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Mike Sattler |
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Participants |
Because class only met once a week, I chose to live at home and commute. This allowed me to do many things, mainly play in a summer baseball league in Ann Arbor, MI and work as a waiter. I hired in at Mesquite Junction Bar and Grille around the middle of May, and loved it from the very start. Mesquite Junction is a locally owned steakhouse that specializes in Prime Rib, BBQ Ribs and Steaks. We also offered many chicken and seafood dinners as well. My first job there was as a Server, this was a completely new thing for me, but I took to it quickly and now feel very confident in my abilities. I also worked a few shifts as a Host and even got to learn a small amount of Bar Tending. The biggest goal at any restaurant is customer satisfaction, which can only be achieved through teamwork. Teamwork is essential to running a prosperous, efficient and safe establishment. Starting with the host seating guests, to servers taking orders, to the cooks and bar tenders preparing food and drinks, back to servers delivering the meals there are numerous places for error. The only things on which to fall back are your fellow co-workers. You must learn to trust them and never be afraid to ask for help. Luckily I worked with a great group of people and we rarely ran into a bad situation. I believe that this experience working as a team member will help me in any real word situation or occupation I pursue. The second most important thing I learned from my work experience this summer was patience. There wasn’t a night that I worked that my nerves weren’t tested by customers or co-workers. As a server, you are the focal point for the whole restaurant, and thus the customers blame most everything on you. It was demanding at times to deal with picky or ornery guests. Many people just did not understand that I had no control over how quickly their order was prepared or if something was not cooked the proper way. The key though was to always have a smile and polite apology. Having dealt with a few angry and hungry people, I feel fairly confident that I will be able to keep my cool in most situations that I will encounter. Finally, I would like to say that even though I did not have a chemical engineering internship, I feel that the experience that I did gain this summer from both my class work and my employment will definitely benefit me down the road. |
This past summer I had two
occupations. First and foremost I was a student, as I chose to enroll in
Instrumental Analysis here at Tri-State University. The class met once a
week on Wednesdays. From 8 until 10, we had lecture with Dr. Jones, and
then from 12 until 4 we worked on various lab projects. During the course
of the summer, I performed analysis projects using many instruments
including a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer, Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectrophotometer, a UV Spectrophotometer, a Calorimeter, and a
High Performance Liquid Chromatograph. This course was very interesting,
and I thoroughly enjoyed working in the lab.