Xiao Yu loves to read books so she took a job at the Small Small Bookshop. The first time she passed the doors of the bookshop, she was immediately attracted to it and afterwards she attended some short courses. In November 2011 she joined the team. The job is pretty much what she expected. But working at Small Small is more autonomous than other jobs. The pace of the job is similar to her last job and so she was already used to it.

The biggest joy working at Small Small brings is being able to interact with all the customers. A number of customers have left nice messages in the bathroom about Small Small. Every time Xiao Yu sees them, she feels happy.

The Independent Bookstore Seminars organised by Small Small have left the biggest impression on Xiao Yu and they were also the courses that Xiao Yu attended before joining Small Small. She had thought of opening a bookstore before, but the seminars made her hesitate. Apart from funding, there are many other problems to face.

Small Small gives people more opportunities to interact with each other and Xiao Yu feels that the time she spends with people in the shop is her happiest.

Ya Wen came to work at the Small Small Bookshop in May 2011. Ya Wen also joined the shop after attending some of the events. She started part-time as a student and is now working at the shop full-time.

Ya Wen is responsible for the affair of the association and through that she gets to know a lot of people. Organising events and courses brings her a feeling of satisfaction and success. Because she is interested in animation, she is very active in organising this kind of event and course. She hopes that one day she will be able to hold her own large animation activity.
Working at Small Small is very challenging for Ya Wen. She is able to learn a lot from all the people she interacts with. Also under the owner’s leadership, she is able to learn even more areas. You can get much more from this job than you can from others so she really likes this job.

Today, our teacher, team mates and I went to Small Small Bookshop to conduct an interview with the sales clerks. We interviewed Xiao Yu and Ya Wen. This experience taught me the skills and etiquettes of conducting an interview. For example, I need to maintain eye-contact with the person I am interviewing. I shouldn’t interrupt and should patiently wait for the person to finish talking before I speak again. I need to be well-prepared in advance in order to have a successful interview.

To prepare for this afternoon’s interview at the bookstore, we had practiced for 2 whole periods of classes. We practiced how to ask questions while interviewing the sales clerks at the bookstore. We first interviewed Ya Wen. I realized that at first I asked my questions too quickly, without allowing enough time for Ya Wen to answer my questions. After this interview activity, I leaned that I have to slow down when asking questions so that it’s not confusing to the person I am interviewing.