Animal Lovers, What Career Choices are Available?

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If you love animals, the chance to build a career out of working with them is well worth considering. Your career should always involve something you are passionate about, and your love for furry creatures or crawly critters could be the ticket that sees your career prosper and flourish. You stand a much higher chance of being successful when your job makes you happy.

The problem is, that means studying for years and years as a veterinarian or marine biologist right?

Wrong.

Working with animals is not just restricted to vets and dolphin training, and there are tons of career paths that let you devote your life to the care of animals. Varying jobs require different levels of education, so what are your options?

Pet Adoption Counsellor

Pet adoption counsellors help connect people looking for a pet with the perfect pooch, puss, guinea pig, rabbit, horse, or any animal looking for a new home. Your job as a pet adoption counselor is to increase the number of adoptions your organisation facilitates, and to carry out positive, quality adoptions that sees a happy ending for both pets and their owners. Your role will include getting to know each animal up for adoption so that you can best match a pet’s personality with a person’s requirements.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include business administration, communication skills, and pet care.

Guide Dog Trainer

A guide dog trainer creates a skilled animal to help those with visual impairment. Training is done through a series of stages, with the end result being a dog that will stay by their owners side and refrain from chasing the neighbour’s cat. This dog will also need to notify their master of any obstacles in their path, such as curbs or an oncoming car.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include social sciences, disability studies, human services, psychology, pet care, and nursing.

Wildlife Rehabilitator

Wildlife rehabilitators give a second chance at life for the large numbers of sick, injured and orphaned wild animals. You role would include feeding them a nutritious diet, keeping them clean and groomed, administering medicine and playing with them to build strength. You may also need to educate the public on what your organisation does.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include wildlife rehabilitation, nursing, horticulture, and public speaking.

Animal Shelter Worker

Your primary tasks as an animal shelter worker would include cleaning cages, scrubbing cat boxes, walking dogs, and washing and feeding animals in your care. It will also be your role to get animals accustomed to receiving love and attention through petting and cuddles.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include animal studies, business management, pet care, and first-aid.

Pet Groomer

Pet groomers give perms, trims, teeth cleanings and nail clippings to furry prima donnas, and the hours usually come with a great deal of flexibility. Should you open your own business, you may be required to be mobile, travelling from people’s homes to animal hospitals, shelters or even hotels and resorts. You could also add the additional service of animal photography for those wishing to document their love for their animals.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include business management, photography, and pet grooming.

Zookeeper

As a zookeeper, your role would be to maintain the enclosures and be a friend to captive creatures big and small. Be it snakes and spiders or elephants and giraffes, you will be required to groom them, feed them, clean their living spaces, play with them, and monitor them for any abnormal behaviours.

Competition for positions in this field is fierce, therefore it’s essential you stand out from the rest. Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include biology, animal technology, zoology, and animal science.

Humane Educator

A relatively new field, humane educating involves traveling to schools and facilities to teach children and adults about humane treatment of animals. Humane educators will often bring animals with them to the classroom or media appearances to allow people to get up close and personal with certain species.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include education, animal science, zoology, and public relations.

Animal Trainer

An animal trainer can teach pets to follow commands, such as the basics of sit, lie down, stay and roll over, and more complicated commands like fetching the newspaper. Your role could also include teaching pet owners how best to walk and care for their pets, train animals for shows or you could choose to provide training for celebrity animal actors.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include animal science, zoology and pet care. If you want to work with marine animals, you will be required to have a degree in marine biology and animal psychology.

Pet Photographer

If you are good with both people and animals and love getting behind a camera, you could do well as a pet photographer. Your role will be to capture beautiful shots of man’s best friend, include animals in family portraits, and find interesting and unique ways to capture a person’s beloved pet.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include photography, business management, and pet care.

Horse Groomer/Educator

As an equine horse care professional, your role would be to groom, ride and feed horses, clean out stables, get horses ready for events, train horses, or organise trail rides.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include equine/horse care, horse breeding, and sports management.

Veterinarian Nurse

As a veterinarian nurse, you work under the guidance of a licensed veterinarian to provide basic medical care to animals. Your duties will include restraining sick animals, prepping patients for surgery, performing physical evaluations and testing blood. Communication skills are important, especially when it comes to giving bad news.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include pet care, communications, and horse care.

Park Naturalist

The job of a park naturalist is to protect and preserve nature and promote knowledge about the parks. Duties include maintaining the natural environment of the park, monitoring animals and wildlife, and educating park-goers with information on plant and animal species.

Relevant degrees and certificates that may help you secure a position in this field include horticulture, teaching, teacher’s aide, communications, and public relations.

The options are endless for those interested in working with animals as their career; all it takes is achieving the appropriate training and a little dedication and you too could be one of the lucky few that have their dream job. Check out the animal-related courses available from ICI today to start your training.

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Gladys Mae

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Gladys Mae serves as the General Manager and Head of Student Services at the International Career Institute. Gladys holds a degree in Mass Communication - Broadcast Media from the University of San Jose-Recoletos. She joined ICI in 2010 and has over the past 12 years been instrumental in providing leadership and guidance to staff and students alike. Prior to joining ICI Gladys led a multifaceted career with key roles in the banking and business process outsourcing industries.