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If you can maintain regular feeding, grooming and playing with a cat, you might be in with a chance for this job. <\/p>\n
Other requirements are to play it classical music every Friday, and make a monthly visit to a luxury department store to buy new toys. <\/p>\n
But this is not a cat-sitting ad for an eccentric private individual. It’s a job ad to look after a company’s office cat called Jerry.<\/p>\n
The pay for the role has raised eyebrows, with the rate advertised at between \u00a365 and \u00a3100 an hour, depending on experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The firm says it is looking for one or two candidates to commit to a total of 40 hours per week, although the actual hours worked are expected to be much lower – between 8 to 12 hours a week for someone working part-time.<\/p>\n
Duties include providing fresh milk and food, “gentle daily grooming” and creating a “respectful environment suitable for a sensitive animal”.<\/p>\n
The company advertising the job runs an aviation marketplace based in central London. <\/p>\n
Jerry the British Shorthair belongs to its boss Viktor Martynov, who started bringing him in as he was spending so much time in the office and on business trips.<\/p>\n
“I think for cats it’s not very good,” he told World Business Report.<\/a><\/p>\n He said bringing Jerry into the office also improved staff morale. <\/p>\n “Everybody wants to pet him and he also cheers up my colleagues, they have more motivation to come to the office right now,” Mr Martynov said.<\/p>\n The sales team even has a morning tradition of touching the cat at the start of the day for good luck.<\/p>\n And Mr Martynov says Jerry once even helped get a deal on a business jet over the line. <\/p>\n In the middle of tense negotiations, Jerry jumped on to the client’s lap. <\/p>\n “It turned out that he’s a cat lover and his mood immediately changed.<\/p>\n “So you could say that Jerry also helped us with our work.”<\/p>\n The company, Aviamarket, says it has already had more than 250 applications for the role. <\/p>\n The advert asks for previous experience looking after animals and “excellent time management”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It’s not the only bizarre job ad to have cropped up on a jobs listing site. <\/p>\n In 2023 Blackpool Zoo asked for candidates to become official seagull scarers, which involved dressing up as birds.<\/a><\/p>\n Over the years, many food and drink companies have advertised for “professional tasters<\/a>” for things like beer and chocolate. <\/p>\n And last year, the Tasmanian tourist board posted “adverts”<\/a> for jobs including wallaby walker and paranormal investigator, in a bid to encourage more tourism to the island during the off-season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n