Decide What Animal Career You Should Pursue
If you've already decided that you want to pursue a career that involves animals, you're ahead of many people, who sometimes have only a fuzzy idea of what kind of career to pursue. Still, although you've narrowed down your field of career choices, there's still a wide away of jobs that involve working with animals. You can use a process that will help you to narrow down your possibilities and to finally decide what animal career to pursue.
Instructions
1. Research the animal careers that you're interested in or want to learn about by talking to professionals who work in that field. If you don't know what kinds of careers are possible, start by talking to a local veterinarian.
2. Once you know about the different careers, visit the library and ask to look at books on animal careers. Try the Occupational Outlook Handbook (see Resources). Read about the careers that are related to animals such as zoo administrator, animal trainer, pet groomer, nature photographer, veterinarian, habitat restoration specialist and wildlife researcher. Pay attention to incomes and job satisfaction rankings for that career. Also note the opportunity for advancement.
3. Make a list of pros and cons for the animal careers. This can take several weeks as you consider the different aspects of each animal career. A veterinarian will typically travel less than a nature photographer or a wildlife researcher. A zoo worker might have more room for advancement that a habitat restoration specialist. The pros and cons will depend on your preferences.
4. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and decide how well they fit with each animal career. Family and friends may be able to give you some insight into this. They might, for example, remind you of how much personal satisfaction you got when you helped a wounded animal back to good health, which could steer you toward a veterinarian career.
5. Rank your animal careers as to how well they appeal to you based on what you know about the career and your aptitude for it.
6. Make your animal career decision by choosing the highest ranked one from your list. While there's always some uncertainty with any decision, the process of evaluating animal careers should enable you to be comfortable with your animal career choice.
Tags: animal careers, animal career, your animal, Animal Career, Animal Career Should, career pursue