Determined to find a part-time job, Junior Melody Lou secures a position at a dermatologist clinic during the midst of the pandemic. Although most high schoolers find work in the service industry like Chipotle or boba shops, Lou explored a different avenue through a nine-to-five Monday through Friday job at a dermatologist clinic called Refined MD, located in Los Gatos. 

Being a worker at a clinic involved a variety of different responsibilities on Lou’s part. General housekeeping tasks ranged from cleaning the patient’s rooms to helping out with laundry and cooking. Work that involved cleaning was heightened during the pandemic to ensure patient and worker safety.

Said Lou, “I would go in every day and do MA (medical assistant) light work like clean up rooms after patients were done and general cleaning throughout the day. There is a custodial staff at night but helping with cleaning in the day makes the patients feel more comfortable during a pandemic.”

On the flip side, Lou also got to experience unique tasks allowing her to gain exposure to the medical field like assembling numbing kits and mask air filters for the patients and staff. Medicine serves as a field of interest for Lou, and on occasion, she would get to see procedures and interact with MA’s to further her knowledge in that area.

Said Lou, “In the future, I would like to work somewhere in the medical field, and working at the clinic has given me the slightest bit of exposure. I don’t get to see anything super insane since I’m just a part-time worker and not an MA, but learning about the different kinds of procedures has been rewarding.”

While gaining experience in her field of interest at the office, she also immerses herself in the workplace atmosphere. One of the few quirks at the clinic is the office dog, who Lou finds enjoyment in interacting with. Along with animals, she also gets to learn from the experiences of her coworkers. 

Said Lou, “Most people working there are adults, but there are a few other part-timers, including someone else who goes to our school and my sister in college who introduced me to the clinic. Everyone’s super friendly and chill!”

Although summer is over, Lou continues to work part-time at the clinic but on shorter hours. While the pandemic has caused dramatic shifts in our day-to-day lives, Lou’s aspiration to get a job still stood.

Said Lou, “At the end of the day, I wanted to do something over summer that I could benefit from in some way, and getting a job provided me with some great experience.”