Many people go into their careers with no gauge of what the career really consists of. As a result, those people don’t enjoy the career they have chosen. This is something the Yutan English department aims to avoid with their career research project.
“The seniors as part of a career research project choose a career that they feel interested in going into after high school, and we try to find someone within that career for them to shadow during the day,” English teacher Nealy Freeman said. “The goal of this project is to not only research and write about their career but also get some real world experience that is really valuable. You can’t replace being on location and trying something that you’re interested in as a career.”
Not only does this project give the students specific career information, but it also lets them practice skills they would need in any career.
“The most valuable thing students get out of this experience is realizing that every job has those soft skills, and it is important to understand the content of your career, but it is equally important to have critical thinking skills, problem solving, to be on time, to be able to communicate well with others and to work as a team,” Freeman said.
One student who had the opportunity to job shadow was senior Brooklyn Bussing, who is interested in cosmetology.
“I job shadowed the principal’s sister in-law, Brittany Novotny. She showed me the step by step process of giving highlights to somebody on somebody’s hair, which I thought was really cool,” Bussing said.
Bussing has been interested in cosmetology for many years, and her experience of job shadowing has made her realize that it is a good fit for her.
“I liked [cosmetology] before, but after being able to go and watch somebody in the career that I want to do, it was like, ‘Yeah, I really want to do this,’” Bussing said.
Bussing’s experience also showed her the variety of things she could do in the cosmetology field.
“I learned about the job opportunities in cosmetology and how many different things you can do with your cosmetology license,” Bussing said.
Another student who was given the opportunity to gain experience by job shadowing was senior Wesley Patino.
“I job shadowed at Western AG in Fremont with my cousin. He’s a diesel mechanic at the shop there. I got to do lug nut copper tightens, anti-seizing the hood bins and anti-seizing the rear shock pins,” Patino said.
Besides the specific knowledge he gained, Patino learned a lot about diesel mechanics as a whole.
“My overall experience was good. I feel like I learned a lot through the job shadowing experience and will definitely be using the information I learned to help me make future decisions,” Patino said.
The best part of the job shadowing experience for Patino was gaining hands-on experience.
“I’ll be more prepared for the first day at any shop because I did stuff [at Western AG] that was hands-on and not like an internship,” Patino said.
Hands-on experience is something that senior Cecilia Mayne-Hernandez also got when job shadowing at MMC Contractors.
“I got to see someone who does specialty welds weld some prefabrication stuff. I spent the other half of my day with the person who runs the pipe cutting machine. I got to see both sides of sheet metal and pipe cutting,” Mayne-Hernandez said.
This hands-on experience gave Mayne-Hernandez a totally new perspective on the career.
“The most memorable part was being able to see [welding] from the inside. There were so many career paths that I could see ahead of me, so I got to expand my knowledge,” Mayne-Hernandez said. “If I do go ahead with the career of being a welder, it really showed me that there was a lot of the process that I didn’t know about like internships, being in the unions, as well as being placed into a shop to get your first experience done.”
Even though this career wasn’t Mayne-Hernandez’s first choice, she found the job shadowing experience valuable.
“I’m glad it’s something that I’ve been keeping in my books because it is really hands-on. There’s a lot of different things going on, as well as the environment. That type of place is really nice because everyone knows each other and you all have to work together, so I’m glad I made that decision,” Mayne-Hernandez said.
Eye-opening experiences like this reassure Freeman that there is value behind the career research project.
“Overall, the career research project is immensely positive for students because there is nothing that connects more than real life experience when you can job shadow someone who is in the career that they’re looking at,” Freeman said. “It doesn’t get better than that.”
