The company I volunteered at was TNT Fireworks over the summer with my entire Boy

Scout troop. The company sells fireworks of various sizes, explosive masses, and durations, the
price increasing with the increase of any of those details. The company is only active during the
late spring and all summer months so as to sell fireworks for July 4th, Independence Day, and
July 14th, Pioneer Day. During this time just about any person can go and work for TNT
Fireworks, you only need to be allowed to work legally. I chose to go and volunteer for the
company because the location I would be working at would be run entirely by other people who I
know well. Volunteering at that location also meant I could help raise money for our scout troop
for supplies and money for campouts and activities.
The service I provided consisted of informing customers exactly what fireworks we had
currently and what was out of stock for the moment, organizing the products around the
fireworks stand making sure everything looked professional or nice. I demonstrated what some
of the fireworks that we were allowed to light did when asked by customers for a demonstration.
I helped run the cash register, bag fireworks and help customers transport their copious amount
of fireworks to their vehicles. I also helped keep watch over the fireworks stand with one or two
other people overnight. I helped set up the stand when it first opened (beginning of June) and
helped take down, put away the stand and clean up any trash or mess left behind when we had
to close the stand.
Because it was summertime, the work environment was very hot, noisy, sweaty, and
smelly at times. But all in all it was rather swell, not running into many issues that couldn’t be
resolved quickly. It is a work environment I would be perfectly fine with working in again, though
I would hope that it is more busy. I would say the level of education required for this job is very
minimal, only needing to know how to attend to minor customer service and needing to know
how to work a cash register. At the very least you need to be in High School to easily run a
fireworks stand. Any less than that and you will run into a lot more issues than needed.
Volunteering at this job has given me a good enough experience to know that this would not be
a good place to work at, considering its a seasonal company and its outdoors in the dry summer
heat. The thing I enjoyed the most about the service was that I got to do it with people I knew
and trusted, as well as being able to get a discount on fireworks and being able to get constant
free fireworks demonstrations. The thing I liked the least about the service was how unbearably
hot it was being outside in an asphalt parking lot in the middle of summer. Challenges I
encountered while employing my services at TNT was trying to understand people who spoke
Spanish and trying to understand how to get our “special” cash register works. I overcame not
understanding someone who spoke in Spanish simply by having my friend who spoke Spanish
help translate or deal with the customer for me. I eventually understood how the cash register
worked by watching someone else who did know how to work it while bagging customers
goods. This experience relates greatly to my future career choices by helping me learn how to
work with a team of people efficiently.