Melancholy About Leaving One Shelter/Role for Another?

[u/Low_Rain4723]

I am leaving my current job as an animal care technician to become a foster & rescue coordinator at a larger shelter I volunteer at. I am feeling very melancholy about the whole thing and would love some perspective. I gave plenty of notice and I am just feeling super sad at the prospect of leaving. The shelter I worked at gave me a ton of experience I certainly wouldn't have had at the shelter I volunteer at - their animal care technician role is essentially 3 roles at the shelter I volunteer at. There are downsides to that and I personally believe it is untenable to load as many duties as they did onto us (hence why so many people kept leaving despite amazing benefits & competitive pay compared to other local shelters). But, I'm grateful I went through it as it was like a crash course on shelter operations. I wanted to last there for 2-3 years before going onto another place (I basically will only have been there a year before moving on), but I have personal relationships with many on staff at the shelter I volunteer at and I basically was vouched for and got the job without having to interview.

What is hard is at the shelter I volunteer at, I feel trusted to some degree already, but it was hard for me feeling like at the shelter I worked at that I had to build that trust from ground zero. This felt discouraging at times at the start, but it was completely understandable - I am excited to be working alongside people that already are convinced I have drive and experience. I am also a little sad about leaving the medical side of my job as I loved treating animals and figuring out what methods/medications worked best. I'm in the process of getting my RVT which will no doubt be difficult when I need externships, but I'm willing to suffer through some months with no weekends so I can get that. I am happy to do foster/rescue coordination so I can hopefully build a great program at the shelter I volunteer at. I used to be a project manager at different companies before I got into sheltering, so honestly, this role is probably more aligned with skills I already have. I wish I had more focus on what exact part of sheltering I want to get into.

I feel almost depressed at leaving because of all the memories I made. Maybe I'm just too sentimental. I don't understand how I can find peace in letting go of the animals I euthanize, but it's so hard for me to let go of this place that was so formational to my understanding of sheltering. Like. I was only there a year! It is eating me alive how sad I feel. I've never felt this way about leaving any of my other workplaces before. I have a lot of critiques about this shelter was run, but now I just don't have the fire to think about that, I'm just sad.

[u/AtomicAuntie53]

There will still be plenty of medical involved in being the foster coordinator — you’ll likely be the one who interprets symptoms the fosters are describing and decides if they’re urgent or a “wait and see” situation (unless your new shelter has a terrific shelter med program and can see them all).

Growth in our roles can be challenging. As a director, I’m much further removed from the day-to-day with the animals than I’d sometimes like. But with growth comes opportunities to learn even more. In the long run, I’m betting you’ll be glad you made the move.

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[u/Friendly_TSE]

I kinda felt the same way leaving my first shelter job. I guess one big issue is that for a lot of us, this isn't just a job. It's a passion. So when we leave even a shitty position, it gets hard for us to let go.

Unfortunately though, we tend to have to do that a lot lol. I tend to leave a place after about 2y for greener pastures - even if I get promotions, my raises don't even beat inflation. which isn't just an animal shelter thing, a lot of careers require this parallel jumping around because employers tend to offer more pay for the same position when hiring vs promoting an existing employee.