By: Jocelyn Nowak & Isabelle Goodnite
Do you have an interest in a career but don’t know how to learn more about it? Job shadowing is a great way to explore careers that you are interested in. When you shadow a job, you get to see what a typical day in that career looks like. This helps people decide if that’s what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Not many people in our school take this unique opportunity, but the benefits that come from job shadowing make the experience worth it.
Sometimes going to someone’s job for a day can feel invasive, or it can make people feel nervous to try something new. However, once you get past this, job shadowing proves to have advantages. Career counselor Heather Jackson writes, “Job shadowing is one of the best ways for students to learn whether a career truly fits who they are. It gives you a real-life look at what day-to-day work actually feels like… Seeing a career up close helps you make confident decisions about your future”. Southeast junior Scott Fields backs up this claim by saying his job shadow at War Horse Ink, located in Kent, Ohio, helped him make connections. He says this opportunity with Dana Marie helped him decide that this is the “one thing I do want to pursue in life after high school”.
Virtual job shadowing is another way that you can experience your passion without worrying about liability and transportation. When job shadowing virtually, you will experience the job through a VR headset known as an Oculus. This gives you a realistic depiction of the job. This can be beneficial if you want to shadow someone, such as a surgeon or a tower technician; you no longer have to worry about the risks of liability.
You might not know where to begin when considering job shadowing. It starts with finding something you think is interesting. Fields said that watching his mom get tattoos and seeing them on TV shows is what made him interested in shadowing a tattoo artist. Even on a typical day watching TV, you can find your dream career. If you still aren’t sure about it, you can talk to counselor Rebecca Dunn to get in touch with Jackson or take the necessary steps to find a person to shadow.
No matter what career path you are interested in, there is a way to explore it through job shadowing.
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