Always glad to meet another Boxer person!
As far as vet tech - if you'd like to work in a vet office while you go to school, some will assist in your tuition, and the work experience often counts as credit hours in some programs.
Pet stores are great places, IMO, as long as they are pet supply stores, and not actual places selling pets. We all have heard to horror stories of puppies raised for pet stores, and I'm sure there are similar stories for the other larger pets housed there.
Pet Resorts, or what we all used to call boarding kennels, are good places, as long as they are operated by people with good people skills, excellent common sense and exceptional animal experience! Without those abilities, they can quickly become nightmares of liability, injury, and even death!