Employment

I've had quite a few jobs throughout my lifetime, but I must say out of all of those jobs working at Jamba Juice was the best. My position was a Team Member and my duties included cash register, stock, store cleaning, customer service and food preparation. Working at Jamba Juice was the type of job where you were excited to come into work, I would even cover anyone's shift who asked me to. The other Team Members and Leads were a pleasure to be around and made the work environment fun yet productive. It didn't hurt that we could make our own smoothies and drink smoothies all day.

While working at Jamba I gained a lot of customer service experience and learned how to interact with customers regardless of if I was in a good mood or having a bad day. My role required a lot of face to face communication and helped me gain confidence when speaking to strangers which is going to help me a lot when it is time to move on to internship. Jamba Juice taught me how to properly operate and communicate in a business setting and I have been using the structure and skills I obtained through my employment and applying them to many aspects of my life.

Though I have had many jobs, like Jamba Juice, that I have thoroughly enjoyed and learned from, there were a few that did not have that same outcome. One of those jobs was DSW (Discount Shoe Warehouse). Unlike my optimistic outlook on Jamba, I would come into DSW everyday vexed with a pessimistic state of mind. My role was a Sales Associate and I was responsible for store up-keep, stock, assisting customers, and sales. What made my job so hard to enjoy was the pressure they put on the employees to get people so sign up for rewards cards. How many people I got to sign up a day affected how many hours I was given for the week, so if I didn't sell a lot, I didn't really get to work. Though I did not enjoy this job I learned how to stick through things and keep doing the best I can and also gained a lot of patience and the ability to use my resources because I had to think on my toes a lot.

Book Overview

I just finished reading the book "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. "Freakonomics" creatively studies economics instead of boringly stating facts. I feel like the authors wrote this book to get people's minds working and really cracking down on why our society is the way it is in this present time when it comes to money, education, jobs, or social status. The smallest choices like naming your child could potentially affect their futures.

Though I enjoyed the creative economic overview, a lot of the content I found to be upsetting. Anything from African Americans addressing themselves as nigger's to women naming their daughters unbelievably growth stunting names like Temptress and Shithead (shu-TEE-ed). Things like this definitely left a bad impression on me. A lot of the information pertaining to African Americans I found to be offensive, and I felt like the book was extremely one sided. 

The chapter that generated the most discussion in our Book Groups was Chapter 6: "The socioeconomic patterns of naming children". Everyone was able to relate to this chapter easily because we all had a few names to give as examples of what not to name our kids. The chapter talked about how your name can affect your ability to land a job over a person with the same exact resume just because of your name. 

Reading "Freakonomics" did spark a little more interest in economics for me, but all the misunderstood words and one sided views let me know I'm probably not going to read this book again. It was interesting, but not enough for me. A lot of the studies upset me. "Freakonomics" is definitely a good book just not my particular interest. If your interested in economics this is going to be one of the best books you can read because it does a lot of economical research in a thought provoking interesting way. 

Freakonomics

In our Business Communications class we have been given the book "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. I usually have trouble keeping up with assigned reading in school because I save the reading for last and end up behind. I deviated from my usual reading habits by reading first instead of saving it for last. I also try and relate the stories to my personal life to spark more interest. 

Annotation involves note taking, writing down any thoughts that may have come up in reaction to the reading, looking up words that I do not understand, and sometimes highlighting key points within the text. Though I have not written in my book yet, I do all of these things on a separate piece of paper which makes it easier for me to execute my role for the week because I already have my comments, summary, questions, and vocabulary.

Anyone who has trouble keeping up with reading should try annotation and relating the stories to their personal lives. It is so much easier to read something you are truly interested in. I read on the weekends in the morning or whenever my daughter takes a nap. The amount of time spent on reading varies depending on my interest in the chapter. I can sit and read anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half, usually not more then that because nap time doesn't reach two hours for my little girl. 

The annotation skills I have developed during program are going to help me out a lot when I get back into college and have another chance to demonstrate my reading abilities.