Author: Caroline Osborn
Walk in My Shoes (WMS), a one-day program offered every semester by the Career Development Center (CDC) that facilitates students’ job shadowing of a professional in their desired field, is now beginning to select students for its fall program.
However, with over 50 applications for an estimated 25 spots, the understaffed CDC faces more applicants than they will be able to accept, according to Career Development Center Coordinator Rita Soultanian.
WMS intends to provide students with hands-on experience by following a local professional in their field of interest through a typical workday. Students are expected to engross themselves in the professional atmosphere, learning technique through direct observation and conversation with their professional.
“The learning experience is just so powerful,” Career Counselor for the CDC Rita Soultanian said. “And it’s all because of one day.”
The program caters to student’s career interests by categorizing job shadowing into five general fields: Public Services (education, faith-based organizations, foundations, Government services, green careers, mental health services, non-profits, social justice, social services), Business/Finance (accounting, banking, finance, fundraising/development, hospitality, human resources, insurance, manufacturing, real estate, retail, sales, sports management, technology), Law (corporate, Government, public-interest), Sciences (biotechnology, dental medicine, engineering, math. medicine, pharmacology, public health, research, veternary medicine) and Entertainment/Communication (advertising, fine arts, graphic arts, journalism, marketing, music, production and film, public relations).
With such a wide range of fields of interest, students are expected to have a specific professional they want to study. The application allows students to describe their reasons for following their professional, and how this person will help them learn and grow in their field.
While there is a resumé portion of the application, experience is not as significantly weighted as students’ expression of their desire to learn from their professional in the essay portion of the application.
This is the first semester since 2007 that WMS is open to sophomore and junior applicants. Due to the program’s emphasis on grooming graduates for the professional world, it had always catered mostly to seniors.
Terminating the year requirement and allow juniors and sophomores to apply to participate in WMS has created a more competitive program for Soultanian and Director of CDC Valerie Savior, who are in charge of the program.
“I’m planning to match as many applicants as I possibly can,” Soultanian said. “But if it comes down to it, I’m going to give priority to class year. I know that underclassmen are going to have other opportunities. I’m going to pretty much guarantee that seniors will be matched to the best of our ability.”
Although WMS provides students with a valuable experience, some students doubt the CDC’s commitment.
“Our career center is not necessarily as good as those of our peer schools,” applicant Greg Benz (senior) said.Benz does not blame the CDC staff for this deficit, but rather the college’s orientation towards public service and grad school preparation in lieu of easy transference into professional careers. From conversations he has had with Oxy graduates and students at similar liberal arts colleges, Benz deduces that other schools have deeper connections with the corporate job market.
Successful Oxy graduates with whom he has spoken often attribute their quick employment to their perusal of other colleges’ job fairs.
“It’s just really hard to give the attention that we want to give and make sure we’re managing the matches appropriately. Maybe we’ll have to decide that it’s only open to seniors again,” Soultanian said. “I hope we don’t have to do that.”
Many people advocate for an exclusive senior applicant pool. “The program should be for people who know what they’d like to do and are not just looking around,” pplicant Laura Bunnel (senior) said. “When I was a sophomore, I didn’t know what my major was going to be, much less what my occupation was.”
However, while juniors and especially seniors are given priority in selection, many sophomores are career-oriented and eager for the opportunity.
“Without a doubt in my mind, I will for sure be a doctor,” applicant Kylie McPherson (sophomore) said. Underclassmen like McPherson are determined for acceptance. “I don’t particularly like the practice of prioritizing seniors because I want to be in the program,” said McPherson.Some upperclassmen don’t mind the inclusion of underclassmen in WMS. “As long as they can prioritize seniors, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be open to sophomores and juniors,” said Benz, who hopes to shadow a professional in the finance or real estate industries.
Yet underclassmen recognize the necessity of WMS for seniors. “But I definitely understand why they’re doing it that way,” McPherson said. “It’s the seniors’ last chance to do something like this.”
Some former senior WMS participants, however, felt dissatisfied with the timing of their WMS experience, and perhaps felt that their “last chance” was too late. Chloe Jenkins-Sleczkowski ’10 participated in WMS during her senior year shadowing an editor of the Glendale News-Press.
“I’m not saying that the shadowing day destroyed my hopes,” she wrote in an e-mail interview, “but I suddenly became concerned about how little experience I had in the field and how difficult it would be for me to get hired.”
She recognizes the advantages of including underclassmen in the program. “If someone had shown this opportunity to me as a sophomore, it would have made me start thinking much harder. Sophomores generally aren’t as focused on their careers yet, and they figure that they still have two more years to worry about it,” she said.With limited spots, the CDC will have to prioritize seniors.
For more information about the Walk in My Shoes program, contact the Career Development center at careers@oxy.edu.
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