BC Furries

I doubt this forum is a good place to be looking for job opportunities, but if you're unemployed anywhere is better than nothing.  :roll:
Nobody is obligated to give any of their identity away of course, I just created this thread out of whimsy. I'm on this forum everyday but rarely do I have anything worth writing about on here. I thought, "Why not post my resume?" My parents are bugging me about not looking for work right now anyways. I'm killing two birds with the same stone; my boredom and lack of employment!  :monocle:

Professional Summery

Cinemazoo,               Winter 2007                                               
volunteer caretaker
Duties:
   - washing reptile, bird and rodent cages daily, including both domestic and exotic species, wild or tamed
   - feeding a variety of different animals and insects, preparing fresh meals and handling live food, alongside serving basic packaged feed
   - handling a variety of different animals in daily tasks and in preparation for live shows

Knaz & Company Home Decor,               Spring 2008
volunteer general salesperson
Duties:
   - maintaining a clean workspace, sweeping and dusting the store daily at opening and closing
   - customer service, assisting with buyer decisions and product delivery
   - taking inventory on a variety of interior decorating products including furniture, light fixtures, cutlery, textiles and artwork

Petland, Grandview Corners,               December 2009 - October 31 2010
Pet Counsellor, general salesperson
   - handling a variety of domestic pets for showing potential buyers and basic grooming
   - entertaining and exercising various breeds of birds, dogs and cats
   - opening and closing the store, which entailed keeping neat product displays, changing waste bins, sweeping and mopping the whole store, washing guest washrooms, cleaning small animal pens and bird atriums, cleaning canine exercise pens, and filling out personal sales reports
   - running a cash register, taking basic purchases by cash or card, as well as doing returns, mixed payments and imputing upc codes manually
   - assisting guests with questions and requests regarding pets and pet products

Have you tried any temp agencies, Ren?

Do you mean employment offices?
Only a couple online. They're awful though.  :P

For someone with my experience and credentials (or lack thereof) I have better luck organizing potential job opportunities myself.

Stay away from Angus One.

I'm going to move this to the Help forum because I can see it turning into a general job finding advice thread.

What kind of work are you looking for?

Are you trying to work your way into a certain kind of job, or just something to fill in the gap before school?

My resume is two pages long X.=.X i dont think i should post it ha ha, would be epic spam XD

: Unition  November 15, 2010, 02:04:55 -07:00
What kind of work are you looking for?

Are you trying to work your way into a certain kind of job, or just something to fill in the gap before school?

Just something to fill the gap. Though if I can find anything related to animal caretaking that would be preferable, but really I'm willing to go anywhere just so I can be making money again. 

I don't expect to get any serious opportunities from this thread. I just did this for fun.

What's 'Angus One'? An employment service?

Just a couple tips for the job seeking furries out there.

1) Tailor your resume to the specific job you are applying for. Having one generic resume that you mass spam to every job posting shows the employer that you don't really care about the job. Have an objective line that specifically mentions the job you are looking for. Highlight skills in the resume that apply to that specific job.

2) Smile and shake hands when you get an interview. Try and look confident. If you're nervous, it's not the end of the world. Interviewers understand it's a stressful process.

3) Don't try to BS your way through interview questions. An answer of "I'm not really sure, I would consult my co workers" is a better answer than just making a bunch of shit up that they know is wrong.

4) Try to get there 15 mins early or so to make sure you are on time, as well as to give yourself a chance to chill out before the interview.


Most importantly, don't give up! :p

Angus One is a temp agency.
They are very very bad, and I wouldn't reccomend them to anyone.

Have you tried applying at places like dog daycares, dog groomers, or walkers?
Or a pet store?

: Wyrd-Hotd  November 15, 2010, 02:35:49 -07:00
My resume is two pages long X.=.X i dont think i should post it ha ha, would be epic spam XD

A recruiter might think it's too long too, remember they usually have a huge stack to go through and if nothing jumps out at them in the first couple seconds it's in the trash.

What I did for my resume was condense it down to a page, and bolded the important stuff I wanted them to see.

: Unition  November 15, 2010, 03:15:10 -07:00
Angus One is a temp agency.
They are very very bad, and I wouldn't reccomend them to anyone.

Have you tried applying at places like dog daycares, dog groomers, or walkers?
Or a pet store?

Not really. Until I get my 'N' after this wednesday I'm somewhat stuck in my own neighbourhood. The place has to be close enough to walk to, or close enough for my parents to drive me alongside their own jobs and errands.  :P

Though if I pass the drivers test I can start looking at places outside of South Surrey/White Rock. There are tons of places for me throughout Langley and greater Surrey that I wouldn't mind applying at.

General piece of advice for resumes, from someone who's done some hiring: Proofread, proofread, proofread. Ren, you've got 'summary' spelled wrong in the first header, and in the last line I'd use 'entering' instead of where you misspelled 'inputting' as 'imputing.' I'd also look at things like capitalization - BC should be capitalized, as should UPC. These might be small things, but it does make a difference to those people who are doing the hiring.

In general, though, some other thoughts:
- Keep it concise. For someone with a short working history, having two pages is probably too long. Focus your work experience information down on the key points that relate to the job you're applying to.
- A couple of bullet points at the top indicating what you feel your best skills are - as long as they apply to the job in question - are useful as an introduction to who you are.
- Write a cover letter; introduce yourself and say why you think you'd be good at that particular job. (I know that a lot of entry-level jobs have pre-printed applications, but if you attach a cover letter with it it might stand out for you.)

This is just a brief crappy thing I made from a template. If your interested I can post my real resume with my cover letter. . . all I need to do is print it off our old computer. Not tonight though.
I always get told that my writing is too wordy no matter what the subject is. In fact my last boss said that about my last cover letter, as well as my resignation letter.  :P

I've been to a few temp agencies myself.

Labour Unlimited wouldn't send me out even if I were the first one on the list.  They didn't even really have a reason why, and I stopped going there right quick.  It was walk-in style, so you had to basically sit there from 5:30am and on.

WorkForce was the same way, except they would send me out quite a bit...  But during those days, I had just come here from Saskatchewan, had no experience in the job market whatsoever due to being stuck on dysfunctional farm land for my later teenage years...

I started looking at places like Drake, Manpower, Addeco...  Drake found me a real job, quite quickly.  No complaints, other than the way the job handled its employees once I got there...  But then, it was a company that had just opened business about the same day I pushed my resume through.

Addeco was alright, had me at Canadian Tire locations for months on end, as well as a bunch of random truck unload jobs for $14/hour.  I did not have to walk into an office and wait anymore, I could just sleep by my phone, and head to the job site as needed.  But when they started yelling at me for stupid crap, I decided to move on.

I was with Manpower for the longest time after that, in and out of my current job as a temp worker for a couple years straight, with a couple of other companies that I familiarized myself with over time.  It wasn't so bad, as I never had to go to the office for any reason.  A few of their staff that does recruiting had never seen my face.

I got my current job through Manpower, at a place called Iron Mountain.  Union, benefits galore, bonuses, yearly raises, reliable, and continued to grow even through the recession.  I got the job by telling the building manager that I have no desire to go get my G.E.D. just to get his job, when I can play the drums for one night and make more than his employees two week paycheque.

And another strange part about getting this job, the manager does not like cats, because every girlfriend he has had that has cats like to wrap him around their fingers, so to speak....   :-3

But yeah, that's my experience...  I definitely had better luck this way than I did handing out resumes and cover letters.  That was depressing; 4000 resumes out, and only three return contacts.

: Felix McKline  November 16, 2010, 12:27:37 -07:00I started looking at places like Drake, Manpower, Addeco...  Drake found me a real job, quite quickly.  No complaints, other than the way the job handled its employees once I got there...  But then, it was a company that had just opened business about the same day I pushed my resume through.

Addeco was alright, had me at Canadian Tire locations for months on end, as well as a bunch of random truck unload jobs for $14/hour.  I did not have to walk into an office and wait anymore, I could just sleep by my phone, and head to the job site as needed.  But when they started yelling at me for stupid crap, I decided to move on.

Sounds like those places are good for job seekers like me. Any of them have websites?

I don't know about Best, but Addecco and Manpower do.  I may be spelling Addecco wrong...

Here's the updated and refined version. This is what got me my first paid position at the pet store:

-------------------------------------------
Travis McKay
17145 20th Ave. South Surrey, B.C.
home phone: 604-536-5581
travis.mckay@hotmail.com

Objective: To further my experience in the retail sector and earn a paid position within your business.

Education: Graduated June 2010 from the White Rock Learning Centre.
   
   Specialized courses:
      
Art Co-op at Elgin Park Secondary, 2007, classes in art and social studies. Volunteer placements at Knaz & Company (home décor accessories and services) and Cinemazoo Animal Film Agency.
      
R.Y.L.A. Youth Leadership workshop, April 29th – May 2nd 2010

Work experience:

Pet Counsellor at Petland Grandview, from January 29th – October 31st 2010
Duties:
- Promoting and making general sales of various pets and accessories.
-   Caring for a variety of small domestic animals.
-   Maintaining a clean workplace and tidy stock.
-   Assisting with stock displays and taking inventory on all store products.

Volunteer cleaner at C.A.R.E.S. shelter Langley, [insert time period]
Duties:
-   Maintaining a clean living environment for sheltered felines
-   Assisting in minor medical treatments to injured and sick felines.

Volunteer cleaner at Cinemazoo Animal Film Agency in Walley, winter 2007
Duties:
-   Caring for a variety of domestic and exotic species, wild or tamed.
-   Maintaining a clean habitat for zoo animals.
-   Assisting with informative shows about wildlife in front of audiences.

Volunteer Salesman at Knaz & Company in White Rock, Fall 2007
Duties:
-   Assisting with inventory on all store products.
-   Maintaining tidy product displays and a clean work environment.
-   Assisting customers with purchase decisions and handling products post purchase.

Certificates: - Highschool certificate of completion, White Rock Learning Centre 2010
            - Certificate of achievement, Art co-op work experience, Elgin Park Secondary 2007


Skills:

-   Experienced in salesperson to customer etiquette
-   Experienced in managing retail sales and using a cash register
-   Experienced in keeping track of inventory and maintain displays on sales floor
-   Experienced basic workplace cleanliness in a commercial setting

(references available upon request)
--------------------------------------------------------------

Travis, Eh?

Yeah, from what I remember from Laser Tag, you sure looked like a Travis. :-3

Hey, I just gat a call back from Thrifty Foods.  :D
They didn't say what it was about, whether they wanted to schedule an interview or not, but one can hope!

You owe them money.

Nah, I buy from Safeway.

It's a bummer that eBay closed down their office here. For a job at that skill level, they paid decently and had good benefits.

As for agencies, I had a good experience with Eagle Professional Resources (http://www.eagleonline.com/), though they're specifically IT/Finance/Accounting.

: Silvermink  December 23, 2010, 12:03:58 -07:00
As for agencies, I had a good experience with Eagle Professional Resources (http://www.eagleonline.com/), though they're specifically IT/Finance/Accounting.

I wish I knew about that a couple years ago.

It's a shame there are no paid entry level positions in animal welfare or conservation groups, for my sake anyways.  :(