Animal career seekers pay attention! You might not like this post–consider this your fair warning.
Today I’ve been getting a lot of compliments, which is a very nice thing.
People get excited about my writing, my animal training, my vast experience in different areas of the animal industry–and even my new hobby that has nothing to do with any of that.
So, I should be excited about it right?
Yes and No.
It is always nice to get a sincere compliment or a, “Thank You!”
I am very blessed and passionate about the work I do.
Plus, I am able to influence others and the animal industry.
All good…and that is the positive side.
Now for the other side…
It always boggles my mind how many people send in emails wanting my time for free. It gets really old because there are a lot of people who do that.
Uh, I got a college degree and worked on developing vast experiences so I could make a living. This means my services are not for free.
My free services are here on the blog but for personal coaching you need to visit the Hire Animal Expert page.
Anyway, I bring this up today because the support team email gets emails of all types.
Some are very complimentary, but today I got to read one that just masked blowing-smoke-up- in-a-place-you-can-only-imagine, simply to get me to answer.
Anyone who has been reading this blog for any amount of time knows that my subscribers get first priority for personal responses.
Wow, this email was not from a subscriber and it even says what to do to get and answer and how to do it on the contact page where the email was sent.
What a mistake. That person can’t follow directions first off.
The second mistake in this email was that it was fishing for my time.
Did I mention that I charge for consultations and that serious folks make appointments? Oh yeah, they do that on the Hire Animal Expert page.
Now don’t get me wrong, my subscribers and regular readers are awesome.
They really get involved and participate when I ask them questions or hold a contest. Some have been with me since 2004!
Those people usually don’t ask me about my career path since it is explained in the About Ark Lady page, animal expert site, and throughout this blog.
But what makes me cranky (like now) is that a most of the people who want something for free are too lazy to do anything about it.
They write and show that they have not spent any time on this website researching the topic they are interested in.
Hello, the information is here–free of charge (so far anyway).
For example, sincere animal career seekers would have found this:
People who work with animals receive many, many inquiries about careers with animals. Unfortunately, there are many people who contact them without thinking about what questions they want to ask, or who have not done any exploring or thinking through what it is they are interested in, and if it is even possible.
Writing a letter or e-mail without stating your area of interest, educational background, location (or desire to relocate) or why you are contacting someone is not advisable. Many times professionals will take the time to respond to someone who has thought out such things; while they may or may not drop a note to the person who has not bothered to consider that they might be very busy.
If you write something like, “Hi, I am interested in working with animals. Do you have any recommendations?” this does not give the person you have written any incentive to want to assist you. It is too much work to try and guess at your intent. Writing a letter to a busy professional should show respect and consideration of their valuable time. It also should show that you have taken the time to really research the topic and have a real interest in the field. Hundreds of people think they want to work with animals. Very few of them follow through, learn the options and do the work to achieve their goal.
So, to make a long story short, that email won’t get answered because the answers are already here on this website and the person didn’t follow any of the suggestions!
I wonder how many of you who came into read this post have not yet read the Unusual Animal Career Series or the AnimalCareerSecrets.Com blog.
If you have not–better get crackin’.
Okay, so I have to ask a few of questions.
- Do you work for free?
- And, if you say you want an animal career are you ready to work for it?
- If so, what have you done lately to achieve that goal?
