The Real World

This week I went on work experience. After months of assemblies, letters, meetings and phone calls, I was finally leaving the chaos that is school before the summer holidays and being thrown out into the Real World.

After purchasing some clothes that weren’t just my usual band t-shirts and jeans (not necessarily suitable for the office), I felt I was ready to face the world of work, even if my abnormally neat hair and suit jacket made me look uncannily like my mum.

Monday was strange. Instead of feeling more grown up on the way to work, I felt as if I was six years old again, perched precariously in Mum’s high heels with the sleeves of Dad’s jacket rolled up to my elbows.

I met Jez in the morning and was made to feel very welcome by everyone. More importantly, I was made to feel useful which can be a problem for some employees on work experience.

Throughout the week I have attended a press call, typed up some (utterly hilarious) children’s jokes for a Freshtime competition, posted on a Facebook page and done all sorts of research. I think that variety of jobs is what makes the experience so worthwhile; it helps you decide what parts of work you hope to be involved with in the future.

I haven’t faced many problems throughout the week; however the rotating chair has caused trouble because I was not previously aware of the amount of self control necessary to avoid the temptation to spin around ominously like a Bond villain every time somebody enters the room or push away from the desk to send myself flying backwards ceremonially at the end of each day.

Despite having done a little research and asking Emily (conveniently both my best friend and Jez’s daughter) I was not sure what

to expect from Shooting Star as I sat looking out of the window of Costa on Monday morning but I have really enjoyed my time here and I hope that I have contributed something worthwhile to the business. EG