In schools around Shetland, you have to do something called Work Experience. Work Experience is exactly what the title says it is; it is you experiencing work. The placement, which I chose, was the Mareel. Before working here, I had to learn about health and safety and even take an exam and if I failed it, I would not have been able to come (it was easy though).
When I first arrived here on Monday, I met Helen. She gave me a tour around the whole building; even the private rooms that the public are not allowed in. Then we went back into the staff room and discussed health and safety around the building. We finished talking about the boring stuff so Helen brought me up to the marketing team for them to tell me what they do in the Mareel.
What the marketing team does in the Mareel is how you find out all of the things that happen in the Mareel. They make the descriptions on the websites for the events, design the booklets and leaflets you see and much more. I also got to attend the Marketing meeting which is when everybody in the marketing team discuss what has been done and what is needed to be done.
After the meeting, I had lunch. Afterwards, I was working FOH (which stands for Front of House). Monday was an extremely slow and boring day behind the desk. The cafe bar was closed, so people would be walking in and trying to get into the cafe but we had to tell them it was shut. That happened quite a lot. I also now know how many times people come in and ask for the Museum despite the fact it was just behind us. It was fun at some parts too, I got to let in the new Alien movie that came out and did a stock check on food.
On Tuesday, it would be my first day talking to the people who work at the cafe bar and since the cafe bar doesn’t open until 10 I helped set it up, which included laying down the tables and chairs and taking food from the kitchen store (and dumping food that can no longer be used). I also was taught how to make coffee with the complicated coffee machine they had there. When the Cafe opened and started to get busy, I was giving the job to hand food to people, which as a clumsy person isn’t your favourite thing to hear. There were a fill minor spills, I’m not going to deny. Sorry if I served anybody, I got better as the week went on, trust me.
Lunch came by and afterwards I got to help set up for the Film Quiz with the technicians. I got to help plug in stuff wires into the speakers and audio mixer. I also got help record the lights on the light mixer and even got to go onto the light platform a few times which was something I never thought I would be doing.
Wednesday came along and I was helping in the cafe bar again. I laid out the tables and chairs again and helped grab food from the kitchen store. Luckily, I had to leave at half an hour after the cafe opened so I only had to give drinks and food to a few people. No spills this time though. I ended up going and helping the school who came in record a cover of “Come As You Are” by Nirvana. They got to decide the song they wanted to do and were currently, practicing the chords and lyrics to the song when I walked in, so it was extremely noisy. I helped set up microphones in the room so we could record every part one by one in the recording studio for mixing.
I had lunch and then I was helping them afterwards for a bit, again it was just recording them playing before I went to another Meeting. This meeting was about the events that they would hold and fund in the future. I got to leave an hour early after the meeting.
On Thursday I again, helped set up the cafe. This again, involved setting out the table and chairs. Nothing exciting after doing it for a few days. I got to also help out with a different group of school kids record a cover, this time it was “All Star” by Smash Mouth. This group of kids were bigger than the last one and I didn’t need to help set up the microphones because they were kept up all night so they were still set in, it the room.
Lunch came by and I was working Front of House. I got to let people into the cinema, do toilet checks and help set up the seats for the Oscillion Response concert which was on the next day. I also helped clean up the cinema when the movies were over which wasn’t hard since not a lot of people were there considering the movies started were during work and work hours.
Today, On Friday I started by helping Fraser with his classes. They were waiting for the DJ who does the Oscillion Response concert to set up and speak to them. Therefore, while we were waiting, Fraser talked to the class about the student night and what we would be showing. When it was time for the talk, everybody went in and sat down to watch him talk about his job and what he does. He showed us some very interesting trailers to us; we were the first to see one of them as well.
After the talk finished, I went to help them set up for the show tonight. There was some trouble with the projector and screen quality when setting up but otherwise everything went smoothly. I had lunch then afterwards, I started typing this, which as you can tell is about my time working here.
I know about the fact that other schools aren’t doing work experience until September and to those schools students who don’t do work experience until then, I recommend thinking about coming to Mareel and working here. It was interesting being here and learning about all the different things that go on in the Mareel. I really enjoyed my time here and hope that I get to do something like this again in the near future.
