As a pet care associate, your job is to ensure the health and safety of pets. In other words, pet care associates assist customers who have pets like fish, dogs, birds, and other small mammals by treating them and making sure they are in perfect health.
These associates answer questions that customers may have about their animals, whether over the phone or in person. They also provide relevant advice to pet parents about the best product or food to buy for their pets. Plus, pet care associates ensure pets under their care are fed at the right time every day.
Most pet care associates pay keen attention to detail and are very passionate about animals. The pay is only about $32,555 per year, and a person applying for this role should have quick problem solving and fast learning ability. You must also have a deep knowledge of pet needs and a degree in biology, medical assisting services, or psychology.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pet care associate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.44 an hour? That's $32,115 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 51,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many pet care associates have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, detail oriented and problem-solving skills.
If you're interested in becoming a pet care associate, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 38.2% of pet care associates have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.5% of pet care associates have master's degrees. Even though some pet care associates have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a pet care associate. When we researched the most common majors for a pet care associate, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on pet care associate resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a pet care associate. In fact, many pet care associate jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many pet care associates also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or internship.
