pet sitter

veterinary technician

thrift store associate

dog trainer

veterinarian

Austin-Pets-Alive!

I worked at APA! for three months as a Part-Time Dog Walker. At first I loved it because everyone was so nice, friendly and accommodating. After my first month, I noticed it was a lie. People are forced to communicate with one another so as to seem friendly to potential adopters, and get more animals adopted. Seems like an okay thing at first, but then come the performance reviews, which despite my best efforts, I never exceeded expectations, regardless of my many improvements and money spent on my own gear to be more efficient. The upskilling they offer here is fast paced and done by a person from a very small team that reads off a piece of paper that never seems to have the proper information. Also, advancement is mandatory as a Staffed employee. You are required to work in all weather conditions, and the location on Cesar Chavez, where I worked, was notorious for flooding. With flooding, comes disease. They have animals that have distemper, parvo, ringworm, scabies, and demodectic mange, and when it floods, if you don’t have the proper gear (which isn’t provided to you) like rainboots, work pants, or a hat to wear, you can catch any of those or carry it on your clothes. That’s dangerous if you have pets of your own. Not to mention management has a terrible attitude, and will judge you visibly if they find anything to not like about you. After my second month of working there, they released an attendance policy. Let me say that again...AFTER TWO MONTHS, they released an attendance policy, meaning there wasn’t one to start with. Yet somehow they gave me write ups for having a broken AC to deal with at my apartment complex for 8 days, and pets of my own to keep from overheating in 88 degree weather. All in all, it’s a terrible place to work. Don’t even bother trying to be nice or even yourself with these people, cause if you don’t fit their views of what you should be or should do, you are immediately considered an outcast and not included in any of their “team” meetings or activities. Oh! And also? You don’t get a break if you’re Part-Time, so if you aren’t used to walking 3-5 miles a day for 5 hours straight, and are prone to heat exhaustion in 90 degree+ heat, you’re better off without knowing these people. They seriously only care about their animals, and have absolutely no idea how to run a business when it comes to their employees.

It takes a certain kind of person to succeed at APA!. Working at APA! is smelly, dirty, and physically demanding. Employee turnover is high, but if you're of the right makeup working for APA! can be an extremely rewarding and personally enriching experience. If you work there long enough, you WILL be bitten by a dog, but most likely not seriously injured. APA! will take over your life if you let it. It would probably be fair to say that compensation isn't adequate, although it's still the highest paying job I've had. Despite APA! being a no kill shelter, you will have to deal with occasional euthanasias- if you work in dog care, this will most often be due to behavior. Even no kill shelters do occasionally euthanize animals. In my experience APA! is very disorganized no matter the department and your training may be rushed or incomplete. Staffing is perpetually inadequate. Most of your time will be spent by yourself or with a dog, and you won't have anyone hovering over your shoulder.  There are opportunities for advancement and learning. You can pick a dog as your CGC or TOP! dog trainee and try to get them certified. You'll have the chance to build strong and meaningful bonds with your coworkers and with animals that desperately need all the support they can get. I've worked at APA! almost 4 years now and have not regretted a minute of it. 

I've been employeed in multiple shelters and other animal specialist positions, and this was probably the worst job I've ever had. I've worked a few different positions here and every program is severely understaffed. The people who run this place expect volunteers to fill in the gaps for everything, but don't provide proper staff coverage if that doesn't happen, meaning you'll sometimes be working 10-12 hours 6 days a week. When I was a Dog Walker, I'd be routinely forced to stay past midnight (while managers left as soon as the sun started to set), because they expect volunteers to cover but if that's doesn't happen then too bad. Everyone who's a salaried office worker there is out of touch with the people who are doing the actual hard work, and just want to save money by overworking the same few people until they break down. And of course employee turnover is ridiculously high because of all these things. There's about 3 salaried people to cover every single position for the office jobs, and they make up and hire for a new position about once a month. Instead of hiring more HR people to figure out how to make staff happier, they should think about allocating some of that money to hire staff that would lessen those employees burdens. I'm honestly surprised they haven't been fined or shut down for how they treat staff.

I actually volunteered awhile ago and agreed to clean and walk dogs but instead was put on painting the ceiling and just other stuff I wasn’t qualified for. It was so uncomfortable. 

Any who, I was scheduled for an interview recently even though the pay was near minimum wage but I knew it would be a rewarding experience helping animals live long, great, happy lives. I arrived 15 mins early to building C as directed and it was complete chaos in there! Nowhere to sit or barely stand. I waited in line to talk to the receptionist and people kept stepping in front of me trying to get her attention. By the time I told the front desk I was here for my interview, I was almost late. 20 mins LATER my interviewer came out unprofessionally and escorted me to the 100 degree weather to have the interview (I understand I’d be outside a lot working in this weather but I was in nice dark pants and a long sleeve shirt lol). The interview was so dull and uninteresting to both of us it seemed. Granted, I had bugs, birds, and ants attacking me during the interview so it was pretty hard to concentrate and sound motivated. She kinda BSed along the way saying she had several interviews that day (which I doubt) but that she’d email me the following day. Never happened of course. 
This place is run down, old, stinky, and unprofessional. Go to another shelter like Austin Animal Center.

The mission that APA works towards, keeping Austin no kill, is fantastic.  Because of this, the staff that are attracted to work there are generally great, and everyone is in it for the right reasons.  This sense of community and "all in it together", and putting the animals first, is the greatest thing about working there.

The issues come from upper management.  There's such a focus on volunteer retention and foster retention, while staff are seen as expendable or replaceable.  Discipline can be harsh or unfair, and great employees end up leaving because no one made them feel valued enough to stay.  Rates of pay vary enormously from department to department in an arbitrary way.

I wouldn't recommend working there with the current staff culture, because it's all on you but you get the least amount of latitude and support.  However, they treat their volunteers/fosters amazingly and that teamwork culture really thrives in those spheres.  If you're committed to helping the animals in Austin, I would highly recommend volunteering or fostering, but find some other way to pay the bills.

I worked here a couple years ago in multiple positions and have had many friends work here in multiple positions over the past 5 years in care positions. There is a high turnover rate for a reason. Those working in Office positions are out of touch. I and everyone I know in care positions have been overworked and underpaid. I and everyone I know have been severely unappreciated and given promises that things will improve and that staff is cared about but it is all just words. Ordering pizza does not count. 
It is not just the "nature of the beast" of shelter work. It can be better and does not have to be this way. The wrong people have been put in positions of power and do not listen to the people that are actually caring for the animals. The mission is strong but does not account for manipulation, undervaluing your employees (since the beginning), and taking advantage of the goodness of people that care about animals. It is a shame that APA does not listen to the people that are caring for all of the animals that they are trying to save. Who will care for the animals when you run all of your employees to the ground? 

You will be directly helping cats and dogs that need it the most. It's a work environment where anyone, regardless of past work experience, can jump in and get hands on training with animals. However, recently communication and general management has gone really sour. The company has undergone major reorganization, and while there are some good ideas, ultimately the higher ups are out of touch and making poor decisions. Feedback from workers directly caring for the animals is rarely taken into full account, and the animal care is MAJORLY declining because of it. It's really sad. Employees are overworked and expected to pick up slack with no extra compensation, with the company banking on the idea that you will be too sentimental towards the animals to decline. A lot of the protocol that APA! is known for, that's supposed to be groundbreaking, is not even really followed in practice.  You are at high risk of being taken advantage of, but if you don't need the job for money / are doing it as a hobby and can quit at any time, then you will probably be okay. 

Good for animals, horrible for workers. Management is embarrassingly inexperienced and generally incompetent, cliquey, and sometimes outright abusive towards employees with no system for accountability. Executive leadership is apathetic toward working conditions and contemptuous toward entry-level employees. Leadership from multiple departments provide very little support to their most essential staff and seem completely out-of-touch with the actual work their employees do every day. Very poor communication between departments, which leads to poor quality of care for the animals. No communication of any kind regarding workplace safety hazards. Morale is always poor due to high turnover, long hours, and low pay in a constantly chaotic, unstructured, and unsafe environment. Constantly short-staffed with no work-life balance. Frequent serious injuries due to inadequate training and exhaustion.

Pros: The team of doctors and techs you work alongside makes the hard work easy. The clinic manager is super experienced, patient, and beyond considerate. Employees are respected and the vets are INCREDIBLE. You will never meet a team of better doctors. The techs, OUTSTANDING. Everyone is legitimately doing all they can for these animals. Shout out to the Parvo ICU manager who also is revolutionizing the way the ward works every year, making things more efficient and maintaining team communication.

Cons: There can certainly be some intense days and some less than agreeable people disgruntled about their animal on the phone/email/ in person, but I found it wasn't often enough to make work unbearable, and the team would usually band together to discuss/ work through it.




I have worked here since October 2020. I started as a receptionist until late July of 2021. I then was offered a vet technician position which is what I was aiming for. As a quick learner, I moved up very fast from there and am now one of the main Surgery technicians. This company offers a lot of different positions and does offer room for growth. They are currently working on budgeting for higher pay for staff members as well as searching for a new location to move to, hopefully that will happen soon! Clinic managers are absolutely amazing and fellow co-workers work together to save as many animals as possible. I love what I do and love what APA stands up for. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Pet sitter 1 salary reported	$47,000 per year
Veterinary technician 12 salaries reported	$18.71 per hour
Thrift store associate 17 salaries reported	$17.00 per hour
Dog trainer 6 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Veterinarian 4 salaries reported	$121,875 per year

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