One Day, One Job » animals

Pilgrim’s Pride

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:09:37 +0000

It’s Thanksgiving! That means that we’re going to run with the theme and talk about a… chicken company? I know we’re all getting ready to chow down on some turkey, but first we should take a look at Pilgrim’s Pride, a Pittsburgh, TX based company that happens to be our country’s largest chicken producer. Much like how our tradition of Thanksgiving started with one small group and grew to be celebrated by hundreds of millions of people, Pilgrim’s Pride started as a single feed store and grew to be an $8.5 billion company. Unfortunately, Pilgrim’s Pride has hit some problems as of late, as they’re going through a bankruptcy. Still, they couldn’t have a more appropriate name (it came from their founder’s last name) for a Thanksgiving themed post, and they do still appear to be hiring; in fact, they even seem to have turned a profit in their most recent quarter.

Sounds Like Turkey, Tastes Like Chicken

Now, I realize that distressed companies aren’t usually the best places to start your career and that the fact that a company’s name fits in well with a theme like Thanksgiving isn’t a good reason to want to work for them, but I still thinks it’s important to look a little deeper into opportunities that you might typically overlook during your job search. Pilgrim’s Pride is a perfect example. They’re a massive company with more than 40,000 employees, and they appear to be coming out of bankruptcy in the near future. Hopefully, that means that they’ve been able to solve many of the problems that put them in this situation. Chicken production isn’t the sexiest industry, but it’s massively important to our economy (just imagine life without buffalo wings). Pilgrim’s Pride has a few dozen job opportunities posted, and plenty of them appear to be suitable for new grads—especially for those with a background in Animal Science or Food Science. I’ll leave browsing the jobs to you, just make sure you do it before the sleepiness from eating all of the turkey kicks in.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you eat Pilgrim’s Pride chicken?

Wildlife Conservation Society

Willy Franzen — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:41:20 +0000

I’m a nut about wildlife. I don’t watch Animal Planet all day or anything, but I get ridiculously excited when I see a new species in the wild. My hope is to one day run into a mountain lion in the wild, at least as long as I’m not being hunted. As fanatical as I am about wildlife, I bet I don’t even come close to the people at the Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York City based non-profit. They were founded in 1895 with a “clear mission to save wildlife and wild places across the globe.” Their first major success was aiding the recovery of American Bison, and now they’re working to “protect many of the world’s iconic creatures here and abroad, including gorillas in the Congo, tigers in India, polar bears in the Arctic, and ocean giants in our world’s amazing seascapes.” Beyond doing that, they also run 5 parks in New York City—the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo.

Jobs in the Wild

According to Wildlife Conservation Society’s About page, they’re committed to protecting 25% of the world’s biodiversity. I’m not sure where that number came from, how it’s measured, or what exactly it means, but it sounds like an ambitious goal for a passionate organization. The way that pursues this goal is by focusing on 4 key issues: “climate change; natural resource exploitation; the connection between wildlife health and human health; and the sustainable development of human livelihoods.” With so much on their plate, Wildlife Conservation Society has a lot of job opportunities. You can find all of the information on their Jobs page, where they separate opportunities into New York City Full Time, New York City Seasonal, and Opportunities in the Field. Oddly enough, all of these pages feed into the same job search function. You can narrow down your search by any of the aforementioned categories, or you can just look at all of their job opportunities. You’ll probably want to take an especially long look at the following positions: Development Associate – Operations, Guest Relations Supervisor, Marketing Assistant, Membership Sales Associate, Pathology Technician, Program Assistant – Global Program Development, and Program Coordinator. You can apply for any of these positions online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to any of Wildlife Conservation Society’s parks?

Shedd Aquarium

Willy Franzen — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:13:34 +0000

My parents are in town for the weekend, and I’ve been thinking of fun things to do with them around Chicago. One place that came to mind is Shedd Aquarium. I don’t think that we’ll end up getting a chance to make it there this weekend, but it was certainly a good thought. And once I thought about it, I realized that they’re probably hiring. Shedd Aquarium is much like other aquariums now, but it really stood out when it was opened in the 1930s. The aquarium was founded by John G. Shedd, retired president of Marshall Field & Company, and financed by him with $3 million in gifts. The goal was to bring Chicago up to par with other “cosmopolitan” cities that had aquariums, and by the end of the project Chicago’s aquarium “housed the greatest variety of sea life under one roof.” It also happened to be “the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater collection,” which meant that they had to ship millions of gallons of seawater from Florida on trains to provide a proper habitat for the sea life.

Shedd Your Job Search Worries

To this day, I still find it extremely impressive that an aquarium in Chicago can have whales and dolphins. The idea of a Beluga Whale in the heart of the midwest blows my mind. Although now the aquarium is more focused on education than on bringing up Chicago’s status, it’s still a great tourist attraction and a wonderful resource for the city. I’d imagine that Shedd Aquarium is very much like other aquariums in its mission and values, which means that they’ll have similar jobs. Right now they have a number of jobs posted, and a few look like possibilities for new grads. These include Membership Coordinator, Administrative Assistant (President’s Office), Brand Traffic Assistant, and Media Coordinator. You can apply by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@sheddaquarium.org.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to Shedd Aquarium?

New Canaan Nature Center

Willy Franzen — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:05:17 +0000

Having grown up in Fairfield County, Connecticut, I took at least one school field trip to the New Canaan Nature Center. I think that I was pretty young, so I don’t remember the trip very well, but I do know that I always loved nature related field trips. If you’re not familiar with the idea of a nature center, it’s simply a “visitor center designed to educate people about nature and the environment.” At least that’s what Wikipedia has to say about the topic. New Canaan Nature Center certainly accomplishes that, as they have some pretty awesome facilities. In addition to a Visitor Center, they include a 4000 square-foot Greenhouse, an Education Building and Annex, an Apple Cider House, an Animal Care Building, an Herb Garden and Cottage, Two Observation Towers, Staff Residences, an Arboretum, a Wildflower Garden, and quite a bit more. It’s the perfect place for people to step out of suburban Fairfield County life and get a taste of the nature around them.

Be a Part of Nature… Center

One of the things that I didn’t mention about New Canaan Nature Center’s is their Birds of Prey exhibit. It features seven aviaries, and sounds awesome (maybe it’s just me, but I’m absolutely fascinated by birds of prey). The birds of prey in the exhibit include a Bald Eagle, a Barred Owl, a Common Raven, a Great Horned Owl, a Harris’ Hawk, a Peregrine Falcon, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a Turkey Vulture. If you get even more excited about this stuff than I do, then a career as an Environmental Educator at New Canaan Nature Center might be worth considering. Although they’d like someone with some experience in the field, I’m sure that there are plenty of new college grads who have that type of background. You can apply by sending a cover letter, résumé, and three references to jobs@newcanaannature.org.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever been to a nature center?

Green Chimneys

Willy Franzen — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:46:18 +0000

Have you ever heard of animal-assisted therapy? Wikipedia defines it as “a type of therapy that involves an animal with specific characteristics becoming a fundamental part of a person’s treatment.” This type of therapy can have all kinds of beneficial effects for a wide array of ailments, and it can be done with animals ranging from dogs to horses to elephants to lizards. Green Chimneys is a Brewster, NY based non-profit organization that “operates residential treatment for children and a special education school” with a large focus on animal-assisted therapy. They’re located on a 200-acre farm, and they’re constantly working towards “restoring possibilities and creating futures for children with emotional, behavioral, social and learning challenges.”

Green Chimneys Is the Place for Me

If you love working with special-needs children and also love animals, then it would be hard to find a better place to work than Green Chimneys. They have a ton of job opportunities available, and plenty of them are appropriate for new grads. You can find the full list on Green Chimneys’ Jobs page; however, I’d recommend that you look for the following jobs: Youth Counselor, Assistant Unit Supervisor, Therapeutic Intervention Specialist (Crisis Intervention), Social Work Supervisor, Speech Teacher, 1:1 Aides, Social Worker (New York City), and Case Worker (Bronx). You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to employment@greenchimneys.org, so get to know them by browsing their site and see if they’re a good fit for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever experienced any therapy animals?

Rabbit Rescue

Willy Franzen — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:33:43 +0000

Happy Easter! Last year we took a look at jobs with Easter Seals to celebrate, and this year we’re going to have even more fun with the holiday theme. I’m a big fan of the Easter Bunny, because he still brings me delicious treats despite the fact that I’m way too old to still be getting anything from him. I’m not sure how rabbits became indelibly tied to Easter, but they are, which is why we’re taking a look at Rabbit Rescue today. They are a Paramount, CA based non-profit, no-kill shelter for rabbits that is staffed and run entirely by volunteers. Yes, that means that landing a full-time job with them might be out of the question, but I couldn’t find any bunny related non-profits that were hiring. In case you didn’t know, there’s a big problem with people who get bunnies as Easter gifts and then fail to take care of them. You can read about it here. Rabbit Rescue is doing great work to save rabbits, but they may be a little short on jobs. Your Easter challenge is to find a non-profit (or even a for-profit company) with better bunny related jobs. Report back in the comments!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Can you find a better company or organization with rabbit related jobs?

Sea Turtle Restoration Project

Willy Franzen — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:56:12 +0000

One of the cooler fly fishing moments that I’ve had was sea turtle related. I was in Costa Rica fishing for sailfish when we trolled past a couple of sea turtles. Immediately a dorado (aka mahi mahi aka dolphin fish) came out from below the sea turtles (they love hanging out under debris… or turtles) and started chasing the hookless plugs that we had let out behind the boat. We teased the fish in to the boat, I cast my fly to it, hooked it, and caught it after an amazing battle. It was a perfect example of how ecosystems work with the fish using turtles as cover to ambush prey. Unfortunately, our experience with sea turtles from the previous year’s trip wasn’t so heartwarming, as another boat from our party came across a turtle that had been tangled in commercial fishing long lines (nothing like what sport fishermen use). Luckily they were able to get the turtle in the boat and cut it free from the tangle of lines, but it was a reminder of how many risks sea turtles are facing out in the wild (see below for a picture of the turtle as it was being rescued). The Sea Turtle Restoration Project is a non-profit organization that is trying to protect sea turtles from these threats of pollution, coastal development, commercial fishing long lines, and shrimping nets.

Who Doesn’t Love Sea Turtles?

As I’ve seen firsthand, sea turtles are both important parts of the ocean ecosystem and at a high risk for extinction. They’re amazing animals to watch in their natural habitat, and they deserve to be protected. You can help protect them by taking a job with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. Right now they’re looking for a Human Health and Oceans Campaigner “to help save the oceans from industrial fishing and save ourselves from mercury poisoning from contaminated fish: tuna, swordfish, shark.” They’re looking for someone with a background in campaigning, journalism, community or political organizing, lobbying or legal advocacy, so you probably should have worked on some projects on these areas (and really love sea turtles) if you’re going to apply. This is a one year position with a salary in the low to mid 40s and the opportunity for renewal. The job is based about an hour northwest of San Francisco near the Pt. Reyes National Seashore, and you can apply by sending your cover letter and resume to tshore@TIRN.net. There’s also the potential for a part-time Web Activist position if you’re willing to start as a volunteer. The application details are the same as for the previous position.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you had any firsthand experiences with sea turtles? Tell us about them.

National Audubon Society

Willy Franzen — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:28:48 +0000

John James Audubon painted birds. His seminal work, Birds of America, was a collection of 435 life-size prints. To this day, when you hear the name Audubon, you think of birds. Interestingly enough, John James Audubon had no direct involvement with the founding of the National Audubon Society. Audubon’s widow, Lucy, tutored a man named George Bird Grinnell and some of Audubon’s love of birds must have rubbed off, as Grinnell was one of the Audubon Society’s founders. To this day, the Audubon Society persists in its mission “to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.” The Audubon Society works to achieve this mission through a national network of community-based nature centers and chapters and scientific, educational, and advocacy programs.

These Jobs Are for the Birds

The National Audubon Society has a long list of current job openings in locations all across the country. We scanned over them, and identified all the jobs that don’t list experience requirements for you. The Audubon does a very good job of identifying their desired experience level for each position, so you should be pretty confident that these jobs can be considered entry-level.

There are also quite a few jobs listed that require 2 to 3 years of experience. These may be worth a look, since many of them seem like they could be filled by competent new college grads, but we’ll let you go find them on Audubon’s Jobs page. We should also warn you that one job listing says that the start date is in 2006. We hope that this is a result of a careless copy-paste job, but we have no way of knowing how recently all of these jobs were posted. We couldn’t find much information on what it’s like to work for Audubon, but it probably varies widely depending on location. If you’re a birder, and you’re looking for non-profit work, figure out which of the above jobs you like the best and send your cover letter and resume to HumanResources@audubon.org.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite bird? We like birds of prey like hawks, eagles, and falcons.

Punxsutawney Groundhog Club

Willy Franzen — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:00:19 +0000

It’s your biggest fear. You’ll graduate college, get a job, and begin life as Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Every day will be the same. Different. But the same. Hell on Earth will begin at 22 years old. We don’t want that to happen to you. That’s why we write about a new and exciting company’s entry-level jobs every day. Today’s “job” isn’t much of a job, but you have to forgive us for celebrating one of our favorite holidays. So, if you’re not interested in becoming part of the inner circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, take a look at our Past Jobs or our Online Job Search Blog and start formulating a plan so you don’t end up trapped like Bill Murray. On the other hand, if you’re interested in wearing a stove pipe hat and handling rodents on cold February mornings, read on.

By the time this is posted, Punxsutawney Phil will already have determined whether we’ll be seeing an early Spring or not. Since I have the blog set to auto-post this, and I’m on my way to Costa Rica to fly fish for sailfish right now, I don’t immediately care about when Spring comes, but when I return, I’ll sure be hoping that Phil didn’t see his shadow. With that said, it appears that the inner circle of the club is a more “mature” group of men (no ladies, maybe you can be the first!) who are nearing retirement age, so we figure they need to recruit fresh blood. The good news is that becoming a member of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club is as easy as paying a $10 annual membership fee. Don’t you wish getting a job were that easy? Maybe it will be, joining a club is what we call networking.

Now the Punxutawney Groundhog Club is a non-profit organization that is clearly geared toward maintaining tradition and developing commerce in the Punxsutawney, PA area. They aren’t actually hiring, and we don’t think they even have jobs, but you never know. If you really love groundhogs, have great animal care skills, or look great in a top hat, you might be able to convince them to create a job for you.

One last note: the only requirement for jobs at the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club is that you are bilingual (at least if you ever want to be President of the Inner Circle). You must speak “Groundhogese.”

Note: On April 27th we revisited entry-level jobs at Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

American Association of Zoos & Aquariums

Willy Franzen — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:00:55 +0000

The idea for today’s post came from a television commercial. So, the next time your Mom yells at you for being lazy and watching TV instead of looking for a job, tell her that being a couch potato is part of your job search repertoire. Seriously. We know that a ton of college students are watching TV with a laptop on their lap, and hopefully you’re one of them. If you’re in the right mindset, you’ll realize that no matter what you’re watching, you’ll be absolutely bombarded with new job ideas. Take these ideas, do a Google search, and find a job! You know what? We might just write an article about using the tube to find a job. (Update: We did, here’s The Couch Potato’s Guide to Job Search.)

Besides advertising with TV commercials, the American Association of Zoos & Aquariums is a non-profit organization that accredits – see if you can guess – zoos and aquariums. The AZA and their team of experts ensure that accredited zoos and aquariums meet extremely high standards. “Fewer than 10% of the approximately 2,400 animal exhibitors licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture are AZA accredited,” so their seal of approval isn’t something that they throw around lightly. We looked around the AZA’s website for information about their jobs and couldn’t find anything, but cold calling might be worth a try. On the other hand, the AZA has a wealth of job listings for the zoos and aquariums that they accredit. Since many of the organizations that AZA approves are also non-profits, we thought you’d like to know more about these jobs working with animals.

Now, not all of AZA’s job listings are from non-profits, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you need to look closely at the zoo or aquarium that is actually listing the job. Obviously, Walt Disney World is not a non-profit, but the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary and the Houston Zoo are. Positions in the AZA Job Listings range from Research Analyst to Aquarist. There are also a ton of internships available, which may be a reasonable option for new college grads who want to get into zoology or related animal care fields. Jobs are listed in chronological order, so scroll down to the bottom for the newest listings. Don’t be afraid to visit the websites of the institutions that are listed and look for jobs that aren’t posted on the AZA website. You could even use the AZA’s list as your cold calling list.

Note: On April 27th we revisited entry-level jobs at the American Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Tell us about your favorite childhood zoo experience in the comments.

Dogs for the Deaf

Willy Franzen — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:00:37 +0000

Today’s the last day of vacation for the One Day, One Job team, so we’re going to be pretty brief, but we still think this looks like an awesome job for our dog loving entry-level job searchers. If it’s not evident by their name, Dogs for the Deaf is a non-profit organization that rescues homeless dogs and professionally trains them to assist people who have hearing impairments. You’ve probably heard of “seeing eye dogs,” but there are so many more people than just blind people who can use the help of a canine friend. Sometimes the assistance that these dogs offer can even be life saving.

Beyond dogs for the deaf, Dogs for the Deaf also trains dogs for assisting seniors and other people with special needs. Dogs that are taken from shelters are never returned and always find a wonderful new home, even if they’re not cut out to be a working dog (they call these dogs career changers).

Dogs for the Deaf is currently hiring an Apprentice Instructor to take part in the training of dogs. This is a two-year program that culminates with significant knowledge of the training process for assistance animals. A college education is not necessary, but this job might be the right fit for a dog lover who has ambitions to make the world a better place.

Note: On April 27th we revisited entry-level jobs at Dogs for the Deaf.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Tell us about your dog in the comments section.