I had my first taste of job shadowing recently so it seems entirely natural to write a quick post for the blog about the general benefits. I’ve written up an outline of my actual visit for the NLPN website and you are welcome to access that here.

What is job shadowing and who is it for?

Job shadowing is where you spend some time with an individual who has a different job to you in order to learn about their job or some aspect of it. It is usually for students, those undertaking internships and/or gap year students. It can also be used to address the training needs of new employees or employees on a particular work-based learning and development scheme. In librarianship it has been used by Chartership candidates in order to find out more about a different sector to the one in which they currently work. You don’t usually hear stories about return-to-work candidates shadowing so you may think that it’s not for us, but you’d be wrong.

Why can it be useful?

Direct access to somebody

Job shadowing is most useful as it’s a fairly painless way of accessing another person in their role at their workplace. How often do we get direct access to somebody working in a particular role in the library and information sector? Yet through job shadowing, you get the chance to observe an individual in a work environment which is wholly different from your own and that person is available exclusively to you for a set number of hours. During that time they will discuss aspects of their job role and their organisation with a measure of openness and honesty. This in turn will allow you to have a flavour of what it is like working in that environment and an idea of some of the challenges.

Self-reflection

While you think you have come to learn all about the organisation, library and job role at the place where you are shadowing, you will inevitably be asked questions about what you did, do, and intend to do in the future. The conversation you have with your host may assist with your own job or career reflection. Similarly if you’ve been feeling stuck career-wise, it might help you change your way of thinking or move forward in some way. Job shadowing can be useful when you are looking to reflect on what you do, reinvent and change your career following a break in employment or when you are clear about what job role you want to return to but are simply struggling to do so. So don’t dismiss it because it’s only taking an afternoon rather than a six week internship. A short burst of job shadowing can be a valuable learning experience.

Networking

As I’ve discussed elsewhere on the blog (but specifically in Five actions to help with job searching when there is a lack of library experience and Getting back into the game you definitely need to build up your network so that you start to hear about job opportunities locally. Alongside having a profile on LinkedIn, attending events, taking courses, engaging on Twitter, job shadowing is another way to help you to have a conversation with a fellow professional and connect. This is important for everyone but particularly if you are out of work or work in an area of librarianship that is under-represented at conferences and training events. I can also see it being applied in environments where there may not be lots of other employees for you to learn from, e.g. solo librarians can benefit from shadowing other solo librarians with the same job title but where the role may be performed differently due to environment and/or resource differences or in organisations where the employees are scattered across a wide geographical area, e.g. in the public and academic library sector, and where employees are encouraged to learn about other roles within the same organisation, e.g. observation and job rotation on Cardiff University Libraries long running ‘Do something different day’ learning and development scheme.

Potential new workplace

Yep, you get a good feel for a workplace without having to go through the ordeal of an interview or actually working there. That’s not to say it’s without any minor stresses or strains. You still have to arrive on time, dress appropriately and try to create a relatively decent impression as after all this is library world and you are more than likely to bump into your host at some point in the future! However, overall, the whole experience should be less draining than the one you go through to secure a new job offer.

Mistakes that can be made when job shadowing

Purpose of visit?

It can be easy to lose site of the reason for the job shadowing visit. In the library world we tend to make use of job shadowing opportunities for Chartership with the focus being the key variations between the different roles, libraries, sectors and so on. But career break returners may find something more like an informational interview to be more useful to them, that is, to use the time to have a one-to-one with a library professional reflecting about their career and imparting advice, particularly if they have completed Chartership. Much will depend upon what stage or phase you are in your return to work. So it’s good to be clear about why you are doing the shadowing and what you expect to achieve before you arrive. It’s probably wise to not merge the two!

Job shadow approach?

There are different types of shadowing experience, from a observer ‘fly on the wall’ approach through to a hands on job-share. Different hosts will favour different approaches so it would be useful to know what to expect before arrival. Ideally checking the proposed schedule for the visit should give you a good indication of how passive or active the visit will be, but ask questions ahead of time if you are in any doubt.

Overly high expectations?

While job shadowing is a useful learning experience, try not to place ridiculously high expectations on your host and the time you spend with them. They won’t get to know you that well in three hours and may forget that you won the Pupil Librarian of the Year award in 1997! Remember instead that they are giving up their work time to fit you into a schedule that’s probably already piled high with tasks to complete and numerous other demands.

Summary

How to get the best out of your job shadowing experience

• Try to set out your objectives for the visit so that you are clear about the expectations / limitations from the start.

• Give your host a little bit of your background and explain politely what you’d like to get out of the visit. If possible, try to find out what you can expect when you arrive, e.g. will you be passively observing any meetings or actively taking part in any sessions?

• If you need to keep documentary evidence of your visit, e.g. for the purposes of Chartership, try to note down as soon as you can what the key similarities and differences between the two organisations are. For example, what strikes you immediately in terms of staffing, the type of user, the management structure, and so on. A Day in a NHS Library is a recent good blog example for such a purpose, written by Experiments with Ephemera. Cardiff University Libraries is pretty skilled in using different workplace learning practices including job shadowing and job rotation and publishing the outcomes. For an example of how a large organisation implements such training, refer to the 2011 study by Sally Earney. This general document on Job Shadowing Guidelines produced by Manchester Metropolitan University is also valuable regarding the types of questions to consider before and during the experience.

• Make use of the NLPN job shadowing opportunities list either as a host or as a visitor. Anybody can add their name to the list, not just those with a cool job title or warm radiators! Please add your contact details to the list of hosts.