one.
  • Any noncompete or nonsolicitation terms, consistent with your state's law.

Give a reasonable deadline and answer questions quickly. A candidate weighing three offers will often sign the one that's clearest.

What an open DVM position costs

The AVMA's practice owner survey put average gross revenue at $554,982 per full-time veterinarian in 2024, or about $288 per veterinarian hour (AVMA). You can use that to estimate what a vacancy puts at risk.

Here's a worked example with stated assumptions. Say a full-time DVM position sits empty for three months and the remaining doctors can't absorb any of that caseload. At the AVMA average, that's $554,982 × 3/12, or about $138,700 in gross revenue the practice doesn't bill.

That's revenue, not profit. You also save the departed doctor's pay and benefits during the gap, and your other doctors usually absorb some appointments. On the other side, relief coverage costs money, clients who can't get an appointment may go elsewhere, and longer days for the rest of the team lead to more turnover. Run the numbers with your own revenue per doctor and your real booking data. They usually show that a stronger offer costs less than another month of searching.

Next steps

Post your veterinarian job on VeterinaryHire. You can write and preview the listing before you choose a plan, and it goes live as soon as checkout finishes. Before you set pay, check the production math in our veterinary production pay guide and the benchmarks in our veterinary salary guide. If you need a doctor on the schedule while you search, read our relief veterinarian guide.

Sources

This is practical hiring guidance, not legal advice. Noncompete, pay transparency, wage, tax, and licensing rules differ by state and change often, so confirm them with an employment attorney, your accountant, and your state veterinary board. Sources checked October 16, 2026.