Elite Suites Pet Resort Interview Questions
& Process

The owner of the company, who doesn't seem to be very familiar with standard interview practices, dominated most of the 2-hour meeting. He mostly talked about his past jobs and business associates. It seemed like his main goal was to find someone who would agree with him rather than someone to manage his business. He made it very clear that he didn't care much about the employee experience. In a very unusual move, he actually refused to show me around the facilities, which is something that has never happened to me before in an interview.

The hiring process was incredibly fast. I received a call late one evening asking if I could interview the following day. I went in, and by that same evening, I was offered the job with a start date literally the next day. The interview wasn't difficult if you have prior experience. The company has some issues, but I only stayed a short time. They made a very fair salary offer, which I accepted. However, during my third week, I was asked to work around 60 hours without any days off. While this might be expected during busy periods at a boarding facility, considering I received no overtime pay for my salary, it wasn't worth it for me. For some people though, it would be absolutely fine! If you don't have a family and can dedicate your whole life to it, it's not a bad job. It's meticulous and straightforward. But the turnover is extremely high, so be prepared for long hours with no overtime pay or incentives. Everyone seemed nice, though. But if you knew people there, not everyone was happy. Being nice doesn't always mean being happy.

The interview mostly consisted of the owner talking about himself, his facilities, and his thoughts on pets. I only got to speak about myself briefly at the start. I felt I didn't get to really talk about my experience or abilities at all, and there was very little information about what would be expected of me. My advice is to just go along with the small talk and agree with everything he says, as he seems to like 'yes-men.' He asked me what I thought I should be paid. I offered minimum wage until we could see how well I performed. He offered me $8.50, saying 'minimum wage leads to minimum performance.' Keep in mind that raises are rare, and most kennel tech jobs start around $10/hour. Ask for at least this much if you have animal experience, or you'll wait a long time to make good money, and you might find out that newer employees are making more just because they asked for more. However, he might just offer you an hourly rate without asking your opinion. You'll likely be offered the position on the spot and scheduled to work within the next few days.

Everyone was really nice and the interview went pretty smoothly. The only bummer was not hearing back at all about whether I got the job. I get that the holidays are busy though.