Pet store job

[brightness]

Hey all,

I am interviewing at a pet store soon, but I'm not sure how this will effect my prospects of someday being a DVM. This is a clean store that sells mainly small animals and exotic animals- birds, insects, chinchillas, snakes, lizards. If hired I would get to take care of all of these exotic animals, which seems like a good thing. But I know pet stores and exotic pets are looked down upon by a lot of people who are lay people- outside of the veterinary community...

So I'm just not sure about it.

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[HopefulAg]

It would count towards animal experience but if you're a senior in high school or freshman in college I would start trying to get a job with a vet and get your animal experience through volunteer work or something.

It doesn't matter if 'lay people' look down on pet stores, they're not going to be the ones interviewing you.

 

[Hobiecat1642]

Hmm, I think I agree that if you can get a position at a small/large clinic, even volunteer to start, that would be best. However, if you can't do that right now, better to be doing something animal related. You want to show adcoms that you have a long, varied record of animal care/ vet experience. I say go for it, learning about exotics will be really helpful, especially if that's what you want to do.

 

[clawsbeatskin]

I had a 2 week stint at Petsmart (I was broke and in desperate need of a job). I had to quit because working there made my desire to be a vet lessen- I just couldn't deal with the clueless yokels who would come in there. "What? You think your hamster is dead? You didn't feed it for a week? Well, sir, you definitely have to feed them. You want your money back?!?!"

It's not even a blip on my resume. It's just my deep dark secret. 😳

 

[bakaduin]

I think it would be great experience for you if you wanted to be a vet. Its just another side of the animal world that not a lot of people see but would help give you an understanding of some of the mass sales, and at times mistreatment, of pets.

 

[smoknjoe44]

I worked at a petstore for about 4 years (entire highschool time) cleaning up dog and cat ****. I liked the people and my job wasn't too bad at first because the hours worked out well while i was in highschool. However, everything eventually went downhill. No one really cared about anything, and I just got frustrated at the lack of care/ material to care for the animals. So, I finally threw in my sh**ty rag and left to work with some cows. Now, for a while at the petstore, I wasn't sure that I wanted to be a vet, but after I quit and got another job, I was sure that I did want to become a vet. Anyhow, working at the petstore didn't hinder my chances of getting in to vet school. It was a really good experience for me. It definitely makes you want to push more people to adopt animals instead of paying high prices for "pure" bred animals.

 

[sofficat]

I think if you don't have much animal experience and you can't get a job at an animal clinic right now then working at a pet store would be a great way to get your feet wet in the animal world. Plus you get to see the inner workings and experience first hand the +/- of pet stores.

 

[charismarl]

I agree with most of the other people who posted that you should try to find a job at a vet clinic (because working at a pet store isn't necessarily medically related) but if not I don't think seeing the often satanized pet store side of the animal story. I think it will prepare you in that you will see what you do and don't like about the retail side of the animal market. Also...if you're specifically interested in exotics or pocket pets it will help you in the husbandry department because it will do things like teach you what normal iguana poo looks like, what kind of fruit desert tortoises like to eat, and how best to handle chinchillas, etc. A lot of people who are interested in exotics/pocket pets don't have a breadth of experience with many different species before vet school unless they somehow were lucky enough to work at a zoo so this would be a great opportunity to learn about a lot of different species.

If you can't find a vet job, look into volunteering at your local SPCA...if they know you are interested in medicine they might be able to train you to be an assistant...which will also give your resume a boost when/if you apply to work at a clinic later.

 

[brightness]

The area I live in has a lot of different veterinary clinics but no zoos unfortunatley. I have worked at a small animal clinic for three years during breaks as a receptionist, doing a lot of different duties and I work in an animal behavior lab. I still need to get large animal experience and maybe zoological/exotic experience of some type. I figured if I couldn't get anything else, I'd do the pet store unless it is specifically frowned upon.