TOP 40: Tips to Prepare Students for
Careers after High School
By Maclaen Burningham,
Senior at Polson High School

I work at the Top 40 Video and Timbre Company in Polson, Montana. My boss is Pam Horowich. We have a lot more other than renting videos, such as music and instrument rental. We carry some clothing, candles, incense and things like that. Anything other than movies we sell for you to keep, but every once in a while we sell some of our old movies to make room in the store. This doesn't happen that often.

I do a lot of different things while I am at work. I check the rented return inventory to see if it needs to be rewound then put the videos back out in the store so people can rent them.. I have to do "black" boxes first because they are new releases, which are what people want most. Then I finish shelving the "white" boxes. Next I have to put DVD's back out. DVD's are movies that are filed in ABC order but are kept all in the same spot because we charge about the same for most of them. As they get older, the price is knocked down a little bit which would probably be around $.50.

If someone comes in and wants to know how much movies rent for, I give them the information. New releases run from $3.00 to $1.75. They are to be rented for a day at a time. When you rent 10 new releases, the 11th is free. All other movies rent for $1.00. A customer can keep a regular movie for 3 days.

Some customers come in wanting to know about a certain movie or to see if their family's account has any late fees.

I put "bar codes" on videos so we can use a scanner to help make the customer’s visit shorter, keep track of merchandise, and track our movies.

Another one of my duties is to sweep the sidewalk in front of our store. I get rid of dust and pick up cigarette butts and other trash so it looks nice for our customers and our business.

Inside the store, I clean the glass cases from top to bottom with window cleaner until they shine. That helps the merchandise to look good.

If I have extra time I fill up our pop machine.

Being in a paid job is a lot like the work experience that I did at school. In my paid situation I have to be on time just like work experience. I have to remember to fill out my time card with the date I worked and time started and ended to figure out how many hours I worked that day. That makes it easier for Pam when she goes to figure out how much I will get paid. If I forget to write down my time, I will not get paid for that day. For my work experience I had to leave lunch 5 minutes early so I could get to work on time. We had to go get the van and keys so my Job Coach, Nanette Lockwood could drive me to work. It was not a walking distance. I did not get paid for job experience but I did get credits to graduate from Polson High School. It counted toward graduation. I am a senior this year.

My job coach helped me prepare for getting my own job. She taught me how to do each of the tasks that I was assigned. She made sure that I knew how to do what was asked, and then she let me do more and more on my own until I understood. She gave me advice to help me do better.

I had another job experience at the local Humane Society. I had a job task while I was there. I would take dogs out for a walk each day so they would not have to stay in the shelter all day long. I love to pet them and take care of their needs. Sometimes I would pet cats for a while and take care of them too.

I would be interested in working with animals as a job sometime. I love animals and like to be around them.

When I get out of High school I plan on getting a job that doesn't require a college education. I hope to get a job at one of the businesses that I have had experience with in school. I could also get a job where I haven't worked before but have had some job experience. So I wouldn't have to be trained a lot.

I am hoping that next year in high school I will be preparing to find a job for my career, and be learning the proper way to accomplish that goal.

I would like to try some new job experiences like selling CD's because I know a lot about the different rock bands and I like to collect music and listen to it a lot. My top favorites are (1.) Huey Lewis and the News ( 2.) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (3.) Rage against the Machine.

In closing, I would like to thank my teachers in Special Education, my friends Carley Letfhand Irvine, Alisha Ruggles and especially Ellen Condon. I thank my Mom and Dad and Family for the love and support they give me. Thanks to Pam for hiring me for my job. Thanks to anyone else that I may have forgotten. Thanks guys!

Sincerely,
Maclaen

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