guest service agent

host/hostess

education associate

shift leader

custodian

Sea Life

SL MI does great business for its location and price package, and in my time working there I've elicited innumerable customer smiles & praise for my work. However it's currently an overall crummy place to work. Coworkers on my level (mostly entry level pay) are fantastic people with big ambitions but for those who intend to spend more than a few college semesters at this place it's a real drag. The starting pay is laughable, management a mixed bag and are sometimes bad at communicating important information. Your biggest enemy here is boredom - no distractions allowed on the floor, even on the slow weekdays. Expect to get scolded for petty or inconsequential things on slower days. The mall location has pros and cons but generally guests are well behaved, at least once inside the attraction (God help you if you work admissions!).

The aquarist staff do a phenomenal job taking care of the livestock but are far too cliquey and insular for such a small public aquarium. senior education staff and even managers are often kept in the dark about things pertaining to exhibits, which is frustrating to the educators, of which many have backgrounds in biology or related fields. Management sometimes heeds employee feedback but much bigger changes (especially PAY) are needed to make this place a truly good place to work. 

I recommend this job if you want a foot in the animal based attraction door and can't yet escape Michigan, are a high schooler, or are retired from your real career and need cash. Full time is hard to get and options for advancement are negligible but with time you can get trained on new activities. On the bright side getting fired seems hard to do, as departments are periodically understaffed and breaking the rules is handled with fair leniency by management.

This job is an amazing introduction into working with animals and in the zoological field. You learn a lot, it's incredibly fun, and you really do make some great connections.
 That being said, this job leads to nowhere if you want to stay. It is a small facility and the likelihood of moving up within the company (such as becoming a husbandry assistant or eventually becoming an aquarist) is currently slim to none. 
 I'd say my favorite parts of the job are just being able to teach and provide conservation messages to everyone, and developing a bond with the Education staff, and the animals themselves.
 My least favorite parts are the exclusivity of the aquarists, even though we're supposed to work together they never tell us anything, even though everyone on the Education team has or is working towards a degree in the field (and some of us are more qualified than they are), and also that the job is absolutely exhausting. You get used to it eventually, but in the beginning you never realize how much energy you're spending. It is an ENTERTAINMENT job first. You will see hundreds of people in one day, you have to monitor everything to make sure that nothing is wrong, there's only two educators in the building at once, and it's your job to make sure that everything goes smoothly throughout the entire building. Every time I mention something obscure about the job, like cleaning or counting guests, people are so surprised that that's my job, and that I only make minimum wage for it.

Working at Sea Life MOA, I learned a lot about marine life and other things -- it was a great opportunity for education. The environment was unique, engaging, and interesting. My coworkers were very nice and management was generally understanding/accommodating. However, I was confused a lot about duties, hours, breaks, etc. I was part of a large group of new seasonal hires, so there were many of us getting trained in at the same time and not enough senior employees to do much of the training. On some occasions I found myself thrown into the deep end (pun intended) with regards to positions I had not worked yet. Speaking of which, they have you do quite a bit of work for not very much pay, and it can take a lot out of you. Spring is a really busy season in terms of customers, and... well, not all of them are particularly pleasant to the minimum wage employees they encounter.

Overall an okay job for entry-level workers, especially those interested in aquatic life. But be aware of how much this workplace varies depending on the season -- some days will be good, some days will be incredibly stress-inducing, and some days will just be downright confusing.

This company prioritizes entertainment over anything else. Often times I found myself being shut down when offering ideas that did not relate to “guest experience” even if it was something that benefited the animals. My ideas would not be listened to or taken seriously, and were often times responded to with demeaning and disrespectful comments, so much to the point that I just stopped giving ideas and voicing my own perspective. The company does not really care about the animals, they only care about making them look cool for guest. Education is not prioritized, and will only be considered if it could make money. I could literally go on about how horrible this company is, don’t ever work here seriously it’s a waste of time. You will be overworked, underpaid, groomed, and given unrealistic workloads and expectations. You will be reprimanded for not completing aspects of your job even though you don’t have the right resources or time to do it. Just don’t work here :) 

I worked just about every front staff job there was except for mascots and behind the scenes tours.  The job was honestly not demanding. 
On busy days it was fast paced, maybe even intense, but still not demanding.  At one point I was almost working full time hours as a part time employee, and that was nice but I was not exactly asked to do over 30 hours.  Educating kids was fun, and I learned tons of stuff about the animals I worked around.  The demand to press sales while I have a line of impatient families was a little much.  It takes time to walk people through the sales pitches and right behind them are screaming children, sometimes you just wanna get them going into the aquarium, not waste their time, but if management caught ya not pressing you'd be scolded.  They created games to pit us against each other to do sales and I was scolded if I did sales and did not participate in the games.  Overall easy job, just most of management was annoying.

A great first job out of school. It's a fun place to work that will give you experience caring for a wide variety of fish and animals. Typical day involves feeding the displays, cleaning, life support system maintenance, and accurate log keeping. The most enjoyable part of the job is watching the animals grow and develop before your eyes. The hardest part of the job is that the aquarium is open 365 days a year which means having to work holidays and weekends. Holidays like Christmas you only get off every other year. The job can become mundane after a few years of caring for the same displays.

Worked here as my first job. Learned ALOT about customer service. The main positions were scanning tickets, shark station, and touch pool. After a while they would train you as breaker and GI (guest interaction). Mangament was kinda annoying/bossy at times and definitely played favorites. The best part was definitely my coworkers! They made going to work fun. Worst part was the customers. They were mostly nice but would yell/argue with you when we didnt allow strollers in. The aquarist all looked like they hated their job lol. Its a nice way to gain experience if youre intrested in this field but the probability of advancement in this aquarium is zero. Overall it was a great first job!

as a volunteer a typical day of work was guiding visitors around the tanks ans pointing out the fish and other animals in the tanks. teaching children of all ages how to handle sea stars and hermit crabs in the touch tanks. the hardest thing was getting an uncooperative fish to take the shrimp off the skewer without poking the fish. The owners are awesome people and they do their best to educate the public and protect the animals in their care. the other volunteers and staff were very knowledgeable of all the animals in their care. I really loved the Sargassum fish and talking about it's life history.

SeaLife is a good place to work, the staff is friendly and mostly kind. The management is frustrating and not always intelligent. The job itself involved a lot of patience and knowledge of sea creatures. You need to be able to talk to all different kinds of people, you will give educational talks to groups of 30 or more people and will be working in the touch pools with different sea creatures. The biggest part of this job is to talk to people and know what you are talking about. Have an appreciation for all sea creatures.

Most days as an operations associate are spent surveying the safety and happiness of animals and guests.

I learned numerous techniques on marine animal care and species, conservation, and it was all around a good first job to be introduced to the workforce.

Management is all-around happy-go-lucky and very forgiving and fair. Everyone has a good time working there and socializing; it's a happy environment.

The managers were the best part of the job, and dealing with angry guests was by far the hardest.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Guest service agent 66 salaries reported	$14.49 per hour
Host/hostess 50 salaries reported	$14.69 per hour
Education associate 5 salaries reported	$14.42 per hour
Shift leader 8 salaries reported	$17.41 per hour
Custodian 6 salaries reported	$13.61 per hour

Working at Sea Life: Company Overview and Reviews

Sea Life

Sea Life Ratings

Popular jobs at Sea Life

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected