1. University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,887
Enrollment
23,202
A pet sitter is someone who cares for a pet in its home while the owner is away. It could also include taking the pet on a walk. A pet sitter is responsible for providing food and water, brushing fur and teeth in the case of dog and cat, walking dogs, and cleaning litter boxes. They also give medications when necessary and take the pets to the vet if they suffer an injury or become sick while pet sitting them. Working as a pet sitter may sometimes require that you stay overnight at the owner's home so that you can let pets out for regular bathroom breaks.
To be a successful pet sitter, you should have a good rapport with animals. You should also be reliable and trustworthy, and you must have interpersonal skills, communication skills, and a love for animals. Pet sitters are not required to have any formal education but must be familiar with all the aspects of caring for pets. The median annual salary of a pet sitter is $23,760.
There are certain skills that many pet sitters 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 compassion, customer-service skills and patience.
If you're interested in becoming a pet sitter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 45.4% of pet sitters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.5% of pet sitters have master's degrees. Even though some pet sitters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a pet sitter can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as nanny, progress to a title such as lead teacher and then eventually end up with the title account manager.
What Am I Worth?
There are several types of pet sitter, including:
A nanny is an important figure in many children's lives. Usually, nanny's look after the children while the parents work so their job responsibilities change every single day. If you're cool with sticky fingers and keeping a flexible schedule, then you're in for a wild ride.
As a nanny, you'll probably be responsible for getting the children to their responsibilities, whether that's school or extracurricular activities. You might have to pick them up from school and those other activities as well.
Your hours as a nanny depend on the family that you're working for. Some people might only need you for part of a day each day while others will need you from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. We weren't kidding when we said a wild ride.
A babysitter is someone ready to take full responsibility for the welfare and health of children when their parents are not around. You will be given the authority to be involved in every part of their lives, including meals, hygiene, education. Monitoring the everyday activities of the children is also your responsibility. This includes keeping the playground safe and sanitizing play equipment regularly to prevent germs and diseases.
You also need to teach the children the importance of good hygiene, including brushing their teeth twice daily, eating healthy food, using the toilet, and getting adequate rest. You will sometimes need to engage the children to read, assist with their homework and other extracurricular activities, create daily lesson plans that will be educational and interesting at the same time. You are allowed to discipline them, when necessary, encourage good behavior such as treating each other kindly and respecting their parents and elderly ones.
You will also discuss information about each child with their parents to know the scope of your authority and responsibility. As a babysitter, you must be responsible. You must also possess excellent communication skills, be a lover of children, and have problem-solving skills. The salary of a babysitter is $40,418, but you must possess a high school diploma.
A companion is a kind of social worker who helps sick, elderly, or recovering people with chores around the house. They assist them in their hygiene practices, administer their medication, and make sure they keep healthy and get appropriate exercise.
Companions also simply keep people company. They have a conversation or play chess with their patients and generally help people feel less lonely and emotionally more stable. They make social life easier, too, by planning events and accompanying their patients to them.
Being a caring and empathetic person is essential if you want to be a companion. Having nursing training and experience in CPR will come in handy as well, just as physical strength for situations when you need you to supply the energy for both of you.
Mouse over a state to see the number of active pet sitter jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where pet sitters earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Amherst, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,887
Enrollment
23,202
Lubbock, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,080
Enrollment
30,795
Randolph, VT • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,108
Enrollment
1,350
Commerce, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,748
Enrollment
8,201
Fargo, ND • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,414
Enrollment
11,182
Loretto, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$36,410
Enrollment
1,668
Findlay, OH • Private
In-State Tuition
$34,360
Enrollment
2,533
Canyon, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,935
Enrollment
7,368
Waterbury, CT • Private
In-State Tuition
$16,610
Enrollment
9,017
Fort Collins, CO • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,707
Enrollment
24,210
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, 89.9% of pet sitters listed pet on their resume, but soft skills such as compassion and customer-service skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Pet Sitter templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Pet Sitter resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
1. Foundations for Assisting in Home Care
This course is intended as a self-study course for those interested in exploring a career as a Home Health Aide or Personal Care Aide...
2. Essentials of Palliative Care
This course starts you on your journey of integrating primary palliative care into your daily lives. You will learn what palliative care is, how to communicate with patients, show empathy, and practice difficult conversations. You will learn how to screen for distress and provide psychosocial support. You will learn about goals of care and advance care planning and how to improve your success with having these conversations with patients. Finally, you will explore important cultural...
3. Pet First Aid (Advanced)
Learn essential knowledge and skills to be able to confidently carry out emergency first aid on a pet animal...
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a pet sitter. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Pet sitters make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $34,545. Whereas in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, they would average $34,117 and $34,021, respectively. While pet sitters would only make an average of $33,794 in Massachusetts, 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. Connecticut
$34,021
Avg. Salary
2. West Virginia
$31,012
Avg. Salary
3. Pennsylvania
$34,117
Avg. Salary
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Independent Contractor | $41,804 | $20.10 | 12 |
2 | Sittercity | $40,509 | $19.48 | 9 |
3 | Homes.com | $35,929 | $17.27 | 18 |
4 | CARE | $30,190 | $14.51 | 14 |
5 | Client Services | $29,020 | $13.95 | 4 |
6 | Camp Bow Wow | $28,732 | $13.81 | 8 |
7 | PAWS | $28,454 | $13.68 | 11 |
8 | Friends & Company | $28,230 | $13.57 | 4 |
9 | Neighborhood House | $26,404 | $12.69 | 5 |
10 | Care.com | $26,354 | $12.67 | 81 |