Master of Science, Chemical Engineering 

Coming into this job, I had no automotive experience whatsoever. Looking back, I'm grateful for the experience and knowledge I learned from this position. 

Within my first week I was confidently performing services under supervision and became a certified technician after three months, servicing cars alone. Our performance was tracked by our bay times on our computers for when we completed each section of the service. I used that as a motivator to become a faster worker, but without flawing the quality of my work. I was able to easily do this by utilizing idle standing time for some other process of the job. Two to three minutes of draining oil gave me time to replace the oil filter, measure the new oil, and pre-fill remaining paperwork until it was time to sign off on them. 30 seconds of spinning a wheel on the balancer gave me time to grab another wheel and remove the old tire so the rim was ready for installation of the new tire. Completing services was only occasionally restricted by the efforts of multiple workers. So, by completing my portion of the work faster than others, I then had time to begin working on another service while the other worker completed their portion. 

I gained useful automotive background knowledge that extends beyond the services we performed, and that I now extend to performing on my personal vehicle. Ironically, my means of transportation broke down on my lunch break one day because the starter died. I had to get a ride back to work, but after work I was able to stop at the store and buy the starter I needed for my car. I installed it in a couple hours myself. My means of transportation was back in good shape.

I enjoyed this job and the content of the work. I was excited to report to work and maintained perfect attendance throughout my time here. My efforts paid off as a cart associate to land this promotion, and I left to pursue my career as a chemical engineer.

Appearing simple, this job was very laborious and humbling. My work mostly went unseen or unappreciated and I was not supplied the necessary equipment to make the job easier than it was. I only had access to one machine that mostly sat unattended requiring repairs while I worked to retrieve carts by hand. In my experience as a cart associate, we were severely understaffed and this sometimes resulted in working alone, stocking carts for the entire supercenter while simultaneously responding to calls as the only associate to assist customers with large purchases such as TVs or pools. I worked the position long enough to experience the blistering heat of summer and bitter cold of winter.

I overcame obstacles by practicing time-management. Knowing what order to scout the parking lot for carts, when to leave them to respond to inside calls, and how to effectively plan lunches and breaks around surges of customers.

Overall, this job was more challenging than I had expected, but I managed to continue working hard through the obstacles and remain a prominent worker, even without being credited for my efforts. My determination to persevere caught the attention of one former automotive manager that landed me my promotion.

As my first employment position during high school, I reported to St. Joseph's Hospital immediately after school most days for dinner hours and most weekends for full shifts. This job was very repetitive and allowed me to learn every position with ease, effectively and efficiently. This job was fast paced and on a strict time schedule mostly because patients and residents needed their specific diets at a consistent time every day, so it was important to be fast and accurate with every position on the line. 

I quickly began learning to work under pressure here because it was consequential to complete tasks late, and I did not want to be considered a lazy worker. Additionally, the sooner we finished serving dinner and getting everything cleaned and stocked, the sooner we could get home and catch up on homework and studies, so that was an incentive to being efficient.

As an intern for CCU during high school, this was a great first employment experience where I took away valuable skills and understanding that I still use to this day. At this internship, I was able to take part in establishing an entirely new CCU branch and perform all the tasks including retrieving my money drawer from the vault. 

Dressing business professional, I learned very professional customer service and patience skills that allowed me to have greater insight on what a respectable employee consists of. I felt knowledgeable in the position and appreciated to perform transactions for members. This internship provided me the opportunity to network and meet professional contacts.