No fishy business today, as my boss sent me to train officially at David Jones. There were three of us blokes from the Seafood department arriving late for training at the HR Department of David Jones, and as I entered the room, I saw ladies all dressed in black (standard uniform is anything black with sleeves on it for girls) while we were clad in multicoloured casual wear and being all guys.

The first thing that hit me was the absolute resemblance of how tutorials were run at Uni. Small class of less than 15 people, and the tutor (instructor in this case) dishing out information while asking questions and expecting feedback from the students (us trainees in this sense). Heck, even the questions asked sounded similar to the course material I’ve learnt over the years in Commerce.

It was basically learning customer service in how you approach a customer and initiate a sale until the final moment when you close it. While in theory it all sounds very good, I find it a bit impractical to do all those things, especially when all you sell is Seafood. The level of personal service required is just not feasible, and probably difficult to implement. However, since it is store policy, I guess we have to try as hard as possible.

In the latter half of the training session (it is a full day affair), we were taught how to use the cash register. While the other trainees had only observed this before (most had experience in familiarising themselves through their managers or colleagues, I think) I had already learnt most of what was being taught. The reason was my section was an entity separate from David Jones, so we didn’t really operate under the same stringent rules. Heh, the weather was warm today and I had as light a lunch I could, but was still feeling sleepy (isn’t that the case with all sessions that resemble classrooms?) and actually dozed off a while right in front of the instructor, for maybe around 5 seconds. Luckily she called us up to practise on the cash registers. Personally find this method of instruction ineffective, as you don’t really learn anything until you have to do it consistently in real life situations, which I have done over the duration of the last 3 weeks.

Was very glad when the training finally ended at 530pm, although I still have to go in and finish up for half a day in a couple of hours time.

On a side note, I greeted the sun this morning. Been up the entire night levelling up to reach that elusive level 40 mark. Heh, must be the rebellious mood that comes with attending classes, you feel like doing something different for a change and not follow the norm. Heh, I don’t approve of it, but sometimes my heart wins over my mind and being sane and rational does not apply anymore.

I finally attained the level 40 status I promised my friend, even if it’s 5 days overdue. At this level, certain equipment and armour become available to me, and the monsters which I’ve had trouble despatching before are now peanuts to take out. Even the really mean monsters can be ass whooped by me now (although they still deal me a heck of a lot of damage, so I shall not gloat in front of them now).

Heh, where my hands and legs were jelly before, my mind has now followed suit. Only 3 more hours before training starts. Am so ‘looking forward’ to it.

Now, I need coffee… lots of it.