How to Write a Short Report on Job Shadowing

If you're a high school student, then you may have an opportunity to take part in job shadowing. Job shadowing is when you have an unpaid experience following around an employer to learn more about the occupation and career. Job shadowing usually lasts between one day to one week. When you are finished, you may be assigned a short report to explain your expectations before the job shadowing, what you learned during the experience and your future career goals.

Instructions

Before and During Job Shadowing

1. Research the job that you will be shadowing before you arrive at the workplace. For example, if you are spending time at an architecture firm, see if the firm has a website. You also can look for general career information about what an architect's job entails.

2. Write expectations and goals for your job shadowing experience. Answer these questions: Why do you want to follow an architect through his day? What do you expect to learn? What do you think you'll see the architects doing at work?

3. Take notes while you are participating in the job shadowing experience. Keep track of what you did throughout the day and what the employer did. Write down anything you noticed and want to remember later, especially job tasks and the amount of time spent at each task.

Writing the Report

1. Read over your expectations and goals that you wrote before going on your job-shadowing experience. Read over the notes that you took during your time at the employer's workplace.

2. Write an introduction to your report that explains which job shadowing experience you participated in and include details of the job, such as where it took place, whom you followed around and for how long. Summarize your expectations in the first paragraph also.

3. Create the body of the report by including a few paragraphs about the major tasks you observed the employer doing during your experience. Each paragraph can highlight one of these tasks. For example, if you had a job shadowing experience with an air traffic controller, your body paragraphs could be about working radar, ground control and tower duties such as clearing pilots to land.

4. Write the conclusion paragraph and include your overall feelings about your job-shadowing experience. Answer these questions: Are you still interested in this career? What did you learn during your experience? What are your future career goals based on this experience?

Tips & Warnings

• If you have a chance to interview your employer, you can include a quote or two in your report. These quotes could further explain the job's tasks and responsibilities for the body paragraphs of your report.

References

• Connected Learning: Career Exploration/Job Shadowing
• The State of Vermont: Job Shadowing