How has your week at work been? Would you rather get paid to play with pandas?
WOLONG, CHINA – FEBRUARY 10: (CHINA OUT) Feeders play with giant panda cubs before a ceremony at the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre on February 10, 2007 in Wolong Nature Reserve of Sichuan Province, China. A ceremony is held at the centre today to mark eighteen panda cubs’ leaving their mothers and moving into the nursery playground. Eleven giant pandas gave birth to the cubs between July and September of last year. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)
Don't worry! You are not too late! You still have time!
Phew, OK. So the competition to take care of pandas for a year and GET PAID is underway at China's Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Ya’an, Sichuan province.
You can apply here. It started on May 8 but it goes through July 15, so you still have time.
Perks of the job, which is technically called a "panda caretaker," include free room and board, an SUV and a salary of $32,000.
Nevermind that you don't even care about that stuff because you get to PLAY WITH PANDAS all the time.
You will learn how to make panda bread, which is a thing, and also you will be extra nice to old pandas because they have lived a long life and deserve some comforts in old age.
"Your work has only one mission: spending 365 days with the pandas and sharing in their joys and sorrows." That's what the organizers said, according to the China Daily. So great.
There are a couple stipulations, you need to be at least 22 years old and have some basic knowledge of pandas. You should be able to write and take pictures.
It won't be all fun and pandas, warned Ye Mingxin, a market manager for Ford Motor Co in China, and co-organizer of the competition.
"We expect that the applicants will be mainly white-collar workers from big cities," Ye told China Daily. "They are used to eating whatever they want, but inside the giant panda base, the choices will not be plentiful."
Maybe not, Ye. But the pandas. The pandas will be plentiful.
The competition is aimed to raise awareness of giant pandas and their predicament. There are only about 1,600 left in the wild and so far conservation efforts have proven relatively futile.
So it's important that you do this.
Oh and three runners up will get a paid three-day trip to see the pandas. Not a year but still cool.
You can apply here. You still have time.