What Is Job Shadowing?
College Job Shadowing Tips For Students Embarking On New Job Hunting Skills Is Excellent For Networking.
Job shadowing is having the ability or benefit to follow or shadow a professional who is practicing in a career or path that you also would like to explore in someday too as well.
It is a business term that allows students or newbies to have an opportunity to spend time following professionals and their daily activities on the job.
It is nothing more than an internship of daily on the job training with your mentor.
Job shadowing in my opinion is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge about your career path with the workplace.
It allows college students to embark on developing new job hunting skills and building relationships with companies that they might want to work for someday.
Usually, these job shadowing events have a duration of at 2 hours at least a day or a week regarding time length for a student or new applicant looking to job shadow.
Have you ever found yourself pondering about if you are going in the right direction as it pertains to your career path or choice?
In the words of Michaelangelo from the teenage mutant ninja turtles “Cowabunga!”Yes! We have all been there at some point in time of our lives.
Job Shadowing Benefits
Job Shadowing offers you the benefit or opportunity to explore your options in deciding which career path is best for you.
Shadowing a practicing professional who is in a specific role of duties will also give you other sub-role divisions to explore too.
You will also be able to obtain valuable job experience. Job shadowing allows you to learn and get first-hand visual experience.
You get to see your mentor in action performing all of their job related duties live and direct.
These variables of information will be a clear indication of how much work your mentor does on a daily basis.
It will also show you all the qualifications and skill sets that you would need to be successful on the job too as well.
During this process of visual observance, you will know right off the back if this job career choice is stressful, how much of it you like or don’t like, and how much time will be demanding of you to meet your goals on the job too.
Reasons why job shadowing will be very important to you.
- Job shadowing will also allow you to expand upon your networking abilities on the job too.
- I would definitely treat this opportunity like an internship or job opportunity. Every opportunity is a way to position you to learn more about your job duties.
- You are sitting on a goldmine of possibilities of employment with the company that you are job shadowing with too.
- Your job shadow host will be a vault of information that you can reach to with questions regarding your career choices.
- They also make excellent choices for letters of recommendations for other employment opportunities too.
Job Shadowing Process
Now that you have all the benefits and reasons of why you should be job shadowing to connect with your dream job or career, let me give you some advice on how to get started regarding your job shadowing opportunities.
- Check with your institution or business to see if they offer a job shadowing program
- Get as many contact names or referrals from people that actually work in your field of interest
- Use or search for these inviduals via LinkedIn or other sources to obtain more contact information regarding selection of your mentors
- Create an sample email or letter for your first point of contact
No worries, I have created a sample document for you to download via the end of this blog post. Awe Sucky Ducky Quack Quack! Lol
Conclusion
If you made it this far, congrats to you as well for taking notes regarding these college job shadowing tips.
Job shadowing can be very important in assisting you to make an executive decision regarding your dreams and goals in selecting the right career path for yourself.
When it comes to job shadowing, it is very important to make most of your experience.
- Be as clear and precise with whom you are shadowing regarding location and attire for this initial point of contact.
- Please do not be a fly on the wall neither. Meet and connect with many people as you can during your job shadowing experience.
- My motto has always been “Steady Ready So That You Don’t Have To Get Ready”.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for that business card after every person that you speak with during your meeting.
Do Your Research
Before any initial visit, please research the company that you will be job shadowing with too.
You can visit the company’s website or LinkedIn page to find out what duties and roles they have within the company itself.
Talk About Yourself
Job shadowing questions on why you chose this company, or the individual are great to start out with conversation.
Your career goals and what are some of your strengths regarding the program would be very beneficial also to you during your interview process too.
Give Thanks
- After your initial job shadowing meeting, always send a thank you note to the person that you shadowed with regarding the experience.
- Being thoughtful goes a long way in life. This new way of thinking could be a game changer for yourself and career too.
- Therefore, continue building positive relationships via your job shadowing experience. Your dream job after graduation will soon be a reality.
If you have being reading all of my blogs in the past, then you already know my motto or slogan “STAY READY SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET READY”.
Grab Your Letter
I did not forget. Grab a copy of your job shadowing letter and email documents below this post.
- These are excellent college job shadowing tips for students embarking on developing new job hunting skills and their careers.
- These skills will also benefit the companies that they work for too.
What’s my motto or slogan again?
“STAY READY SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET READY”.
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Thanks again for your time and consideration reading my blog post regarding why job shadowing is very important for your career.
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