Pest control careers involve dirty and demanding work, with opportunities in agriculture, residential and food handling pest control. Certification is required for most jobs, and advancement opportunities vary between corporate and small business environments.
The nature of the work involved in pest control limits the variety of pest control careers available to those who enjoy working in the field, doing work that is sometimes dirty, sometimes demanding, and whose success is not always immediately obvious. Career opportunities exist in agricultural pest control, aquatic pest control, pest control in residential structures and in food handling establishments, as well as many other areas. Most pest control operators work with ground service vehicles, but some use airplanes to dust crops with pesticides. Pest control careers of a slightly different nature are available in research and development, working for a pest control company or a manufacturer of chemicals or devices for pest control.
Pest control jobs are found in pest control companies, in companies that manufacture pest control equipment and supplies, in government, and in companies whose product is unrelated to pest control but require it on a regular basis, such as agricultural companies and food processing companies. Almost all pest control jobs require certification, although some states allow a technician to operate without certification when supervised by a certified applicator. Except for those involved in research and development for pest control vendors, most operators’ daily routine includes mixing the chemicals that will be used in the day’s jobs and loading them into spray equipment, traveling to various work and perform the actual application of pesticides. When the last job of the day is done, they return to the shop, clean the equipment and do the paperwork.
Chain pest control careers are characterized by the usual “climb the ladder” approach to advancement in any corporate environment; that is, workers will advance according to their qualifications, skills, and leadership ability. In these corporate organizations, pest control careers can involve as much time in an office or in sales meetings with potential customers as time spent in the field. Outside the chains, however, pest control careers more or less exclusively focus on controlling and supervising other pest control applicators. For example, a pest control applicator employed by a food processing company will typically not be eligible for promotion outside of that department and will therefore be able to focus on pest control. He is still expected to keep abreast of developments in the field, and, like his peers in jail, will have to recertify periodically. In most cases, employers will pay for all costs involved in recertification.
Sole proprietors and those working for small businesses can be assigned a variety of tasks to handle the many responsibilities faced by a successful pest control operation. These are the types of responsibilities that would be handled by other departments in a corporate environment, such as compliance with record keeping, accounting, and sales requirements. One of the advantages of small operations, however, is that by providing a level of personal service that larger organizations are incapable of, they will always be there to fill a niche of customers and householders who prefer or require such an approach.
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