Congrats on the job!

I will share my pet store job experience though.

Basically, I was offered an opportunity to work at a local store, established in the area for over 10 years, that was known for exotic pets - reptiles, birds, small mammals, etc. I thought it would be cool, I was in college, needed a part-time job, so I took it.

I learned a lot and gained invaluable experience there with all kinds of species. However, as I learned more about how to properly take care of these animals, a huge conflict of interest started to take root between educating people how to properly take care of an animal and actually being able to make sales.

Almost every customer that came in that was looking to buy an animal wanted to purchase that animal and the absolute bare minimum in supplies and husbandry items.

Just an example, watching new owners leave the store with a bearded dragon, 10 gallon tank, 10 mealworms, and a light bulb day after day just started to eat away at me. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Then there's the returns/rescues. Some really sad animals. Animals that appeared to have been completely forgotten for some time, probably stuffed in the corner of some kid's bedroom, before the parents who bought the animal decided to take notice that it wasn't being cared for. I gained a lot of experience dealing with retained sheds, RIs, scale rot, mouth rot, blister disease, you name it, some we rehabilitated enough to re-sell, others ended up in the freezer.

Being exposed to that side of this hobby taught me to appreciate my own collection much more and know that I never want to be involved in that area of the industry ever again.

And I thought I was going to give the short version of the story.

Good luck!