My Best Experience

My best experience was interning for a prestigious record company during my last year at St. John's University.  My completion of an internship was instrumental in the commencement and longevity of my career in the music industry because I was taught the following three keys for success: forming strategic alliances/partnerships, multi-tasking, and  accountability.

First, there is an old adage that says "It's all about who you know." I learned early on that the strategic alliances and partnerships formed at private industry events is truly the most dominant, determining factor as to who is hired for the positions that are most vied for. Sadly, I quickly discovered that your degrees and achievements carried very little weight in the entertainment industry. Managing to get hired relies 80% on who is your industry social circle.  Secondly, the ability to multi-task effectively and efficiently is a priceless talent.  As an intern, I was required to provide clerical office support in the promotions department, complete graphics design assignments for the marketing department, an assemble sales reports simultaneously on a daily basis. While it was a daunting task at first, my ability to successfully handle so many responsibilities at once assisted me greatly in being hired as the sales/promotion assistant for six staff members upon completion of my undergraduate coursework. Thirdly, you will be held accountable for everything when things go wrong. Although cronyism dictates the hiring process, you will very rapidly find yourself alone to face any and all consequences when things awry.

In summation, the three aforementioned skills that I acquired afforded me the opportunity to have a very successful career in the music industry. My career spanned a fifteen-year period and included work in the marketing, sales, promotions, administrative and publicity departments. The lessons I learned were priceless tools that have stayed with me throughout my adulthood and helped me to achieve professionally as well as academically in the collegiate environment.


Vocabulary:
Prestigious (adjective) - Respected.

Commencement (noun) - Beginning.

Longevity (noun) - Length of service.

Alliances (noun) Coming together.

Accountability (noun) - Accepting responsibility for your actions

Adage (noun) - A traditional saying.

Vied (verb) - Compete.

Achievement (noun) - Accomplishment.

Simultaneously (adjective) -  Happening at the same time.

Daunting (adjective) -  A scary task

Cronyism (noun) - Giving jobs to friends.

Summation (noun) -  A brief description of the most important information about something.

Aforementioned (adjective) -  Mentioned before.

Acquired (verb) - To gain or get.

Span (noun) - To continue through a period of time.

Collegiate (adjective) -  having to do with a  college or its students.


Vocabulary Exercise: Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word.

1. The moon landing was a monumental ___________________.
2. Seven bidders _________ for the rare painting.
3. Jane is so shy she finds it __________ to go to a party.
4. Helen __________ language by practice and habit rather than by study of rules and definitions.
5. Meanwhile the king had formed an ___________ with Henry VII.
6. It was ____________ frightening and annoying.
7. At the ____________ of 1865 this trade was at its, highest point.
8. Baseball players are held to a higher level of _____________ than any other athletes in the world.
Grammar Point:
Conjunction - A word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause (e.g., and, but, if ).

In my passage above, I used the conjunction and several times.  Remember the acronym FANBOYS: For-And-Nor-But-Or-Yet-So and write one sentence per conjunction listed in the acronym.