u/Empathetic__Artist

Is there anyone on here that has been part of a hiring committee for a zoo that may be willing to give me feedback on my resume?
I graduated a few months ago with my degree in zoology and have over 10 years of experience with a large variety of species, both professionally, personally, and through volunteering and internships (including one at a very well known AZA accredited zoo). And I have good reference letters. But I have been applying for months to jobs all across the USA and UK and have not had any luck at all, only 2 interviews from dozens of applications. I know it’s a difficult field to get into, but this feels ridiculous. I did build my resume with the services provided by my college. But have had no luck. So I wanted to check and see if anyone on here that has experience in hiring for zoological facilities may be willing to take a look at it and give me any feedback? I am really trying to a herpetological or education/ambassador position, but have applied to others.

As a note, a lot of the applications I have even received a response from have all been a very generic response, with many saying they can’t give feedback due to having so many applications. So that’s why I am here instead of just asking them!

For you reptile keepers who are renting apartments, condos, townhouses, etc. how did you go about it? I am going to have to sell my house soon to rent a place (apartment or townhome, not sure yet) and I am worried about trying to find a place with my reptiles, especially my snakes. When I last rented a place I remember how hard it was to find a place that didn’t have a 2-3 pet limit, and that was just for dogs and cats, not even talking about reptiles. I feel like with the stigma around them it’s not going to be easy! Were you upfront from the beginning? Went through the whole process and then at the end mentioned having reptiles? Just snuck them in (I can’t imagine this would be easy with fire inspections and stuff with the bigger snake enclosures)? I am just looking at where I should start when I begin looking for a place. I really don’t want to have to give up my snakes just to have a place to live!

What are the best Money/Time saving hacks you have learned over the course of your fostering experience? Things you may not usually think to use for fosters that are cheaper than the items specifically sold for animals? Things like that?

I have just finished college (zoology) and my health has taken a bit of a decline and I am finding that my dream job that I have been working towards for 7 years may not be an option for me anymore because it’s very physically intense. However, I recently started a job as a caretaker at a facility that trains service dogs and absolutely fell in love with working with the dogs. But I don’t think I am going to be able to physically keep up with the cleaning aspect of the job. I return to work in a week after a couple months of short term disability following an injury and I am concerned I will not be able to keep up with the job. I am considering pursing the route of becoming a dog trainer to eventually work on training service dogs, as it seems like it would be a little less physically intensive than cleaning kennels all day. But I wanted to check with you guys before I pursue that avenue. Do you find that dog training is very physically intensive? Are you doing a lot of heavy lifting, cleaning, etc.? Or do you believe that it’s a job that someone with some limited physical restrictions could succeed in?

Tomorrow I might be bringing home a senior dog foster (8 years old, 8lbs mix breed), that just had a double Enucleation (eye removal) surgery. I have never fostered any animal that was newly completely blind. Any tips or tricks? That seems like a very scary and stressful time, and then adding on-top of that they will be in a new place with a new person. I want to make them as comfortable as possible.

Are there any good phone apps to download for keeping track of your fosters? Like where you can make individual little profiles for your kittens/puppies and can keep track of their weights, feedings, feeding frequency, movements, temperaments/personalities, and maybe photos as they grow up? It would make it so much easier when trying to keep track of weights and feedings and stuff of the little bottle babies if there was a place I could keep all that information easily together. If there isn’t, then maybe I will look into how hard it would be to create one myself 🧐, would anyone be interested in that if there isn’t already one?