It’s around this time that we’re all looking towards a new
year, and (potentially) a new career. If you feel overworked, under stimulated
and under appreciated in your current job you’re most likely perusing the job sites
with a view to choosing a new job or even a new career for 2018. This is a
common and admirable goal, but it’s important that you go into a job search for
the right reasons and with appropriate expectations. You may need to take time
out to retrain or even pursue a new qualification, either through campus based
learning or through a more flexible online
qualification. You may have to start at an entry level position and work
your way up to reach your dream job. Nonetheless, it’s better to be standing at
the bottom of a ladder you actually want to climb than to be stuck half way up
one that you don’t.
Though many move careers with a view to attaining a better
salary, you should not go into a career
change with only money in mind. After all, that’s likely how you would up
dismal and disillusioned in your current position. Though a competitive salary
is a noble goal, a sense of purpose and job satisfaction are actually far more
conducive to quality of life. A generous salary is rarely adequate compensation
for a job you find yourself hating. Of course the factors that comprise job
satisfaction are very much at the discretion of the individual, but if you have
always
kept pets and have a love of animals, you may find that few careers are as
rewarding or life affirming than working with them. Here we’ll look at some of
the best and most rewarding jobs that involve working with animals. While I may
include jobs that require some extensive training, I’ll try to keep it
realistic. It’s unlikely that many readers will have the time or money spare to
be able to train to be a veterinary surgeon.
Why work with animals?
Working with animals has, in any capacity, some inherent
benefits for your mental and physical health. Jobs involving animal care, while
they may have some administrative elements, are inherently kinaesthetic and
require a good deal of activity. Jobs where you’re regularly moving and active
(especially when this takes place outdoors) tend to keep a steady stream of
endorphins coming into the brain, keeping you feeling energized and positive.
Moreover, jobs where you’re regularly active and moving help you to avoid the intrinsic
health hazards that come with sitting at a desk in front of a screen for
8-10 hours a day. Sitting for long periods on a daily basis can not only impede
digestive function but increase your risk of serious diseases from heart
disease to diabetes.
All that aside, working with animals has some proven therapeutic
benefits that aid job satisfaction and general mental health. If your job
involves routinely petting, grooming or stroking animals this act is proven to
reduce stress, reduce cortisol levels and regulate blood pressure. Animals
provide companionship and watching their behaviors as species and
idiosyncrasies as individuals is an incredibly satisfying activity.
Having established the benefits, let’s look at some of the
best jobs that involve working with animals…
Veterinary assistant
If you’re looking for an entry level position that will give
you real experience of working with animals before you dedicate yourself to a
particular specialism, a job as a veterinary assistant could be an ideal
starting point. You will fulfil a wide range of administrative duties as well
as pitching in to assist veterinarians and veterinary nurses as the need
arises. You’ll also deal with pet owners, making appointments and often being
an initial point of contact so great interpersonal and organizational skills
are a must.
Dog trainer
If you’ve kept dogs all your life and have a great rapport
with your canine compatriots, becoming a dog trainer may be a rewarding career
for you. Dog training is a fairly broad church and once you have a grounding
and a working knowledge of canine behavior you can go into a range of
specialisms from police dog training to
show dog training to canine rehabilitation. You could even run your own
training school if you have entrepreneurial ambitions. If you find canine
behavior fascinating, have creative problem solving skills and have a whole lot
of patience this may well be the career for you.
Pet adoption counsellor
If you’re a double threat and have not only a rapport with
animals but with people too, you may be tailor made for a career as a pet
adoption counsellor. Here you will take specific case studies of animals who
have been put up for adoption. You’ll familiarize yourself with their
circumstances, their behaviors and their specific needs and use this
information to help them to find the right owners. You’ll also have to vet
prospective owners so you’ll need to have a shrewd and keen inquisitive mind as
well as having excellent interpersonal instincts. If you have a perceptive and
analytical mind this may be your dream career.
Entomologist
When you were a small kid, did you peer at insects in
fascination while your friends shrank away? Have you always had a healthy
respect for bugs and the many and varied roles they play in the greater
ecology? Little bugs make a big difference to the environment and if you have
the time to study a masters degree, the world of entomology is a broad
discipline that can lead to a wide and varied range
of careers. You’ll likely work with farmers, botanists and
horticulturalists so an open minded approach to other disciplines is a must but
your knowledge and expertise can be used to solve a range of environmental
issues. You could even become a forensic
entomologist and use insect behavior to help solve crimes. It doesn’t get
much more rewarding than that!
Animal wrangler
If you can’t resist the allure of Hollywood but tend to get
shy in front of a camera, there’s a way you can reconcile your love of animals
with a fascination with the film and TV industry and that’s as an animal
wrangler. Animal wranglers provide animals of all shapes and sizes for
productions large and small. You’ll get to work with a wide range of animals
and thus you’ll have to have instant rapport with them and understand their
behaviors. Not only will you get to work with different animals every day, you
may even find yourself working with some famous faces.
Pet groomer
Many pet owners want to make sure that their furry friends
look and smell nice and this sizeable market can be the place for you to build
your new career. You’ll clip and style fur, trim claws, clean teeth and keep
pets looking perfect. You’ll need a keen stylist’s eye as well as a great
working relationship with animals (and a whole lot of patience since few
critters actively enjoy being groomed). While you may start your career in a pet
salon or a veterinary practice there’s a lot of space for eager
entrepreneurs to set up their own grooming business either in their own salon
or as a travelling pet groomer.
Reptile farmer
If you’ve always preferred scales to fur, perhaps you’re
destined for a career as a reptile farmer. You’ll breed, capture, raise, keep
and attend to a range of reptiles for sale to pet stores. If you’ve always
wanted to try your hand as a ranch manager but haven’t the space, reptiles
require less space although they do require specialist knowledge and expertise.
However, you’ll be able to specialize in a particular kind of lizard… And
that’s a very broad church! You could choose to specialize in snakes, cute
reptiles like turtles tortoises and terrapins or even large reptiles like
crocodiles and alligators. You’ll not only work with your preferred reptiles
but be ideally placed to work with schools and universities to educate people
about the realities of these wonderful creatures and help to shatter a lot of common
misconceptions.
Animal cruelty investigator
If you love animals and have a burning passion for animal
rights and justice, you’ll find no career more rewarding than as an animal
cruelty investigator. You’ll essentially be an animal cop, so you’ll need to
temper your love of animals with outstanding interpersonal skills, an extremely
professional demeanor and superb investigative skills. You’ll need to be
extremely perceptive and analytical as you’ll essentially be a detective.
You’ll also need an extremely strong resolve as you may witness scenes of animal
cruelty and mistreatment that may be extremely upsetting. If you’re a team
player who can remain calm under pressure and demonstrate excellent people
skills even in the face of cruelty and mistreatment of all kinds of animals
this is the career for you.
These are just eight of the many examples of careers that
provide great job satisfaction and a lot of face time with animals while
playing to a wide range of transferable skills. If you thought that the only
rewarding career with critters involved enrolling in veterinary school, think
again!
This is a contributed post.