Evan Thomas: working at nature gallery

Sophomore Evan Thomas took advantage of the free time over the summer by getting a job at the rock and jewelry store Nature Gallery in Los Altos. Thomas first found out about the job opening at Nature Gallery from a family friend. “One of my
parents’ friends had a friend who was looking for more employers because she was worried that her store wouldn’t have enough people to manage it through the summer,” he said. “She was mentioning that she was looking for employees, and I mentioned to that friend that I was looking for a job.”

On a typical day, Thomas completes a variety of tasks in order to keep the store clean and organized. “I do a lot of upkeep of the store [and] interacting with customers like [putting] flowers outside of our store,” he said. “It’s a lot of maintaining, tagging products and organizing.”

Thomas’s favorite part about working at Nature Gallery is helping customers. The conversations that he has with customers makes his work more meaningful. “I was working with this woman to help her find three different items that she wanted to match,” he said. “We had to go through a lot of different items and define pieces that all matched. It was definitely nice to be able to spend time with customers and it was rewarding to be able to find something that fit for her and be able to help her with that.”

As his work for Nature Gallery nears its end, Thomas is thankful that he was given the opportunity to work for the store. Thomas recommends working a summer job to other students.

“I feel like it’s a really good experience,” he said. “Not only does it help you not waste away your summer at home, it gives you experience for further jobs, some good life skills and it’s actually pretty exciting.”