As I approached the immense doors of Phone City, a crowd of thoughts entered my head, thoughts like: what type of jobs would I be doing? Did I have enough knowledge of phones to try and sell them? I pushed these thoughts aside and entered the store. I was not at all nervous about getting along with the people that worked there because I knew them, they were all friends of mine. The shop was bright orange from the inside, orange like the inside of a mango on a hot summer’s day. The phones themselves were lined up behind the counter away from sinful hands but “dummies”, as they were so elegantly called, had been placed inside of glass cabinets so that customers could browse around and see the latest models.
Before my tasks were to be assigned to me I was introduced to the “Phone City family”, not that I needed an introduction as I already knew them. My job description was simple: look after the customers and make sure that they get what they are looking for. Not a very big strain so I could handle it. I was also asked to take care of the reverse side of the shop as they had international calling booths there. Again, not a very back breaking duty, however I was not going to complain. It sounded easy but there was more to it, e.g. dealing with customers like below.
I soon found out that my customer skills were not quite up to scratch. I did not have the “salesman flare” but that was soon to change for in a couple of days of working in Phone City I was just as good as the other employees. I learnt a rule very early on, “the customer is always right”, no matter how senile or absurd their ideas are. One important skill that I learnt and I hope that I have not forgotten to date is the skill of smooth talking. Some may call it an art. If you knew how to do it properly you could persuade a customer to buy anything you wanted. For example, my colleague once sold a mobile phone to a woman who just came into the store to buy a cover for her old mobile phone.
I have obtained a vast amount of stories and anecdotes from my two weeks at Phone City. One incident that I will never forget occurred on my second day on the job where I came into work only to discover that the shop had been burgled. It happened five minutes before the manager had arrived therefore no one was hurt or injured, nevertheless over nine thousand pounds worth of merchandise was stolen that day. I spent the remainder of that day on the phone talking to various government authorities. I spoke to the police, crime division, theft division and a number of other divisions that I personally felt had little to do with a burglary at a phone shop. That was without a shadow of a doubt the most tiring day out of the whole two weeks, and I do not think that they have discovered who the culprits are as of yet. This incident did make me feel a little bit apprehensive, it made me really think about whether I ever wanted to work in a shop or not. It did not affect me a lot however. When I did first discover the burglary I was quite angry that someone would do such a thing. I was not the only one though.
The most humorous incident has to be the one that involved the Phone City staff convincing a customer that one of our friends was Sean Paul (the celebrity). It did not involve us having to do a lot of convincing but by the time the customer had left the store, she had almost had a heart attack due to disbelief. We all laughed for days following that incident. It was not that we were mistreating the customers; it was the only way to make an otherwise dull and repetitive job bearable
I felt saddened at the end of my work experience, I hoped that it would go on for longer, however I was leaving with a horde of amazing memories. I personally felt that work experience for me was a very serviceable experience as it taught me some vital lessons and gave me a taste of what it is like to live in the “real world”. It taught me social skills like being able to work with other people, skills like being able to repair and trade phones and skills like being able to talk to the police if ever faced with a grave situation. I do not think that there are any examples of me taking the initiative although I wish there were. This work experience was absolutely up to my expectations, I learnt valuable skills such as working with others and I had a lot of fun doing so
My tip for next year’s year ten is to find a work placement quickly and make sure it gets confirmed quickly as well or they could end up working in school as a janitor for two weeks. Not a very pleasing thought.