I think the best way to get started is to do some of the simpler jobs that have you "out of pocket" very little money if the shop gets rejected. And I would do these with companies that you are unlikely to want to work for once you get rolling because of their pay structure. That way if you mess up your reputation with them it is no loss.
It takes doing shops to get the parts to come together. Things like time in to the place, time out of the place, how long did it take to be greeted, what was the name and description of the person who helped you, what did they say, how did they respond to your objections, was the place clean and orderly, how many customers in the store, how many salespeople, etc. These things need to become automatic to you before tackling more complex jobs. I think shops such as cell phone shops are the best for getting started. You usually are dealing with one sales person, the conversation is long enough to get a physical picture in your mind of how tall, how old, hair color, glasses or not, etc. yet the questions for these shops are mostly what plan they proposed and what features they mentioned. They most frequently do this showing you the information on a brochure and either you or they can make little marks on the brochure as they talk about things (underline "free for first month", circle 350 minutes if they emphasize that etc.) because the brochure will go with you. Cell phone shops rarely have a bathroom evaluation and most of the time you can either get their business card "In case I have more questions" or get their name and phone number and write it in your brochure. Of course you cannot write description or times or other shop observations in the brochure inside the store, but as soon as you get out making those notes on the brochure if observed could be interpreted as further product interest since they won't see what you are writing. Cell phone shops often require a few paragraphs of narrative, so it is a good opportunity to do some factual descriptive writing.
Another type of shop where you can make notes is a grocery store shop since many people have a shopping list. This allows you to go in with a list of one or two word reminders of the things you need to do with some lines between to put your observations also as one to two word entries. BFbr52seg10f5-6 is enough to tell me that in the bakery I dealt with a female with brown hair, about 52, who smiled and gave eye contact, greeting me within 10 seconds, asking a follow-up question and standing 5'6". Such an encryption looks from a distance like a single word on your shopping list and you never are going to give them a closer look at it.
Almost all shops have in common these basic kinds of observations of employees and their behaviors, which is why it is important to do a bunch of them before you get involved in shops that have no reasonable way of making notes, such as bank shops, yet require timings and descriptions often of two or three individuals and your only content notes can be about the products themselves.
If a cell phone shop gets rejected you are out no money because there are no purchase requirements, If a grocery shop gets rejected you are out what you spent on groceries, but that was dinner anyway. So all you are out is your time and gas. There is a learning curve to make these things part of your permanent repertoire of observation skills. Just as an exercise, if you go to a store today, observe whoever you interact with. When you come out, write down their name, age, gender, hair color and style, height, race, body build, eye color and any distinguishing marks you see (mole on their cheek, glasses or not, visible tatoos etc.) Few companies will ask for all of the above and a heads up here, if they don't ask race don't provide it, if they don't ask distinguishing marks, don't provide them. But be prepared for anything a particular shop asks by always remembering as much as possible and only sort out what is needed when you do the report.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2008 04:10PM by Flash.