Kid Territory: Jobs: Giving Direction
The directors for the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park accept proclamations from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors for each facility's prominent role in promoting tourism.
The ZSSD's executive director addresses Chinese dignitaries, government officials, and members of the media during the San Diego Zoo's 2003 State of the Panda.
What we do
We manage people and projects, and provide leadership to the employees and volunteers of the Zoological Society of San Diego (ZSSD). We are responsible for the management of the animal and plant collections, finances, and future, as well as day-to-day operations for the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, and the department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES). We help organize the conservation work being done here at our CRES laboratories, and in our field projects all over the world.
What's cool about this job
The people we work with are from many different occupations at the Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and CRES, and it's rewarding to help them find creative solutions to situations that sometimes come up. We also enjoy talking with people who care about wildlife, and working to figure out how we can translate our concern into plans for action. When a project succeeds, or a scientist makes an exciting discovery, we can all share in the moment. It is a great pleasure to see our employees succeed and to help them to do so.
Job challenges
There are lots of challenges in running an organization as large and respected as the ZSSD. Every day there's something important we need to address. And other organizations from all over the world turn to us for solutions.
Sometimes it's hard to keep people focused on where we want to go in the future, when the challenges they are dealing with need to be addressed today. We all have to remember that the things we do today affect the future, so our daily choices have to be made with our long-term goals in mind.
How this job helps animals
We organize the staff who work with and work for the animals. We take care of business needs to make sure that the Zoo and Wild Animal Park continue to be interesting and educational places to learn about wildlife.
We assist the ZSSD in reaching its goal of becoming a world leader in connecting people to wildlife and conservation. If more people make a personal connection with wildlife, they'll care more about helping animals and plants.
Of course, the work at CRES has greatly assisted the animals in our care and has helped to sustain many endangered species. Our research has helped the captive breeding of giant pandas, California condors, African and Indian rhinoceros species, and many others. Animals cannot survive solely in zoos, however, so we need to help them in their natural habitats. The work we do in the wild, often in collaboration with other organizations, is absolutely crucial to helping prevent the extinction of endangered species.
How to get a job like this
The way to start is by asking whether you are fascinated by living things and want to study them, learn more about them, and help conserve them. Doing well in biology and science subjects at school is important, of course, so that you can eventually work towards getting a degree at a university. If you want to work in the research end of things, it is very helpful to go for some kind of higher degree, such as a Ph.D. Communication and business knowledge are a big part of our work. It also helps if you love to read, because we have to stay on top of business trends and we research how other organizations do things. Most of all, you have to enjoy bringing together groups of people with different viewpoints and helping them find some common ground.
