--- title: Job Opening China's Giant Panda Research Center Hiring Panda Nannies description: Earn $32,000 a year by hanging out with adorable baby pandas canonical: https://time.com/109179/now-hiring-panda-nannies/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-22T18:12:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:56.018Z og:title: The World's Best Job Is Hiring: Panda Nanny og:description: Earn $32,000 a year by hanging out with adorable baby pandas og:url: https://time.com/109179/now-hiring-panda-nannies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd80c474e78b58855/6986908ef983e73ecd04df0e/454204689.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 454204689 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The World's Best Job Is Hiring: Panda Nanny twitter:description: Earn $32,000 a year by hanging out with adorable baby pandas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd80c474e78b58855/6986908ef983e73ecd04df0e/454204689.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The World's Best Job Is Hiring: Panda Nanny by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 22, 2014 6:12 PM UTC  Infant Giant Pandas Infant Giant PandasPhilip Game / Lonely Planet Images / Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 22, 2014 6:12 PM UTC As the old saying goes, choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. If you’re anything like me, though, the only things you love are watching old episodes of _Daria_, eating cereal and petting cute animals — and nobody is going to pay you to do those things. But wait! Yes they will! Well, not the watching _Daria_ or eating cereal part, but the playing with cute animals part. China’s Giant Panda Protection and Research Center is now recruiting caretakers whose chief duties will be to hang out with panda cubs and love them and cuddle them. These so-called panda nannies will earn 200,000 yuan ($32,000) a year and will receive free meals, transit and accommodations, _ChinaDaily_ [reports](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-05/12/content%5F17500239.htm). “Your work has only one mission,” organizers said. “Spending 365 days with the pandas and sharing in their joys and sorrows.” Um, done and done. The center is accepting applications now through July 15 at fun.sohu.com. Applicants should be at least 22 and should have “some basic knowledge of pandas.” Uh, I know that they’re really cute and fluffy — does that count as basic knowledge? Please hire me. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/109179/now-hiring-panda-nannies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/109179/now-hiring-panda-nannies/"},"headline":"The World's Best Job Is Hiring: Panda Nanny","datePublished":"2014-05-22T18:12:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:56.018Z","description":"Earn $32,000 a year by hanging out with adorable baby pandas","url":"https://time.com/109179/now-hiring-panda-nannies/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Jobs","animals","China","pandas"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd80c474e78b58855/6986908ef983e73ecd04df0e/454204689.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd80c474e78b58855/6986908ef983e73ecd04df0e/454204689.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"454204689","caption":"454204689","creditText":"Philip Game / Lonely Planet Images / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/109179/now-hiring-panda-nannies/","name":"The World's Best Job Is Hiring: Panda Nanny"}}]}] ```