Illinois Institute of Technology · Career Services
Job Shadowing
Spend a day inside the career before you spend four years preparing for it — free, flexible, and supported by Career Services.
Job shadowing shows you what a career is actually like — beyond job titles, salary ranges, and online descriptions. You spend a few hours or a full day observing a professional at work, asking the questions no search engine answers, and finding out whether a field genuinely fits who you are becoming.
It is also the lowest-risk career experiment you will ever run. A bad afternoon costs you a day. A wrong major costs you years. Arrange one yourself, work with a coach to find the right host, or join an Illinois Tech corporate visit.
Three Pathways
How to Find a Shadow
I.
Arrange Your Own
Reach out through the network you already have — family, friends of family, neighbors, professors, Illinois Tech alumni, contacts from career fairs. You have more reachable connections than you think, and alumni say yes far more often than students expect.
II.
Partner With a Career Coach
Book an appointment to identify the right host, draft your outreach, and prepare your questions. We will also help you vet an employer you found on your own. Free, year-round, no Elevate enrollment required.
III.
Join a Spring Break Corporate Visit
Each spring, Career Services organizes group visits to top employers across consulting, engineering, healthcare, finance, and technology. Watch the Elevate events calendar for application windows.
The Hard Part, Solved
Actually Finding a Host
There is no central marketplace for job shadowing — it runs on relationships. These are the tools that actually surface a real person to ask.
Start With Alumni
- LinkedIn Alumni Search — filter Illinois Tech alumni by employer, city, and role. The single best tool on this page.
- Alumni Mentorship Program — mentors already volunteered to help
- Illinois Tech Alumni Association — regional chapters and events
Through Illinois Tech
- Book a Career Coach — we make introductions and vet hosts
- Featured Employers — organizations already engaged with us
- Student Organizations — professional chapters run site visits
- Events Calendar — employer sessions and corporate visits
Research First, Ask Second
- CareerOneStop Career Videos — hundreds of free day-in-the-life videos from the U.S. Dept. of Labor
- Elevate Video Library — professionals describing their work
- O*NET OnLine — daily tasks and required skills by occupation
- BLS Occupational Outlook — pay, growth, entry requirements
Read Before You Go
Shadow Safely — and Recognize a Scam
Job shadowing means going to a workplace, often to meet someone you found online. The overwhelming majority of hosts are exactly who they say they are. These habits keep it that way.
- Never pay to shadow. Legitimate shadowing is always free. Any request for a fee, deposit, or “training kit” is a scam — walk away.
- Never share financial or identity data. No shadow host needs your Social Security number, bank account, or a copy of your ID.
- Verify the organization independently. Confirm the company exists, the person works there, and the address is a real business location — not a home, a hotel, or a rented room.
- Meet at the workplace, during business hours. Be wary of anyone proposing evenings, weekends, or a private residence.
- Tell someone where you are going — a friend, roommate, or family member — with the address and expected end time.
- Watch for disguised recruiting. If a “shadow” turns into a sales pitch, a commission-only offer, or pressure to recruit friends, leave and tell us.
If something feels wrong, it probably is. Run any host past a career coach before you commit, and learn the warning signs from the FTC guide to job scams or the BBB Scam Tracker.
Where Students Have Gone
Illinois Tech’s Industry Partners
Past shadowing and corporate visit hosts span engineering, technology, consulting, finance, healthcare, government, architecture, and infrastructure:
- Epic Systems
- Mitsubishi Electric Automation
- Grainger
- APL Logistics
- Sargent & Lundy
- Chicago Transit Authority
- Illinois Department of Transportation
- Colliers Engineering & Design
- ARCO Construction
- City of Chicago
- Corgan Architects
- Brindley Engineering
Current Featured Employers are maintained on the Elevate platform.
“You learn more about a career from an afternoon in the room than from a year of reading about it.”
Practical Guidance
Making the Most of It
Before
- Research the host and their organization
- Prepare eight to ten specific questions
- Confirm time, address, parking, and dress code
- Bring a notebook and a printed resume
During
- Arrive ten minutes early
- Ask about the work, not just the job title
- Take notes; you will forget the details
- Respect confidential information and their time
After
- Send a personalized thank-you within 24 hours
- Connect on LinkedIn with a note
- Write down what surprised you, good or bad
- Add it to your resume and Elevate record
Sample Outreach — Copy and Adapt
Subject: Illinois Tech Student — Job Shadow Request
Dear [Name], I am a [year] student at Illinois Institute of Technology studying [major], exploring careers in [field]. Your work at [Company] caught my attention because [specific reason]. Would you be open to letting me shadow you for a few hours or a day? I am flexible on timing and happy to work around your schedule. Thank you for considering. — [Your Name, Phone, Email, LinkedIn]
Keep it under 150 words, name one specific thing about their work, and make the ask easy to say yes to. A coach will review it before you send: book an appointment.
The Next Step
Beyond Shadowing
Shadow first to confirm the fit, then take on a short project with the same employer to prove capability. These platforms are vetted and used by university career centers — all free to students.
Paid Short Projects
- Parker Dewey — paid micro-internships, one to four weeks
- Riipen — short employer-set projects through your coursework
Virtual Experience
- Forage Job Simulations — free, self-paced, real employer tasks
- Elevate Virtual Internships — guaranteed placement, credit option
Pre-Health Students
- AAMC Students & Residents — how clinical shadowing hours are evaluated
- Shadowing hours are effectively expected for medical school. Start early and log every hour with dates and supervisor names.
The best career decision you make
may start with one afternoon in the right room.
elevate@illinoistech.edu · MTCC Suite 106 · 312.567.6800
