Job shadowing could help you find a career

By Kaitlin Gillespie
Times-News correspondent
teens20@thetimesnews.com

High school years are a time for teenagers to find themselves and figure out what they really want to do. Unfortunately, things oftentimes are different in reality than they are in our minds, and jobs are no exception. Instead of setting your goals for a job you may end up despising, why not job shadow?

Job shadowing typically is a one-day event that allows students to really get a feel for a field or specific job they are interested in.

Stephanie Mitchener, the coordinator of the program at Western Alamance High School, said “it gives students real-life experience.”

Requirements normally are that they have to be a junior but in some circumstances, seniors may job shadow as well. Some may think that

Stephanie Mitchener is coordinator of the job shadowing program at Western Alamance High School. / Photo submitted

there is no one in the specific job they wish to shadow, but that’s not the case.

“Normally we do well placing a student with a shadow,” Mitchener said.

“Yes sometimes we have fields become full, but we can normally just let them go on a different day.”

Western normally has around 50 or more students do this each year and the response is a positive one.

So are you sure you know what you want to be? Try job shadowing and find out.

Kaitlin Gillespie is a sophomore at Western Alamance High School and a Teens & Twenties writer.