Job Shadow with Skidmore Alums
Career advisors Dana Naberezny '95 and Bennett Beutel '16, both of Tiffany & Co., meet with a Skidmore student interested in jewelry design.
A great way to gain valuable experience and explore a variety of careers is to pursue job shadowing, essentially observing a professional at their place of work.
Skidmore's Career Advisor Network is full of Skidmore alumni, parents, and other connections happy to offer career advice to current students. Many advisors also welcome students to their offices for job shadowing possibilities.
The winter break is a great time to schedule these experiences!
How to Find Skidmore Job shadowing opportunities:
- Log-in to Skidmore's Career Advisor Network using your Skidmore user ID and password.
- Select “Explore the Community,” and then “More Filters.
- Then select “Help Topics,” and “Job Shadowing.”
- Once a mentor of interest is identified, select “Connect,” and send the mentor a message.
Please be sure to review the Networking Guide before beginning any outreach. Students are expected to work around the schedule of their career advisor and make every effort to honor the chosen time. Please be sure to respond to all messages and send a thank you note within 24 hours.
In the circumstance a career advisor does not indicate "job shadow" as one of the ways they can help, setting up an informational interview is a great alternative! An informational interview is an informal conversation a student can have with someone working in an area of interest. It is not a job interview, and the objective is not to find job openings. Rather, it is an effective research tool.
Students often feel awkward reaching out to people they don't know, but be assured that most people, and especially career advisors, actually enjoy taking a few moments out of their day to reflect on their professional life and give advice to someone with an interest in their field.
Looking for additional information on the Career Advisor Network? Learn more about some of Skidmore's great career advisors.