Pet Stores, Employment and Qualifications? (1 Viewer)

[favvify]

I'm thinking about getting a job, but do not want to go into fast food (too little money for a crazy amount of stress and responsibility).
I don't really want to go into clothing retail either, for obvious reasons. However, as an animal lover and 'mother' of animals of my own, I would really like to work in a pet store for the time being. I'm more than happy to get my hands dirty and would prefer to be cleaning out dog enclosures than suggesting clothing sizes :/

So I was wondering if pet stores require any specific qualifications or age requirements? And would a pet store be likely to employ a 15/16 year old worker in the first place? You know, despite the fact that we're cheeper and all

 

[hungwell1337]

thing is lots of older animal lovers want to work at pet shops as well

but yes they will hire anyone, no qualifications are needed

 

[-may-cat-]

I work in a pet store that specialises in fish, parrots and small animals (no cats and dogs). Usually we prefer to employ people a bit older (18+) who have had plenty of experience with fish and other animals. This is because the larger part of our job is giving advice/solving problems with peoples' aquariums/animals and we have to make sure that everyone has a pretty solid knowledge base in at least one area of animal care from the get go. Mind you, we are an independent pet store and don't really run the way a lot of the big chains do... I imagine larger stores have a lot more staff with the younger crowd acting as animal attendants and not giving out advice. You probably have a pretty good chance at getting a job there if they happen to be hiring, mind you if you do get work at a bigger chain, prepare to cop a hell of a lot of abuse, animal lovers will see you as the devil for selling puppies and kittens. Also,Pet stores don't pay the best either tbh and in regards to responsibility, well, if you give some one bad advice regarding their animals be prepared to cop the shit for it.

 

[favvify]

Yeah, I figured. Although (and as cheesy as it may sound), I do actually know a lot when it comes to pet care and the like, I wanted to be a veterinary surgeon from about year 1, and used to spend the majority of my free time reading up on things like that. Plus I have had two older dogs that have recently passed away as well as two younger dogs. A cat who had bladder stones as a kitten and had to be put on a special diet for the rest of his life as well as having broken his pelvis from being hit by a car.

One of my strengths though would be with small animals, like guinea pigs. The store we bought our original two sold us two 'females', and about two months afterwards one of them passed away so we bought another female and she ended up having babies because, as it would, the original 'female' was actually male. I know all about nutrition for different life stages, common issues, behaviours, mites, how to wash a guinea pig without stressing them out, how to trim nails, etc. And I would be very reliable at sexing them too, unlike the girl we bought them off originally.

But I could see how they would be more inclined to hire older workers, as people often look upon pets as an extension of family and an older face often means experience. I guess that the only way I could get a leg up on them is the fact that I would be cheeper to employ :/

 

[-may-cat-]

Well if you have experience it's always good to mention it, it can only help. We hire older people as we primarily deal with fish and getting to know the in's and out's of water chemistry and such takes a while... Not too many kids are able to take it all in/actively apply the knowledge to problem solving. At my shop a couple of years ago a kid gave this guy some bad advice regarding his salt water tank; killed off his entire stock, thousands of dollars worth of fish... very messy

 

[hungwell1337]

i walked past a pet store at roselands shopping centre, that wanted christmas casuals