Blog #24: Exit Interview Questions

1. The essential question to my Senior Project is "What is the best way to create a decorative art themed wedding cake?" and the best answer to that question is Prioritizing Customer Relations.

2. The process of getting to this answer as my best answer was a lot of trial and error. When I first started finding possible answers, I ignored this as a  key factor, but when I actually got to talk to customers at Cake Mama's, I realized that talking to the customer and designing the cake with them is what is the foundation behind the other two answers.

3. The main problem I had was getting a reliable mentorship. The reason for this is because when I first started working with my first mentor, she told me that she would call me in for every order she got, but I never got any messages from her. Since that failed, I began to search for a new mentor, put myself out there, but because I was underage at the time, no one would take me as an apprentice until Cherokee told me about the Cake Mama's and how they did mentorships, so the way I solved this problem was by asking around me about who they knew.

4. The two most important sources I have were my Third interview with Ashley McNeal, the head cake decorator at The Cake Mama's because she gave a new insight on the world of cake decorating, like making a connection with the customer and how they are the key aspect to the decorating process. The second important source that I have is my 10th Article "Interview #4: Ron-Ben Israel" because it showed me that you don't need to be classically trained to be an amazing cake decorator. He has always been an inspiration to me as an aspiring cake decorator and the article just showed me that not only do you need to have the inspiration to be a cake decorator and some of the key aspects to designing a cake, showed me that you need to find your muse and own style of decorating to be a success.

5. The product for me is definitely deciding what I want to major in when I go off to college, which is Business Management. The fact that I feel more confident with Pastry art does not mean that I know how to work the business itself. This project has helped me realize that I have to learn more about owning a successful business in order to follow my dream of being a pastry artist.