The Office of Career Education is bringing back its job-shadowing program after a hiatus.
Cris McDavid, the director of the Office of Career Education, says the program is essential for students who wish to make informed decisions about their future careers.
“Our purpose is to try to get students some hands-on experience, or at least a view of what happens in different industries and career fields,” McDavid said. “That way they have better awareness when they’re trying to make decisions for their major or career. It’s about more informed decision-making.”
She says that gaining the ability to make informed decisions about a career choice is the best benefit of the program for its participants.
“A lot of students know about a field that they might be interested in, but they haven’t seen the actual work that goes into it or the behind-the-scenes details of it,” McDavid said, “so, there’s a lot of things about every job that’s so behind the scenes that you don’t really even realize a lot of what’s involved with it, and that’s what job shadowing can help with.”
Hannah Bird, the senior career development specialist at the Office of Career Education, says program participants are manually matched with employers who best suit their job-shadowing needs.
“So with this program, all of the hosts apply, and then all of the students apply, and then once they tell me their majors, their interests and those kinds of things, I will specifically look at our employers and match them based on what the student wants or needs,” Bird said. “It’s basically right with the student’s needs because their education and their experiences are so important to get them matched with the employer they need.”
Bird also believes the job shadowing program will help students who are unsure of their future careers.
“Personally, I think job shadowing opens up that ability to say, ‘Okay, that career definitely isn’t going to match for me,’ or, ‘This career is exactly what I want,’ just because so many different employers have so many different experiences, right?” Bird said.
Bird also believes job shadowing offers valuable experiences that could help students in their job search.
“It’s just a good experience to put on your resume, so it doesn’t hurt,” she said. “The best case scenario is you get that, ‘Hey, I know this is what career that I want to do,’ and the worst case is, ‘Oh my gosh, I hate this career.’”
Students who wish to participate in the career exploration job-shadowing program must first attend a Professional Etiquette and Competency workshop on March 6 and 7 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Students who are unavailable at these times may schedule a time to speak with Bird independently to cover what was missed. Student applications for the program are due on Feb. 28, and the job shadowing will take place during the month of April.
Ashton Pack can be contacted at [email protected].
