Nervous About Job Interview

[coconutman39]

no thats not food dye, it is some sort of blue chemical that keeps that water cleaner and bettas healthier. also, the only thing wrong with that pic is it is in a vase which implies that it is a betta in a vase.

as far as the job goes, gl on getting the job and making the store better. i hope that people appriciate you for doing this and also fish. i feel like you will do a good job.

as far as my petstore, they are pretty good and are trained on alot of stuff. i actually think one employee comes here, so thats good. so all petsmarts arnt all bad.

 

[kent]

I have been to a few LFS around and I can say that Petsmart has friendly employees. They care not only for the fishes but also for the customers..
Good luck !!!

 

[Dane]

Guess I wont be able to work at a petsmart ahah... *covers face*

 

[Vip]

Im not trying to be a smart ass here but, you think your manager is going to let you change things? your going to tell her how to keep fish? i dont think she will be to happy with you telling her how to keep fish. they want people to see them in a small little vase so them people buy them for there vase, and they dont want to tell the person who is buying them that this shouldnt be done, why? because its a business, its there to make money, not to look after fish, but to sell there product.
maybe you should go for a LFS then your words might be heard, rather than being told to just do your job and leave the decision making upto the manager.

 

[Doggfather]

Like Vip said, the manager might not be to happy if you tell her what she is doing is completly wrong, tread carefully! The manager won't care about how the fish fell, all she would care about is selling them, making a profit and getting a promotion.

Unfortunatnly all people care about is money

Great news about getting the interview though!

 

[Rusty_S]

The way I see it, you can still make a difference even if you don't change your manager's views. You can make a difference in your attitude towards your job and towards the people who ask you for advice. Just tell the truth when they ask you what the best thing for their fish is, and if they can keep that fish with that, etc. And never forget to be friendly, people will always appreciate that You can do your bit in the part of the store you work in, you don't have to move mountains just to feel like you've changed something, at least you'll be helping people to make the right choices. Good luck with your interview, I hope you can get in there and help people to make the right environments for their fish

EDIT: And as for piercings, don't knock 'em I have 3 holes in each ear and 2 holes in my nose, I worked in a florist's for 5 years and now I'm working in a nursing home and a petrol station. If people want to be individual, then let 'em, it's attitude that counts!

 

[Warrior]

It really sucks when piercings are not welcome in the work place, i have 3 on my lright ear and 2 on left ear, and eyebrow ring as well, and my left arm has a nuke symbol on it (looks trible) i wouldnt change myself for them! Good luck with the job, but i would wait 6months before you open your mouth on how your manager is running the store.

 

[ToWnPrEp]

Make sure you:

a. Are ignorant,
b. have spikey black hair,
c. at LEAST three piercings,

If you have a, b and c met you are assured to get the job.

What's wrong with having your ears pierced at work?

 

[Shizat]

Your probably not going to get the job anyway because petsmart now has a policy where every kid that wants to get a job there gets an interview and they turn away no one. You go in the store like cattle on a friday or something and watch a 3 hour video and not get paid on what working at petsmart will be like. You sit down with the manager and then he will throw your file in a cabinet and say we will call you if anything comes up. Ive seen 60 people come in once at the beginning of this summer getting the "interview". If you get the job good luck and expect to have the most nastiest people in the world like on this forum that will complain if you recommend goldfish pellets and not flakes.

 

[Love2havefish]

....i dont even know where to start. This may be a very long post.

I think the first thing that comes to mind...is the whole manager thing. I wouldn't be able to say anything bout it until i get the job. I want to try to make a difference, but the bettas that are in the petsmart i'm applying for aren't in that bad of condition. That's why i chose to work at this petsmart first...to gain experience. I've met the manager a couple of times and she's really cool. So...no i don't know how much i can do...but i want to learn about how people run fish stores...or fish departments. I wanted to start a fish store myself in the future. By experiencing different managers...then from there i can determine what i should and should not do right?

Next subject...the whole piercings thing. I'm not sure what that's all about. Maybe because a lot of the people that go to the petsmart that i go to are very...im not sure how to say it without being mean, but older? And you know how older people see kids with lots of piercings and tatoos they just go . I personally don't have anything against it, but i guess some people do.

As for the interviews and stuff..yea i'm aware of that. if i don't get hired there, then i plan on applying at different fish stores. It's not the end of the world for me. Yea, i went to watch the video, it was 20 mins...not 3 hours. It's basically to see if you're still interested or not. If you are, then you set up an interview with the manager, and that's what i did. Applying for any job is the same though...they always say, "we'll call you in a week" or something like that. That's just something you have to go through when applying for a job, you can't really expect that you'll get it right away. That's why this thread is titled as "nervous about job interview" because i really don't know if i'll be getting it or not, but i really want to work there. somehow..i feel like im creating drama here on the boards...its not like i really meant to. I've been getting nasty comments about me working at petsmart all day long. But that's life right? No matter what you'll do, there will always be somebody putting you down. The more people put me down for something stupid, the more i get stronger. I'll try not to give out best advice...i've researched about most of the different types of fish they have there already.

I guess we'll just have to see if i get this or not. Maybe i'll work at a different place? To those who have been wishing me luck. Thank you!! After being putting down a lot...getting support from some people brings me up.

 

[Becca]

MIght be a bit too late, but good luck. If you get the job - just be honest with consumers and that'd earn you lots of brownie points, in my book.

To be honest, I don't mind Petsmart at all. Petco, on the other hand, annoys the piss out of me, but that's another story. I try not to judge a pet store / fish store based solely on the knowledge of one or two individuals. I do my best to know as much as I can going in, or find a store that has knowledgable employees and can help me out.

My best advice is to just be honest with someone. If you know something, help them out. If you don't - be honest, don't make up something or assume that certain things can happen. If they're new to the hobby and really want to do it right, they'll listen. If not, then your words alone aren't going to be able to change their minds.

You mentioned that you want to work there because of the Bettas - but Petsmart carries an awful lot of other animals, some of which are mistreated (at times) as well. I don't know how the store works, but if you're in the fish department, you'll have to know AT LEAST the other varities of fish - you are aware of this, right?

Good luck, and keep us posted!!

 

[Yano]

Don't worry about it. You should have no trouble getting a job there. I was at petsmart the other day, there was some dumb looking kid trying to get a pleco out of the tank. He could not do it, he had to go get his manager. Then the customer asked him a question, off the manager he went. \
btw when the manager did not look too happy the second time.

 

[Love2havefish]

MIght be a bit too late, but good luck. If you get the job - just be honest with consumers and that'd earn you lots of brownie points, in my book.

To be honest, I don't mind Petsmart at all. Petco, on the other hand, annoys the piss out of me, but that's another story. I try not to judge a pet store / fish store based solely on the knowledge of one or two individuals. I do my best to know as much as I can going in, or find a store that has knowledgable employees and can help me out.

My best advice is to just be honest with someone. If you know something, help them out. If you don't - be honest, don't make up something or assume that certain things can happen. If they're new to the hobby and really want to do it right, they'll listen. If not, then your words alone aren't going to be able to change their minds.

You mentioned that you want to work there because of the Bettas - but Petsmart carries an awful lot of other animals, some of which are mistreated (at times) as well. I don't know how the store works, but if you're in the fish department, you'll have to know AT LEAST the other varities of fish - you are aware of this, right?

Good luck, and keep us posted!!

haha thanx for tue support. Yea, i know what you mean. A lot of people don't really realize that all stores are different...and im pretty sure i'm not the only one out there who wants to work at a petstore because they really do care, and not worry about money.

Yup! i do know that Petsmart sell not only bettas...i've actually researched a couple of them already, but i'm not sure on what they have, and what they don't. I don't really pay attention to the community fish when i shop there...but now i'll have to start learning all about them. Yea..i know what you mean about being honest, that's they key to anything isn't it? I wouldn't have the nerve to tell a lie about how to take care of fish...especially if their lives depended on it.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Love2havefish]

Don't worry about it. You should have no trouble getting a job there. I was at petsmart the other day, there was some dumb looking kid trying to get a pleco out of the tank. He could not do it, he had to go get his manager. Then the customer asked him a question, off the manager he went. \
btw when the manager did not look too happy the second time.

I've seen people do that before too. I've actually seen a person try to get a Bala shark out...and i didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal, but a lot of water came out of the tank.

i just really hope that customers don't mess with the fish. The bettas are located near this big tank of plants, and there's no cover on it. I've seen a kid put a betta in there...i didn't think anybody really knew the betta was in the aquarium until i told them. I've heard horror stories of little kids putting their hands inside the tanks... I hope they don't do that to me...

 

[Auratus]

As for the betta vase picture.... is that a bubblenest I see? hmm... weird.

Instead of "pissing off" the manager and turning people away from vases, you could give them another alternative like this beautiful 2.5 gallon that costs a lot more then the vase.

Also, those a.b.c things kind of made me think that you associate piercings and the "punk" look with stupidity. I personaly have 3, 14 gauge lobe piercings and 1, 14 gauge cartledge piercing in both ears. Oh, and they are horshoes with spikes on the end . I also wear nothing but black and have a lot of wristbands and that sort of thing and I certainly don't see myself as pet "stupid". Maybe it just came out wrong but that's what it seemed like to me.

I'm applying at petsmart too. Can you tell me a little more about what the video was like?

This is what I don't understand though. Out of the 60+ people that apply for a job, the best person they can get is a grown man who is afraid to catch you a dwarf hamster? I had to catch the thing myself. I've also seen at petco where a girl got on a ladder and instead of using common sense and puting the box in the cage then putting the hamster in the box, she tryed to grab the thing with one hand then hold the box in the air with the other then *splat* hamster fell 10 feet onto the hard floor. Why oh why do you work at a petstore if your afraid of the animals?

Someone made a good point, remember, there are other pets there so ask ahead of time not to do reptiles or rodents if you are afraid of that type of animal because you could be put on the spot and drop something .