WHO WANTS ME?

With only a few months left before graduation I’m thinking of doing an internship with a small local business owner. Job shadowing isn’t part of my program but many of our students need to do that in order to graduate so it may be difficult to find an interesting business that doesn’t already have students working there. Would it be strange for someone to walk into your establishment and ask to work for free in exchange for their knowledge? Is it possible that I’m walking myself into a situation where people are going to think I’m insane or crazy and ask me to get the hell out? A few of the places I had in mind are small sole proprietorships like our local movie theatre, a consignment shop and the old comic book store downtown.

Although some of these choices may not offer the most business knowledge, I do believe that by shadowing someone who is hands on in every aspect of the operation I would become more comfortable with the idea of taking the risks of opening my first business. One of the reasons I would like to do this is because unlike almost everyone on the planet, I’ve never had a service industry job. My first job was working for a distribution warehouse as a lift truck driver which leaves me with little knowledge as to who I’m suppose to call when my store runs out of Pepsi or who’s good to call when the lights on your store sign breaks. I’m sure to everyone out there these things don’t seem like problems even worthy of thought but when you have the stress of running your own company these problems add up and create needless stress that reflects badly on your establishment. So if anyway in the area would like to have a free employee with a decent sense for business please let me know and maybe we can put something together.