SAT and Job Shadowing
Did you try out some of the vocational/career tests that I put on my last blog post? I hope they gave you something to think about as you ponder what you might want to study in college.
In this post I’d like to talk about things that a lot of high schools are doing for their seniors right now. It’s become part of their Senior Portfolios and I believe it’s an excellent way for you to scope out potential career options. It’s called Job Shadowing. Did you know that Groundhog day is also National Job Shadowing Day? This year marked the tenth anniversary of National Job Shadowing Day. For more information on how to get started doing a job shadow, go to http://www.jobshadow.org/ and you will find a wealth of information.
According to Job Shadow, its primary purpose is to demonstrate the connection between academics and career in order to excite the students to learn by making their class work more relevant. If you’re interested in a career in engineering you’ll be able to see with your own eyes what an engineer does each day and how he uses math. This will make your math classes more interesting to you, if you know that math will be an integral part of your future career.
Job shadowing also introduces students to the requirements of a professional job and industries in order to prepare them for their future careers. So as a senior in high school you can go out into the real work world and spend a day watching and learning about a career that you’re interested in. You will be able to ask questions and have them answered.
When you pick a person to go job shadowing with, it would be a good idea if the job they are doing is something that interests you. Some students do job shadowing simply to get it crossed off their list of to do things on their way to graduation and miss out on a great opportunity to learn something valuable. If there is a career that you are leaning towards, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see exactly what a person in that career spends his or her day doing? Perhaps you’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a pastry chef, but once you spend a day watching what an actual pastry chef does you realize that being up to your elbows in fondant and powdered sugar isn’t as glamorous as you’d previously thought. Maybe you are leaning towards a career in business. There are a great many business careers out there and if you spend a day with someone in a job that interests you, there will be questions you can ask, things you can learn in order to make sure that this career is for you. There’s no better way to learn than by doing.
If your school doesn’t have a Job Shadowing program that you must complete before graduation, then perhaps you might consider talking to your school counselor about starting such a program. At Jobshow.org there is information on how to start a job shadowing program, including brochures and questionnaires that will aid your school in implementing job shadowing. If your school isn’t interested in starting such a program and you feel as though you would like to do a job shadow on your own, then go for it! Finding out all you can about a prospective career is never a waste of time.
Maybe you don’t have time to go on an all day job shadow, or perhaps you have a few careers in mind and want to know about them as well. If so, watch for my next blog where I’ll give you more information on how to find out information on choosing a career to study up on.
