Animal Welfare Professionals

What advice would you give to someone who wants to switch careers to work in animal welfare? Where would be a good place for them to start?

As a hiring manager, I'm all about hiring people from outside animal welfare! I can teach folks about animals and there's plenty of expertise on our team...but there are few substitutes for some of the other things we desire such as organization/coordination skills, client service, etc. My current team includes two social workers, a performing arts major, an attorney, and a math teacher  

Look at the skills you utilize well and enjoy in your current career track. Chances are if you're successful in banking, you're excellent at developing relationships and stewarding other people's money so you might be a natural nonprofit fundraiser. We had great success hiring an animal care manager in charge of housing and making sure the pets' needs were met from the hotel management industry. Find where your skill set is needed within an animal welfare group and focus on polishing and showcasing those skills. If you can, try out these areas as a volunteer to learn and demonstrate your talents. Industry education is readily available too (thanks Maddie's!) and utilizing those resources will help you better understand and be prepared for what challenges and opportunities await you.

I've had a couple of non-animal welfare people reach out to me through mutual connections and ask to have coffee and chat about where they might fit in, and I always appreciate this kind of enthusiasm! 

There are a million answers here but I would, of course, recommend volunteering first, if they have not already. A great way to research and set oneself up for success might be to try to volunteer in as many roles and at as many rescues as they can locally. Once they have a feel for how their local organizations are operated and what they expect, they'll have a better sense of where they'll fit in and the best ways to get work in these areas is to already be involved. Of course, volunteering widely makes a person more knowledgeable and, hopefully, more capable of collaborating, as well. 

I would also say that in order to help animals for the long term, it's best to remember to put the proverbial oxygen mask on oneself first. So, if they haven't already, I would recommend that they learn what compassion fatigue is so they can spot it in their own life and in the lives of volunteers and supporters. Figuring out how they plan to combat feelings of overwhelm and helplessness in themselves and others as early as possible is incredibly valuable. Practicing self care, whatever that looks like to them, is also important because they are important! 

Choose something you enjoy doing! Like working directly with animals? There is a need for that. Like talking with people in the community? There is a need for that too. Have an education background?  Check out humane education job openings. Check out jobs boards and talk to people you admire in the field. 

Good question! First thing I did was look at various organizations in my area and what roles they were hiring for. I read through all the descriptions to see where my current skills and background could apply. I got lucky and HSSV had the perfect role for me. If you don't see a role that applies to you but you do find an organization you would want to be part of some day, I would recommend connecting with the HR team to discuss the different roles within the organization and how you could fit it. Surprisingly, there is a lot of overlap when it comes to marketing/social media, IT, HR/Recruiting, and customer service roles.

I always recommend starting from the ground up, especially if you aren't sure whether this is the right field for you yet. Find a local rescue or shelter to volunteer with, and try to get involved in a specific department that aligns with your own interests or skills. For example, if you're a designer in your current job, offer to revamp the organization's promotional materials and their website. Not only will you gain a better understanding of the animal welfare community, but it will be a bonus on your resume's volunteer section. Even if you end up in an upper management or administrative role, having that boots-on-the-ground experience is going to be invaluable for the rest of your time in animal welfare.

My story: I personally started by volunteering with a few different rescues before applying for a paid position anywhere. I ran the adoption/volunteer/TNR programs of two local rescues before landing at a national non-profit organization in our industry, and now I am with a shelter software company that helps the same people I used to work side-by-side with. Even though I'm not out trapping cats every weekend anymore, I continue to volunteer with a local rescue and one of my county shelters to stay connected to the reason we're all here: to save more animals.

I would recommend one of two ways:

• Start volunteering at your local shelter and find out what it is like and where you may be able to help, .i.e. where your skills would make a difference
• Start a TNR effort to see how serious you are about really helping the animals.  I did this myself 30 years ago and found a lot of pleasure and satisfaction in being able to help animals that way, which led to me getting deeper into animal welfare.

I love that so many people are responding with "Volunteer!"  That is completely how I started and how nearly everyone I've ever worked with in animal welfare started as well.  When I was in a position to hire for adoption associates, I looked for people with clients service backgrounds (retail, food service, call centers, etc.). So many of those skills like patience, empathy and sense of urgency are so helpful in adoptions and veterinary care.

My first advice is to begin on the non-governmental side first to see if the work is what you are expecting. Volunteering is a great place to start. When you are looking to then transition to the government side you need to be able to do an interview with the director of the government operation or at least the operations manager to discuss your career ambitions. It's important then to work as a volunteer in more than one area of the government shelter before starting your career there. The difference between government and private animal welfare has become vast in the past ten years. The biggest area that the prospective career person needs to be prepared for on the government side is the brutality and character assassination that will take place in social media. You have to have really thick skin and be prepared for hostile lies from people all over the world because they will call you a killer at best and post your name address and phone number or go after your personal life in the worst cases. The increase in the negative effects of this type of attack has been crippling in some shelters. Slander and defamation are common and don't expect the government agency to be able to stop it. I know this was meant to be a more positive topic but it's important to get people who know what they are getting into that can handle that in the government side or the turnover hurts the programs. My personal feelings are that a person should be in their mid-twenties or older when starting a career in government animal sheltering because the experience and maturity are really needed to weather the difficult times. Even though save rates have gone up substantially the attacks on the individual staff members are at an all-time high. No longer is it just attacking the agency, now it's attacking any person individually. We've lost very good people due to these types of personal attacks.

I'd also recommend doing a ride-along with an animal control officer.

Really depends on what they want to do. I personally started volunteering doing animal protection legislative work and then began working as a dog daycare caregiver, as well as a dog walker. Simultaneously I was boarding dogs in my apartment from time to time. 

But I agree with a lot of the folks here that volunteering is a great way to start. I also agree in seeing how your current skills may contribute to an organization, and then offering those skills to that organization. There's great value in external skills in all areas. 

What a great question followed by great answers. My input/answer is super simple.  Just start...get your foot in the door.  If you want a career in the animal welfare industry it's because you already have the most important attribute needed, you want to save animals. 

I made the switch from computer software to animal welfare 16 years ago and agree with so much of the advice given here.  It's definite not a one-size fits all path.  I had taken some time off between careers and looked into volunteering, but at the time the organization required a set schedule that I was unable to commit to due to travel.  I think that's still the case with some organizations, but I've been thrilled to see all the ways organizations today are incorporating flexible volunteer opportunities. I had known about Maddie's Fund when I left my prior job (at PeopleSoft, so the connection definitely helped!) and reached out to them when I was ready to make the switch. The skills and knowledge I brought from my time at PeopleSoft fit perfectly with the needs of Maddie's Fund at the time (converting paper grant files to a grantmaking software system, reporting, stats, etc.) and they were more than happy to teach me about the animal-side of things.  So my advice - go for it!

I couldn't agree more with everyone's suggestion to start by volunteering.  I'm currently on this journey and here are a few of my lessons learned:

1. Volunteer with an existing animal welfare organization, especially one with clear processes and protocols, structured volunteer training and clear opportunities to gain hands on experience.  I learned the hard way by volunteering with small rescues that IMO bit off more than they could chew and reinventing many wheels along the way which resulted in a lot of frustration and missteps for me.  Volunteering with a small rescue can have its advantages as well - seeing the problems experienced and looking for solutions but in my volunteer work and professional work, I am of the opinion that I'd rather learn the foundation knowledge first and tweak to custom fit later.  Burn out / compassion fatigue is a real problem in animal welfare and anything that can be done to reduce the stress, the better.

2. Keep learning.  As you may already know, there are many great learning resources (books, webinars, conferences, etc).  The more you learn about the many facets of animal welfare work through these resources, the better you can apply them as a volunteer.  You'll slowly start to find yourself speaking the lingo.

3. Keep your eyes peeled for job openings with large organizations like the ASPCA or HSUS.  More often than not, they post professional positions that aren't hands on with animals but are important functional areas of any organization to keep afloat.

Best of luck!

Most of the people replying on this have suggested volunteering which I can agree with. It's how I started work at my current shelter. I suppose it depends on why you want to switch careers and if you've had experience with the world of animal welfare before, in any capacity. I don't know what the shelter/rescue, etc, near where you live looks like so I can't offer specifics. But if you've never had any experience with the field of animal welfare and you just feel the calling, I would highly suggest talking to someone at your local shelter about volunteering or even asking for a tour, if they allow it. Switching careers full-stop without having some experience can be jarring for some, particularly if your shelter has a low live release rate. 

If you start volunteering, I suggest going in with an idea of what you'd like to do, but also keep an open mind to the possibilities. Some shelters have a limited set of things volunteers can do for them while others have a broader scope.

Our shelter has the basics, such as kennel cleaning and dog walking. But then we have volunteers who assist in our spay and neuter clinic, volunteers that work on our animal enrichment team, others that come in to take fancy pictures of our cats and dogs, some who do data entry for us, and even a very special volunteer who has dedicated an entire blog and Facebook page to our shelter dogs: finding them homes and delivering happy tails about the ones who have been adopted.

Also, when applying for a position or seeking to volunteer, keep in mind there is a difference between a rescue and a shelter, a government agency and a private one, and a small local shelter as opposed to one affiliated with a national organization (such as the ASPCA or the Humane Society of the United States). Simple things but they affect a lot about a shelter, from the funding they get to their reputation which in turn could have an impact on the experience you have with them. 

Do it! You will meet the most beautiful people that have ever existed, and you will become a better person because of it. 

Go slowly and check with your doctor.  Animal welfare and rescue is not a career it is a vocation.

First ask to shadow people from different areas such as clinics, shelters, trappers, surgery, etc.  Then decide where you feel most passionate about volunteering your time to make sure its a good fit for you.

I'd recommend they start by volunteering at a shelter or rescue organization.