Intro
I did my internship for a small, family owned music store called Acme Music, located at the top of Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. I play percussion, and I’ve been going there for years for percussion related needs and have a personal relationship with the owners, Dan and Annette Loveless. I worked there from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM for seven weeks. Most of the tasks were related to cleaning, organizing, and customer service. Because it’s a small store, I had a lot of contact with my coworkers and boss, and everybody was very friendly.
Internship Logs
1. Today was mostly for training. My boss and I went through what my tasks will be for the next several weeks. He said that it will mostly be cleaning and stock keeping, but that I'll also help customers in the store. It's a small family run store, and people often walk in knowing generally what they want, but looking for guidance.
2. Today I was helping to rearrange the store. Acme is reorganizing, and with the constant flow of products in and out of the store, I think there is a lot more organization in my future.
3. Today was more reorganizing. It seems like every week things change, and there is a different way of organizing the store.
4. This week I helped with restocking, and moving guitars and other instruments into easy view for the customers. A customer came in today looking for a cymbal and there was nobody else immediately present to help him, so I showed him our new and used cymbals. He didn't end up buying anything, but it felt good to help someone.
5. Today was really tedious and exhausting. I started going through the drum section and categorizing, cleaning, and recording all of the drums that they have for sale.
6. This week was a general cleaning day. We found a few spiders and the person I was working with is arachnophobic, so I had to move some spiders out of harm's way.
7. This is my last week, and it was mostly the same as always. I was doing organization, and helped a couple of customers. I'm going to miss the people I work with, but it was an interesting experience.
Conclusion
In the course of my internship I utilized many skills, some that I was already experienced at and some that were still new to me. I developed skills related to cleaning, spatial organization, and customer relations. It’s very important to keep a business clean, so I vacuumed the store, cleaned the store-front window, and cleaned the merchandise. I also developed general skills like patience and a strong work ethic and intrapersonal skills.
Among the daily tasks were cleaning the front windows, organizing merchandise, helping customers, and cleaning the merchandise. Most of the challenge with these is that I only worked once a week, so every time I came back I had to redo my work. It was also exciting at points. I found helping customers very enjoyable, even if they were rude, because I felt that I was helping them.
I learned through this internship that a strong work ethic, patience and perseverance can get me through any obstacle I face in my life. I learned that running a business is difficult and can be tedious, but that strong relationships between co-workers can arise in a working environment. I also learned that a boss can be friendly and easy to talk to; they don’t have to be intimidating.
An obstacle I faced in my internship was the state of their drum section. They had a large selection, but many of their drums didn’t have prices or labels naming what they were. It was mostly my job, because I have experience with drums, to organize and categorize them into a condition able to be sold. This took a lot of time and energy looking up brands and categorizing drums, coordinating them to make complete sets. But even though this was a difficult task, it was rewarding once I finished and actually kind of fun.
I expected this internship to be harder than it was. I expected a lot of brainwork, which there was of course, but it was much lighter than my original predictions. Mostly my jobs were physical tasks, such as moving merchandise and cleaning. I also expected my boss to have a more bossy attitude. Instead, he was very friendly and sociable, easy to talk to. I also expected this job to be boring, but most of the time I was actively engaged and participating in a meaningful way with the operations of the store.
In conclusion, the experiences I gained at Acme Music were invaluable and will benefit me both in the form of lived experience and as something I can put on my resumé. Being a musician, I will also benefit from having a relationship with a local music store.
I did my internship for a small, family owned music store called Acme Music, located at the top of Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. I play percussion, and I’ve been going there for years for percussion related needs and have a personal relationship with the owners, Dan and Annette Loveless. I worked there from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM for seven weeks. Most of the tasks were related to cleaning, organizing, and customer service. Because it’s a small store, I had a lot of contact with my coworkers and boss, and everybody was very friendly.
Internship Logs
1. Today was mostly for training. My boss and I went through what my tasks will be for the next several weeks. He said that it will mostly be cleaning and stock keeping, but that I'll also help customers in the store. It's a small family run store, and people often walk in knowing generally what they want, but looking for guidance.
2. Today I was helping to rearrange the store. Acme is reorganizing, and with the constant flow of products in and out of the store, I think there is a lot more organization in my future.
3. Today was more reorganizing. It seems like every week things change, and there is a different way of organizing the store.
4. This week I helped with restocking, and moving guitars and other instruments into easy view for the customers. A customer came in today looking for a cymbal and there was nobody else immediately present to help him, so I showed him our new and used cymbals. He didn't end up buying anything, but it felt good to help someone.
5. Today was really tedious and exhausting. I started going through the drum section and categorizing, cleaning, and recording all of the drums that they have for sale.
6. This week was a general cleaning day. We found a few spiders and the person I was working with is arachnophobic, so I had to move some spiders out of harm's way.
7. This is my last week, and it was mostly the same as always. I was doing organization, and helped a couple of customers. I'm going to miss the people I work with, but it was an interesting experience.
Conclusion
In the course of my internship I utilized many skills, some that I was already experienced at and some that were still new to me. I developed skills related to cleaning, spatial organization, and customer relations. It’s very important to keep a business clean, so I vacuumed the store, cleaned the store-front window, and cleaned the merchandise. I also developed general skills like patience and a strong work ethic and intrapersonal skills.
Among the daily tasks were cleaning the front windows, organizing merchandise, helping customers, and cleaning the merchandise. Most of the challenge with these is that I only worked once a week, so every time I came back I had to redo my work. It was also exciting at points. I found helping customers very enjoyable, even if they were rude, because I felt that I was helping them.
I learned through this internship that a strong work ethic, patience and perseverance can get me through any obstacle I face in my life. I learned that running a business is difficult and can be tedious, but that strong relationships between co-workers can arise in a working environment. I also learned that a boss can be friendly and easy to talk to; they don’t have to be intimidating.
An obstacle I faced in my internship was the state of their drum section. They had a large selection, but many of their drums didn’t have prices or labels naming what they were. It was mostly my job, because I have experience with drums, to organize and categorize them into a condition able to be sold. This took a lot of time and energy looking up brands and categorizing drums, coordinating them to make complete sets. But even though this was a difficult task, it was rewarding once I finished and actually kind of fun.
I expected this internship to be harder than it was. I expected a lot of brainwork, which there was of course, but it was much lighter than my original predictions. Mostly my jobs were physical tasks, such as moving merchandise and cleaning. I also expected my boss to have a more bossy attitude. Instead, he was very friendly and sociable, easy to talk to. I also expected this job to be boring, but most of the time I was actively engaged and participating in a meaningful way with the operations of the store.
In conclusion, the experiences I gained at Acme Music were invaluable and will benefit me both in the form of lived experience and as something I can put on my resumé. Being a musician, I will also benefit from having a relationship with a local music store.