So after 3 months of no luck finding a paying job, I was looking on the AZA website per my usual routine and saw an ad for internships at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I figured, hey, it's close, and it will give me the specific experience that's holding me back from all the paid jobs I couldn't get. I was only offered an interview for one of the many jobs I applied for, and that was for a part time food prep job at a zoo in Boston. Except they wanted me to fly out there within the next few days on my money and interview for them. What? They straight up told me it wouldn't be worth it for me.. so so much for that.
So applied for the internships at the Aquarium of the Pacific. You could apply for all of them at once which was nice, and then just list the ones you wanted in order of most to least. I think the order I chose was Aquarist > Education > Program Animals > Marine Mammals > Aviculture... or something like that. Well after a phone interview (yes, I live 2 hours from the aquarium and they did a phone interview, yet Boston wouldn't do one) and an in person interview, I had the Aquarist Internship.
So to Long Beach I moved after perusing Craigslist for a place to live. I started on January 11, and I have been enjoying myself ever since.
Now, an Aquarist job isn't as glamorous as it sounds. One of the 3 aquarists I work under called it a "glorified janitor job" and it's totally true, but it's totally fun! Yeah there's a lot of hard work changing filter bags, cleaning protein skimmers, and keeping the exhibits looking spotless... but for some reason it's still fun. Probably because I regularly get to feed awesome animals like sting rays and zebra sharks. Oh yeah, I'm in the Tropical section.
There are 5 different sections the aquarists could work in. Southern California, Northern, Jellies, Shark Lagoon, and Tropical. All of the galleries represent a zone in the Pacific ocean (thus, Aquarium of the Pacific).
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