Featured articles – Page 3 – Animal Jobs Digest

Want to Start a Solo Dog Walking Business? First Ask Yourself These 9 Questions

By Animal Jobs Digest December 26, 2015All articles, Career options, Featured articles1 Comment

By Paula Fitzsimmons

Find a few clients, offer to walk their dogs, get some exercise, then get paid. If only starting and running a dog walking business were that simple. And that’s what we’re talking about here: a business. An enjoyable and important business perhaps, but still a business – one in which you have to be as concerned with customer service, accounting, marketing, and local ordinances, as you are with providing excellent care to dogs.

That said, even though dog walking is a business, the welfare of the animal should always come before profit.

When starting any new venture, it’s easy to get swept away with the possibilities, that you may overlook the finer details. That’s what I’m here for – to tell you about those important factors that you shouldn’t overlook.

8 Ways for Animal Lovers to Find a Dream Job

By Animal Jobs Digest December 17, 2015All articles, Featured articles, How-to succeed, Tools for success

By Paula Fitzsimmons

Ask ten different people working in the animal care field how they got their job, and you’ll likely get an assortment of replies. There are no right or wrong paths to gainful employment – what works for someone else may not necessarily be ideal for your situation.

Getting hired is sometimes simply the result of great timing, knowing someone who knows someone, and even luck. More often that not, it takes dogged determination and an awareness of which tools to use to your advantage.

Put Your Brilliant Ideas to Good Use . . .for the Animals

By Animal Jobs Digest December 3, 2015All articles, Career options, Featured articles

By Paula Fitzsimmons

If you’re a member of the animal or eco protection movement, you already know about the mountains of problems we face. There are no shortage of them, either – the sixth great extinction, deforestation, climate change, industrial exploitation, companion animal overpopulation, loss of coral reefs, to name a few. It’s disconcerting. . . downright overwhelming when you take time to really think about it.

Which is why news about people working towards solutions gives me a sense of hope. Take the recent Outside magazine article about marine biologist Sylvia Earle, for instance. Dr. Earle and her colleagues have been warning us for decades about the tolls pollution, overfishing, mining, and climate change have taken on marine environments.

Vet School Not An Option? Consider These Alternative Careers

By Animal Jobs Digest November 15, 2015All articles, Career options, Featured articles1 Comment

By Paula Fitzsimmons

If your dream of becoming an animal doc is not attainable, don’t feel too badly . . .veterinary medicine is not for everyone. Relatively few are able or willing to commit to years of post-graduate training or take on tuition debt.

Luckily, you have other options.

If you want to help heal animals, don’t let your skills and compassion go to waste. Consider these alternative careers, which require a fraction of the education, training, and tuition expense.

The Best Scholarships to Propel Your Animal Care Career Forward: A Guide for 2016

By Animal Jobs Digest November 1, 2015All articles, Featured articles, Slider, Tools for success2 Comments

By Paula Fitzsimmons

We need more, not fewer, people willing to work in careers that promote protection for animals, the environment, and the disenfranchised. These careers often require applicants to have some level of higher education – whether via certificate, technical, or college degree. Soaring tuition prices and high interest loans have made school more inaccessible than it once was. And that’s a shame . . . I believe anyone who wants to go to school to better themselves and make a difference, should have the opportunity.

All is not lost.

Get Noticed! Animal Protection Agency Managers Speak Out

By Animal Jobs Digest October 18, 2015All articles, Experts & interviews, Featured articles

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Use Your Humanities Degree to Find a Job Helping Animals

By Animal Jobs Digest October 12, 2015All articles, Career options, Featured articles

By Paula Fitzsimmons

Think you can’t land a job in animal care or protection with that humanities degree? If your major is in philosophy, English, psychology, or a similar liberal arts discipline, you absolutely do have options. More than you may think.

Remember those thesis papers you had to research, compile, and write in college? They seemed grueling but served you well. You may have not realized it at the time, but I’m betting you became a better communicator and developed stronger critical thinking skills, as a result. These are the types of skills employers seek, including those in the animal world.

Find the Right Internship for Your Animal Career

By Animal Jobs Digest September 27, 2015All articles, Featured articles, Slider, Tools for success2 Comments

By Paula Fitzsimmons

The right internship can give you a definite edge when it comes time to apply for that coveted animal welfare or conservation job. It can be a solid way to make contacts, learn new skills, and gauge your interest in the field (before interning, you didn’t think animal care actually required so much cleaning duty, or that arguing an animal welfare case in court required so much preparatory work). It could also enhance your resume, CV or application – so when a potential employer asks if you have experience, you can answer with an emphatic yes.

Get That Animal Welfare Job – 8 Ways to Stand Apart From the Pack

By Animal Jobs Digest September 7, 2015All articles, Featured articles, How-to succeed

By Paula Fitzsimmons

If you want an animal welfare organization to hire you, the stuff you bring to their table has to be pretty special. If a company or organization has 50 people applying for the same position – and most of these applicants have similar skills and experience – it’s too easy to be forgotten. You need creative ways to stand out (in a positive way!) from the horde of other applicants, and give your future employer a reason to want to hire you.

The following ideas may not necessarily guarantee you the job, but they may indeed help give you an advantage.

Want to Become an Animal Doc? First Ask Yourself These 6 Questions

By Animal Jobs Digest September 1, 2015All articles, Career options, Featured articles

By Paula Fitzsimmons

Veterinary medicine has got to be one of the most undervalued professions on the planet. The path to becoming a veterinarian begins with rigorous academic training . . . at great personal financial expense that often leads to debt.

Vets get pooped on and bitten by their patients – no animal in his or her right mind actually looks forward to seeing the vet.

They also regularly deal with a range of human personalities and quirks. For instance, not everyone understands why they actually have to pay more than a few bucks for professional services. As if vets should work for free.