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Business & Tech

Likes Playing "Uke," Working at Music Works

Carlos Lacsina shares what it's like to work in a small independent music store. Don't miss the video we've included of him playing the ukulele.

Name: Carlo Lacsina

Age: 24

Occupation: Employee at

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How long have you worked here? It’s been a year and a half now. I was right out of college.

Why did you choose this small local business? It was one of the first jobs that I got right out of college, and when I was a kid I always wanted to work in some kind of smaller business. And I’m a “uke” guy.

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You’re a ukulele player? Yeah. I was like, “Ah, man, this (working at ) is something I’m totally interested in.”

Do you want to play in a band or for fun? I want to do performance stuff, but I’m still such a newbie at it. I want to make sure that I can at least keep up with everybody else and meet the demands that other people would have of me. But, with this job, I’m meeting a lot of people that want to play with me.

So you could parlay this into your own independent business as a musician later? I could, but I’m going for a teaching credential. This is a job that’s good work experience.

What is it like working with the owners of a small business? It’s a lot more personal.

Like family? Yeah. For one thing, people think I’m their family, like their son. There’s just four of us plus the two bosses. So if we do something wrong, they have time to lecture. He (one of the co-owners) can pinpoint your shortcomings: he wants to try and help you to get better. That extra personal touch – if the person wants to take the advice, they’ll improve as an employee. It’s not like the bigger ones, where they just slap you on the wrist and say, “No, you can’t do this.” A friend of mine was (at a big corporation), and he got fired instantly.

It seems like a benefit of working for a small business is that since you are like family, you may have a better chance of working things out if you make a mistake? They give you a chance and then it’s pretty cool. And all the stuff – I don’t just know one thing, being a small business.

You learn a little bit of everything here? You have to learn everything.

You can sell drums, you can sell ukeleles, you can sell strings… Some of us are stronger in some places then others. I know enough about amps to sell them, but I’m not like an expert. I know my way around the ukulele, but drum sets I just recently learned about it. Something like that. 

For other installments in our Who's Who series, click here and here.

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