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.
Pet Care Associate Overview
Pet Care Associate Careers
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 $15.28 an hour? That's $31,780 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 51,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Pet Care Associate Do
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.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a pet care associate, we found that a lot of resumes listed 38.2% of pet care associates included customer service, while 13.7% of resumes included animal care, and 6.5% of resumes included patient care. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the pet care associate job title. But what industry to start with? Most pet care associates actually find jobs in the retail and health care industries.
How To Become a Pet Care Associate
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 33.5% of pet care associates have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.1% 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 high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree 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.
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Pet Care Associate Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of vet assistant you might progress to a role such as technician eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title general manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Pet Care Associate
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Nationwide Member Care REP I-Pet Member Care REP I-Pet | Nationwide Nationwide | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $35,47901/23/2021 $35,479 |
State of North Carolina Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate (Cumberland County)--Temporary Solutions Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate (Cumberland County)--Temporary Solutions | State of North Carolina State of North Carolina | 01/08/2021 01/08/2021 | $33,91401/08/2021 $33,914 |
State of North Carolina Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate (Forsyth County)--Temporary Solutions Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate (Forsyth County)--Temporary Solutions | State of North Carolina State of North Carolina | 12/27/2020 12/27/2020 | $33,91412/27/2020 $33,914 |
State of North Carolina Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate--Temporary Solutions Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate--Temporary Solutions | State of North Carolina State of North Carolina | 11/22/2020 11/22/2020 | $33,91411/22/2020 $33,914 |
State of North Carolina Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate (Buncombe County)--Temporary Solutions Casework Associate 1/Wioa Pets Associate (Buncombe County)--Temporary Solutions | State of North Carolina State of North Carolina | 10/27/2020 10/27/2020 | $33,91410/27/2020 $33,914 |
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Pet Care Associate Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Pet Care Associate. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Pet Care Associate Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Pet Care Associate resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Pet Care Associates
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. New York University
New York, NY • Private
3. Ohio State University
Columbus, OH • Public
4. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
5. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
6. University of Colorado Denver
Denver, CO • Public
7. University of Vermont
Burlington, VT • Public
8. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
9. University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH • Public
10. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
Top Skills For a Pet Care Associate
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 38.2% of pet care associates listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and detail oriented are important as well.
- Customer Service, 38.2%
- Animal Care, 13.7%
- Patient Care, 6.5%
- Sales Floor, 6.2%
- Small Mammals, 3.1%
- Other Skills, 32.3% See All Pet Care Associate Skills
Best States For a Pet Care Associate
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a pet care associate. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, California, Alaska, and Oregon. Pet care associates make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $39,392. Whereas in California and Alaska, they would average $36,318 and $35,700, respectively. While pet care associates would only make an average of $34,298 in Oregon, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Arizona
$34,045
Avg. Salary
2. Hawaii
$39,392
Avg. Salary
3. West Virginia
$31,219
Avg. Salary
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