Whilst on my work experience I wanted to know if I was an office or outside person because this would cancel out various career paths I was considering and narrow down my choice. This was the perfect opportunity to find out as it contains both aspects of work. On my work experience I also wanted to find out if I liked working as a team or by myself. This was a great opportunity to find out as I will be undertaking work in a team e.g. putting up fences or sheering sheep and individual work e.g. producing spreadsheets on Microsoft Excel or producing posters for events such as the woodland fair which would be taking place during my visit.
On the evening before my work experience began I sorted my travel arrangements out with my parents. My mum worked near Horndean village so she kindly offered to pick me up. I started early in the morning and decided not to ask for a lift because my mum is grumpy enough without dragging her from her bed at seven o’clock. To overcome my travel problem I contacted First Provincial to find out bus times and to my luck it turned out that I could catch the number 41 to Horndean at 7:05am all for near to nothing. Every thing was hunkey dory for once. In the morning I woke up at 6:30am and I was feeling very tired, miserable and nervous. This made me lose my appetite but I knew in the long run that I would benefit from a lovely bowl of lumpy porridge. Half an hour later at the bus stop I wasn’t benefiting. I felt horrible, the feeling of nerves, a full stomach and tiredness is not very pleasant especially on your first day at work.
When I was on the bus I wanted never to get there but I persuaded my self that it would be brilliant despite the rain.
When I arrived I was introduced to my colleagues for the two weeks. They all had a friendly tone to their voice so this calmed me down a little. Also they paid quite a lot of attention to me, which was good as it made me feel included. Kev talked me through fire procedure and showed me around the building. It was a very small building but cosy. It has two floors and a basement. The rooms were decorated in cream and blue with wooden flooring. After all the boring stuff was over he took me downstairs and into his office. It was a very cold and dingy room and this set the butterflies in my stomach off again. During the interview in Kev’s office he showed me my weekly plan and procedures. It all looked very exciting and new, especially the litter picking.
My first job was to man the front information desk with Pamela Blake the information manager. My first impressions of her were good. She had a very calm and relaxed tone to her voice also she spoke with a slight lisp. She was very funny because she often spoke with a childish tone whilst saying serious things. This was quite amusing especially when she mimicked other employees. I got on well with Pam because she wasn’t rushed or in a panic to get the job done. On the second week we had a very little old lady in with a very strange complaint. She wanted to know why the wood on the memorial bench replacement strip was a different tone to the rest of the bench. Pam and I found it hard to keep ourselves from laughing as she was quite emotional and worked up about the minor defect. After half an hour of compromises we found the one which suited her best and eventually we got rid of her. We thought that we had seen the last of the poor old dear but no she came back not once, not twice, not three times but five, she came back five times to complain about the most pointless things like tiny dents in the road and loose cobbles. Pam and I came to the conclusion that she liked the sound of her own voice and the look of our faces.
To my surprise the whole two weeks went perfectly. There was not one mistake or regret. During the two weeks, although no mistakes there were some difficulties for example driving the lawn mower because when you turn the steering wheel to the right the mower goes to the left. This was quite a pain and resulted in a few scratches. Also I found working at a fast pace hard because if the job you were set isn’t done within the time limit you end up with loads of unfinished work. There were some embarrassing moments in my two weeks like when I had to start up the blowers and strimmers I couldn’t pull the cords hard enough to kick off the motors.
Looking back on my work experience I feel sad that it will never happen again because I had such fun also I miss the working atmosphere. During my work experience I learnt a lot of practical skills and useful information but I have learnt how to dress and how to talk formally to members of the public. From my two weeks I have found out that I want a job working with the public and a lot of communication within my future work. I think that if I went back to my placement I would just do the same as it worked fine and I had a lot of fun. The information I would give to someone going there is work fast but have fun.
