Internship Eagerness

Internship is only 1 week away and my mind is going crazy but these are the ways I will show that I will be an asset to Yelp when I start my internship and hopefully get a job after 6 months of training.

• What technical skills did you learn at Year Up that will add value to this company during your internship?
• I have attained skill at Year Up that include Repairing a computer from BIOS, fixing startup problems using the Windows Recovery Disk, Disassembling and reassembling a desktop computer, and optimizing PC’s to work more efficiently.
  
• Which of your Year Up skills do you anticipate you’ll get to display first?
• I believe I will display my soft skills first and display my professional skills as well.
  
• What kind of manager do you think you will work well under?
• I will work well with a manager who gives directions and can help me with any work I cannot figure out on my own. But overall I believe I can work well with any manager as long as I am proactive in completing my work on time and by myself.
  
• What hard and/or soft skills do you hope to develop while at your internship?
• I wish to gain as much skill as I possibly can that will help me during my internship and my future job(s).
  
• What anxieties (if any) do you have about your internship?
• My only anxiety I have for my internship is that I will be thrown into a completely new environment that is completely different from Year Up.
  
• How do you plan to stand out while at your internship?
• I will stand out for my eagerness to learn, take more work, and my personality. I will do whatever it takes to gain more knowledge and the skills in need in order to get a job.
  
• How do you plan to demonstrate that you are dependable, positive, and eager while at your internship?
• I will work to complete my tasks ahead of time, when I finish my tasks ask for new tasks or shadow a fellow employee to learn from them, I will come in awake and always on task greeting everyone I see.
  
• Do you have a tentative plan for what you’ll do after your internship? If yes, what is it?
• I wish to continue working at Yelp or another organization while complete my education so that I can move up in the ranks and live a happy life and hopefully create my own start up company.

Make The Most of Your Internship

1.       Network, Network, Network. 
·         I believe this is most important towards your success because it may come down to who you know over what you know.
·         I will accomplish this by attempting to meet everyone in the company and memorizing their names, which is something I have a lot of trouble doing.
2.       Take Initiative.
·         Always be proactive constantly ask for more work and go out and network. Make connections with all the departments and always aim to finish all the work that is given to you before the deadline.
·         I will always ask for more work and complete my tasks ahead of time.
3.       Enjoy yourself.
·         This is almost just as important as networking. I would hate to work in an environment that I couldn’t enjoy myself since this will be my career for a good portion of my career.
·         I’ll work hard and have fun, so I don’t stress myself out. This will show that I’m a hard worker and I’m not a robot.
4.       Set Personal Goals.
·         You must have goals or else life in the office will be mundane and you have nothing to look forward to and no point in working at all.
·         During Learning and Development my goal was to complete it with flying colors to get into the best internship I could get into which lead to me trying twice as hard. So in internship I’ll set goals to go above and beyond everything my supervisor expects of me
5.       Tackle all Tasks with Enthusiasm and a Positive attitude.
·         Now that you have goals ensure to complete them and the work assigned to you by your boss with a great attitude to show your worth to the company. If you’re not known in the company for your work ethics you won’t have that great of a chance to get hired.
6.       Leave with tangible accomplishments.
·         Finally you need to record these accomplishments you have done throughout your internship to show other companies that you didn’t waste your time there. This also shows off your new skill set that companies will want in a new hire.
7.       Find a Mentor.
·         You won’t know everything about the company or the career, so find a mentor to show you the ropes. They will help you when you’re in a bind and show you all the tips and tricks they learned while in that position.
8.       Have Regular Meeting with Your Supervisor(s).
·         Always be proactive about meeting with your supervisor. If you never see your supervisor the chances of you being hired is going to be really low. This also gives you a chance to bring up any questions you have about the company or any work you have.
9.       Avoid Negativity.
·         I believe that people’s attitudes are contagious so it’s best to avoid anyone or anything that is negative and always be positive because your attitude can change someone else’s.
10.   Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions.
·         I don’t know everything but I will first attempt to use my resources to find the answer but if that fails I will always ask questions to ensure I do the job correctly.
11.   Get as Much Exposure as Possible.
·         Don’t hide your talent I will take as many opportunities as possible and meet everyone I possibly can.
12.   Never Shun a Chance to Learn More About the Company.
·         If you are trying to get a job at the company you NEED to know what they are all about.


Overall Every single on of these points are all equally important and you should practice all of these everyday of your internship.

The Best Yet Worst Job

        What would you do if you had a dream job that was everything you ever dreamed of, and suddenly you find out that it’s not as great as you had hoped it to be? Well this is what happened to me during my time as a sushi chef in a small restaurant in Vallejo. 

        The restaurant was called Suruki’s and at first it seemed like a dream come true. 

        Since the owner was Japanese he needed someone with work experience to become the manager to help him with hiring, and no that wasn’t me, but it was my friend Chris Aguda. He became the factotum of the store, and he was tasked with creating new menu items, doing payroll, hiring new employees, and more. Shortly after I found myself hired along with 6 of my other close friends, truly a dream come true, that is until the big boss started to criticize my work.  Within a week my dream had been shattered by the rudest, racist, ignorant, pessimistic, money driven boss, who I had never met until that day. I was yelled at and eventually was about to be fired, but thankfully Chris had saved my job. But the stress was too much and the fact that I was expendable and he was willing to fire me made me quit. Although this job was the worst one I had ever had, it taught me a lot of things that will help me with my future career choices.

        I had learned how a small business ran and that every little mistake costs money and that while you may have the greatest boss you have the exact same chances of getting the worst. In the end I learned how to work in a very fast paced environment dealing with many customers’ orders and complaints. This made me humble and I now work harder towards my goal to never be worked like a slave for only minimum wage.

Freakonomics Review

An interesting view on economics that provide many supporting details on how incentives drive the world. Freakonomics has no main topic and goes above and beyond in explaining and backing up all the topics he discusses from why drug dealers still live with their moms to how sumo wrestlers and school teachers are similar.

I believe that the author wrote this book to break all the bias views on what effects our world.
There was no passage that initially came out to be very interesting to me but how he describes incentives and how it affects people really caught my attention.

My book groups had a very long and interesting conversation on how a child should be raised and we all came to an agreement that a child shouldn't be punished for everything they do, but they also shouldn't be given freedom to do whatever they want. There needs to be a balance of the two to show the child that there are some negative incentives to doing bad things and vice versa.

While the book was very interesting I found that the wealth of information was a bit overwhelming. They presented so many facts that it was hard to keep up with them while at the same time complete the assignments given to us.

Freakonomics was a very simple yet complicated book presenting many words that I didn't understand, but helped broaden my vocabulary with the new words. The language had no effect on my group as we all understood his message for each chapter and continued to have very interesting conversations

Overall I would recommend this book to a friend because honestly I feel that this book would have been more enjoyable to me if I didn't need to retain the information and create summaries on the whole book for a grade.

Process of reading Freakonomics

Freakonomics is a very interesting book that gives you a lot of knowledge of every subject it goes over. I found that it was a very hard task for me to read it, but I endeavored and kept up with the assigned readings. The best strategy that I used to do this was I read on the way to school and back. I take public carpool which takes about 45 minutes to get from Vallejo to San Francisco. This would allow me to read about 10 pages every ride because I would either get dizzy, tired, or lose interest. If this wasn't enough to finish in time I often used my breaks to catch up by reading 2-5 pages every break. While at home I have too many distractions for me to want to concentrate on reading for longer than 4 pages, so I would often take breaks so I could remember what I had just read and this was I am able to keep me interest in the book. The way I annotated the book was based on what assignment I was given. For vocabulary I would place a question mark next to every word I didn't understand which made going back and finding them faster. I also used this method to find a quote I talked about by placing a mark next to meaningful things that were said in the book. Next for moderator I have every key point he makes and then make a quick summary of that point. Making summaries of the points also helped me create the summary for the intro, chapter 1, and chapter 2. Since there was so much reading, I just reread my smaller summaries when I needed to refer back.

This book was a lot of information to take in which in turn made it hard for me to keep interest. So I advise to try and not read the whole chapter in one sitting but take breaks after every 10-20 minutes. Also make annotations; they will help all your assigned book work so much easier.

Social Problems

The article “Cardinal Dolan: Gov't contraception policy a "radical intrusion”", By Leigh Ann Caldwell talks about Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s view on the presidents new contraception policy. In the interview Cardinal Timothy Dolan said the president's new contraception policy is "intruding into the life of faith." (Caldwell, 2012). Cardinal Dolans speaks about how the government is somehow mitigating or ruling over the catholic faith. I am highly against this view as it is very narrow minded and makes the church seem like they are in supreme power. This article relates to my social problem essay which is the negative views on cosplay(Dressing up as a Japanese Character) because this is one example of the church criticizing something that isn’t affecting them in any way especially when it is judging other peoples decisions in life. I am a Christian and I have been my whole life and I still believe in this faith, but I do not agree with everything they say. The president introducing this new policy is not going to change how a person lives and his choices in his religion. If someone would want to have access to a contraception they would do anything they can to get it; this also means that they are already breaking some rules of the Catholic religion. I believe in this faith and that no one is to be judged and that everyone is equal. I know that not all Christians share this view but I think that if people who believe in this faith they should also stop judging others.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/15/catholics-bishops-statement-fosters-uncivil-society/

My Pledge To Year Up

I Andrew de Mesa Pledge to always give 100% of my abilities in Year Up and everywhere after.

1. I pledge to always focus on my goals and complete them.  

a.       I will complete my work early so I won't stress

b.      I will use my resources to always know how to complete my tasks

c.       I will set new goals every time before or after complete one

           2.      I pledge to always follow Year Up’s Core Values.

a.       By Respecting my colleagues

b.      Always being accountable for my actions

c.       Working hard but still having fun

           3.      I pledge to better myself

a.       Changing my daily routines

b.      Pushing myself to do more than what is asked for when needed

c.       Always following my pledge