There were certain rules, which were compulsory; one example from my placement was that no one was allowed to wear trainers or jeans. I had to weir boots and trousers.
Interview
As the days went on, I had to decide what I was going to wear; at the end of the discussion with my family, I decided to wear a suit. The day came when I had to have my interview. I was extremely nervous. I woke up early in the morning, 6:30 a.m. to be precise. I ate as much as I could, so I did not run out of energy. After I had eaten, I got all of my work experience papers ready. I had written down some detailed answers that could be asked in the interview just in case the interviewer asked a hard question. When I arrived at my work place I met, some of my friends who were going to have the interview is well. I was relieved because I had someone to talk to during the interview and work experience.
I was called up and one of my friends to have the interview. I was confident that I would pass but I was still a little nervous. As the interview went on, I answered the questions very confidently. At the end of the interview, we were told that we passed the interview. At this moment, I was very happy that I got the job; my mates and I was introduced to the staff and what they do. We were shown around the store and how it works. After we were shown round, we were able to go home.
Day 1
I felt extremely nervous about the first day. I woken up at 6:30 in the morning just to make sure I was not late on the first day. As I was told that, my placement title was retail, assistant (working at the front of the shop) I had to wear something smart (preferably a suit). When I arrived I had to go to the canteen, this is where all the staff come to put their belongings away. We were told that the first day will be really boring. At the start we watched a health and safety video. There was roughly around 3 videos to watch. The videos showed how to deal with a fire, and how to handle warehouse products. We were shown around the warehouse after watching the videos. We were told were the fire exits were, and were taught the fire drill.
There was a door to the back warehouse, you had to type a code in then the door would deactivate the alarm. If you did not type the code and opened the door the alarm would go off, it happened a few times to my friends and it looks a little embarrassing. We had a tea break for 20 minutes and followed by that a 1-hour lunch. After we watched the safety videos and shown around the warehouse we restocked some of the products. This has to be done otherwise; the shelves will have gaps in them, which will not look good. After we had finished, I thought that it was a good day and it was exciting.
Day 2
I felt Feeling more confident as I woke up. As I arrived at work experience, I did not feel that nervous. We were given tickets to replace some of the prices. Electrical superstores have to change their prices daily and so we had to change the tickets of the product. It was straight forward the tickets were at the front of the product. Later on, another manager from another comet store came to our branch, this was because there were only a few staff there and the amount of work experience people there was more than the full time staff there. I did not notice he was a manager until I saw his tag. After we had come from lunch, we restocked the bread makers.
I know how the store works, and it is good day.
Day5 (Middle of Work Experience)
As the days progressed, I was more settled in to my work experience placement, even though I was not comfortable with one and two of the staff already working there. What I mean when I say that I was not comfortable with one or two of the staff, some of the staff did not want us around. They did not like us, they made us do more work, example, they made us go to the shop and post office every half an hour, basically they could not be bothered to go to the shop and sent one of us there. Otherwise, the rest of the staff were very good with us. I got to use the computer for various purposes. I used it to do stock checking, checking up on a sale and reprising some of the products.
I got to put out new hi-fi’s on the sections. I was head of security making sure no one took a hi-fi whilst we were putting out a new one.
Day 10 (Last day of Work Experience)
It was last day of work experience and I was not nervous at all. I got to handle brand new hi-fi’s and re style all of the hi-fi’s. I was happy because I made quite a few sales. At the end of the last day we got to go really early. I thought it was really exciting working with comet, and most of the staff were really nice.
Conclusion
Over the last 2 weeks, I learnt many new skills, from serving customers to putting out new products. I learnt new communication skills, and I learnt how to serve customers.
I have experience on how to do an interview. The next time I go for a job I will be very confident because of work experience. I was put in security on day 5 and found it interesting how it worked. I learnt how to communicate with each other, using the intercom was rally useful, as you did not need to walk all the way to the front to ask something, instead use the intercom. If the staff wanted an item or if I wanted an item they would intercom where you are working. The staff would normally intercom me to ask for a stock, or product check.
On paper, we learnt how to put new model numbers down on paper, I think one of the most important skill was using the computer, the program has lots of sub-menus and is hard to operate. Overall it has been good working at comet and gives me help on my career.
By Mohsin Bhyat