Help In Tough Times

Rapid City Journal staff, Sunday May 24, 2009

For those looking for work, looking to save money or just looking for free fun, the Journal provides these helpful tips to make it through this challenging economy.

Who’s Hiring?

EMPLOYER: Wildlife Experiences, Inc., a nonprofit company
LOCATION: Behind the scenes of Reptile Gardens
JOB TITLE: Animal care/ animal husbandry; $6.55 per hour, going to $7.25 in July.

Each week, the Rapid City Journal will highlight a job opening found in the classified advertising section. This week, we spoke with Maggie Engler of Wildlife Experiences, Inc.

Why has this job become available?
For two reasons: We always increase our staff in the summer. We did lose a couple people this spring, so we’re replacing staff, but we’re also expanding by one position.

What kind of experience/ training is required for the position?
What we’re looking for is someone who is comfortable around animals, who perhaps has done something like trained their own dog, or trained a horse, or has had domesticated pets. We ask that people be at least 17 years old. We welcome mature workers. After that, it’s all on the job training because what we do is fairly unique. It’s very helpful in the summertime if people are comfortable in front of an audience. It wouldn’t have to be someone with theater experience, but we can’t have someone who is terrified to get out in front of the public and speak.

These positions provide daily care, feeding and cleaning for our birds and bird collection and work with us presenting summer shows at Reptile Gardens. In the winter time they might assist with school programs.

The best candidate for this job will be someone who is…
Who is reliable, dependable, self-motivated, pays good attention to detail, doesn’t mind the fact that when you’re dealing with animals, you have to clean up after them. We scrub and clean cages on a daily basis, and some of it’s not very pleasant. This is not place for folks who are uncomfortable around bird food, which includes dead rats, mice and chickens. It’s got to be someone who understands that animal care takes food preparation and cleaning.

Do you have/ foresee a shortage in this area? If yes, why?
I wouldn’t call it a shortage. There aren’t any facilities like ours anywhere in South Dakota, let alone western South Dakota. What we’re trying to get away from is turnover in staff. We are trying to get a team and people who will stay with us. We are trying to develop a team concept.

If a job seeker is looking for employment within your company in the future, what would you recommend?
That they send me an e-mail expressing their interest with a cover letter, a resume and three references. And express their interest in coming to work for us, because I will keep those, and if we have an opening, I will be in contact to say, “Are you still interested? What’s your current status?”

What other areas within your industry would you recommend a job seeker consider? And what training would they need?
There are nonprofits around the country that deal in bird training and raptor rehabilitation and rehabilitation in general. So, I would say that if this is an area of interest to someone that they check some of the environmental online job boards on a systematic basis, that they check with the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association and the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, which are two of the main organizations. There is also an avian trainers association that’s really good place to go if someone is interested in this kind of work. Obviously, you’d have to be willing to move from this area.

As an employer, what tips would you give a job seeker?
There are several things. Follow the instructions given by the business or nonprofit that is advertising for the position. If they ask for a cover letter, resume and three references please provide them. Make sure in the cover letter that if you don’t have a lot of direct experience in our particular area, tell us why you are interested in coming and working for us.

It’s important that we understand what draws you to us and what you think you can bring as skills. We can teach people the things that we need them to know, but why would you want to come work for us?

If you have been offered an interview, and you choose not to follow up with the interview, I highly recommend that you call or e-mail and let the employer know that you are not coming, that you found other employment. And after an interview, send a thank-you letter or note or e-mail.

Those seem like common courtesy things, but I find that that’s very much lacking today. And if shouldn’t be. Because if I’ve got two individuals, who basically scale out the same in terms of what we think they can do for us, and one of them takes the time to say “thanks for visiting with me and here’s why I really want to come and work for you”, and the other one doesn’t, I’m always going to pick the one that says thank you.