Job shadowing means following a professional through part of their workday so you can see what the job is really like. You watch, ask questions and take notes, usually for a few hours to a few days, and you don't get paid.
It's one of the easiest ways to test a career before you commit to it. This guide covers how a shadow day works, how it compares to an internship and an Externship, how to ask for one, what to ask while you're there, and how many shadowing hours pre-med, PA and physical therapy programs expect. For the bigger picture, see our guide to the main types of internships.
TL;DR
• Job shadowing means following a professional through part of their workday to see what the job is really like, usually for a few hours to a few days, unpaid.
• It is observation, not work: you watch, ask questions and take notes, but you don't produce deliverables.
• An internship or an Extern Externship is the next step, because you do real work you can put on a resume.
• To get a shadow day, ask alumni, family contacts or your career center with a short, specific email.
• Pre-med, PA and physical therapy applicants often need documented shadowing hours, and published minimums mostly fall between 20 and 50 hours, depending on the program.
Externships are short, remote professional experience programs where you work on real projects for real companies, with guidance from people in the field. If shadowing showed you a field you like, the Healthcare Operations & Consulting Externship, the TruBridge Healthcare Data Analytics Externship and the Pinterest Gen Z Consumer Behavior Externship let you do the work yourself. Explore all Externships.
What Is Job Shadowing?
Job shadowing is a short, unpaid career-exploration experience where you observe a professional as they work. The U.S. Department of Labor describes it as a "temporary unpaid exposure to the workplace" that can last "anywhere from a few hours to a day to a week or more" (U.S. Department of Labor, TEGL 21-16).
What Happens During a Job Shadow
A typical shadow day looks like this. You arrive, meet your host, and follow them through their schedule: meetings, calls, client visits, focused work. In between, you ask questions about what you're seeing. Some hosts introduce you to colleagues, so you hear about a few roles in one day.
But you won't run projects or produce anything. That's the point and the limit of shadowing: you get an honest look at the job without the pressure of doing it. High school students often shadow through school programs, college students arrange shadows through alumni or career centers, and career changers use them to test a field before going back to school.
Job Shadowing Examples by Field
• Marketing: sit in on a campaign planning meeting and watch how an analyst pulls performance data.
• Software engineering: watch a code review.
• Medicine and nursing: follow a physician, PA or nurse on rounds or in clinic, within the patient-privacy rules the site sets.
• Finance: shadow an analyst during earnings season, when the team updates its models after each company reports, and ask how they decide which numbers matter most.
• Engineering: visit a plant or job site with an engineer and watch a safety walk-through.
• Law: attend a hearing or client meeting with an attorney, where the court or client allows it.
How Is Job Shadowing Different From an Internship or an Externship?
Job shadowing is watching; an internship or an Extern Externship is doing. That difference decides what you get out of each one, from what you learn to what you can put on your resume.
Shadowing vs. Internship vs. Externship
The word "externship" means two different things. In medicine and law, an externship is often a short, supervised observation placement, which is close to shadowing. Extern's Externships are different: you complete a real project for a company, remotely, with guidance from professionals. As we put it in our guide to Externships, Externships are not job shadowing.
| Job shadowing | Internship | Traditional externship (medicine, law) | Extern Externship | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you do | Observe a professional and ask questions | Do real work for an employer | Supervised placement, often observation-heavy | Complete a real project with guidance from professionals |
| Length | A few hours to about a week | Often 8 to 12 weeks in summer, or a semester | A few days to several weeks | 4 to 11 weeks, most often 8 |
| Pay | Usually unpaid | Often paid | Usually unpaid, sometimes for credit | Unpaid |
| Where | On site, sometimes virtual | On site, hybrid or remote | On site (hospital, clinic, court, firm) | Remote |
| What it shows on a resume | Interest and initiative | Work experience | Clinical or legal exposure | A finished project you can walk through |
| Best for | Testing whether you like a career | Building experience in a field you chose | Students in medical, nursing or law programs | Getting real experience without relocating or pausing classes |
So if you're still choosing a field, shadowing is a cheap first test. Once you know what you want to try, an internship or an Externship gives you the work experience employers ask about. Our externship vs internship guide compares those two in detail.
What Are the Benefits and Downsides of Job Shadowing?
The biggest benefit is honesty: you see the real job, including the boring parts. The biggest downside is that you only watch, so you leave with impressions rather than skills or proof.
What You Get and What You Don't
What you get:
• A fit test. One day can confirm a career or save you a semester of classes in the wrong direction.
• A contact. Your host now knows you, and a good thank-you note keeps that connection alive.
• The vocabulary. You'll hear how people in the field actually talk, which helps in cover letters and interviews.
• Something to talk about. Admissions and hiring readers like specific stories about what you observed.
What you don't get:
• Hands-on skills. You watch tasks rather than practice them.
• Much resume weight. A shadow day shows interest, not ability.
• A full picture. One day can be unusually quiet or unusually hectic, so try to shadow more than once if the career matters to you.
How Do You Ask to Job Shadow Someone?
Ask someone who already has a reason to help you, keep the request small and specific, and make it easy to say yes.
A Step-by-Step Request and Email Template
1. Start with warm contacts. Alumni from your school, family friends, professors' former students and your career center are the best sources. Some universities run formal programs: the University of Chicago, for example, runs an unpaid job shadowing program during academic breaks (UChicago Career Advancement).
2. Pick a specific role, not a company. "A UX designer at a health tech company" is easier for a host to say yes to than "anyone at Google."
3. Ask for a short window. Half a day or a full day is a reasonable first ask. You can always ask for more later.
4. Send a short email. Mention the connection, the role and the time you're asking for.
5. Prepare before the day. Read about the company, your host's role and two or three projects they've worked on.
6. Send a thank-you within a day. Mention one thing you learned and, if it's true, what you'll do next because of it.
Here's a template you can adapt:
Hi [Name], I'm a [year] at [School] studying [major], and I found you through [connection]. I'm exploring a career in [field], and I'd love to see what a day in your role looks like. Would you be open to letting me shadow you for a half-day or a day sometime in the next few weeks? I'm happy to work around your schedule and to follow any rules your office has for visitors. Thank you for considering it, [Your name]
And if a full shadow day isn't possible, ask for a 20-minute conversation instead. Our coffee chat guide covers how to ask and what to talk about.
What Should You Ask While Job Shadowing?
Ask about the work you're watching, how your host got there, and what they'd tell someone starting out. Save your questions for natural breaks so you don't interrupt the work.
15 Questions to Ask
About the work:
1. What does a typical week look like for you?
2. Which part of what I saw today takes the most of your time, and what happens on the days I didn't see?
3. What tools do you use most?
4. What's the hardest part of your job that a visitor wouldn't notice?
5. How do you know when you've done a good job, especially on work that doesn't have an obvious finish line?
About the path:
6. How did you get here?
7. What did your first year look like?
8. Which classes or experiences prepared you best, and which ones turned out not to matter much?
9. What do you wish you'd known?
10. Where do people in your role usually go next, and how long do they tend to stay in it?
About getting started:
11. What skills should I build now?
12. Are there internships, Externships or other programs you'd recommend for someone at my stage?
13. What do hiring managers here look for?
14. Is there anyone else you think I should talk to?
15. Can we stay in touch?
For a longer question bank, see our informational interview questions guide. On the day, dress one step more formal than the office norm, bring a notebook, and ask in advance about any site rules, especially in hospitals, labs and courtrooms.
Can You Job Shadow Virtually?
Yes, in two different ways: live virtual shadowing, where you join a professional's calls or telehealth sessions by video, and on-demand platforms that show recorded day-in-the-life videos. They aren't the same thing, and some programs treat them differently.
Virtual Job Shadowing Options
• Live virtual shadowing. Some hosts let you join video meetings or watch a workday remotely. The AAMC publishes tips on virtual shadowing in medicine, including telehealth visits (AAMC).
• Video platforms. Virtual Job Shadow, now part of Pathful Explore, is a career-exploration platform that schools and organizations license, built around recorded career videos rather than live shadowing (Pathful).
• Healthcare caveat. If you need shadowing hours for a health program, check whether virtual hours count. Duke's physical therapy program says all hours must be in person, while Lawrence Technological University's PA program accepts up to 10 virtual hours.
And if you want remote experience where you actually do the work, an Externship is the hands-on version: you work on a real project from home, part-time, with an Extern manager guiding you.
How Many Shadowing Hours Do Pre-Med, PA and PT Students Need?
There's no national number. Each program sets its own expectation, and published minimums mostly fall between 20 and 50 hours, with a few outliers. So "Is 20 hours enough?" or "Is 40 hours enough?" depends on where you're applying.
Shadowing Expectations by Program
| Program type | What the national application body says | Examples of program requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Medical school (MD) | Shadowing is not required and no hour number is given. In an AAMC survey of admissions officers, 87% said they accept an alternative activity instead of clinical shadowing (AAMC). | University of Maryland School of Medicine's shadowing program expects at least 40 hours within three months (UMSOM). |
| Osteopathic medicine (DO) | AACOM encourages shadowing a DO but gives no hour number (AACOM). | Policies differ: Western University COMP accepts only in-person shadowing, while PCOM Georgia accepts virtual or in-person shadowing (AACOM school profiles). |
| Physician assistant (PA) | Each program sets its own requirement through CASPA. | Kean University: 20 hours (Kean). Lawrence Technological University: 20 hours, up to 10 virtual (LTU). Notre Dame of Maryland: 40 hours on a signed form (NDMU). Mayo Clinic: two half-days (Mayo). |
| Physical therapy (DPT) | PTCAS does not decide whether you have enough hours. In our count of the PTCAS observation directory on October 15, 2026, 216 of 320 programs listed required hours, and 40 was the most common minimum. | UW-Madison: 40 hours, verified by a licensed PT or PTA (UW-Madison). Duke: 50 hours, in person only (Duke). |
| Occupational therapy and pre-vet | OTCAS does not verify observation hours (OTCAS), and most veterinary schools set no minimum, according to AAVMC. | Check each program's admissions page. |
Two practical tips. First, log every session as you go: date, site, the professional you shadowed, hours and what you observed. Several programs want signed verification forms, and PTCAS notes that once you submit, you can't edit or remove the observation hours you entered (PTCAS). Second, check each program's admissions page before you plan your hours, because requirements and virtual-hour rules change.
How Do You Put Job Shadowing on a Resume?
Add it when it's relevant to the job or program you're applying for, label it honestly as shadowing, and keep it short. Shadowing shows interest and initiative, not hands-on experience, so don't describe it as an internship.
Where It Goes and How to Word It
Put shadowing in a section like Career Exploration or Relevant Experience, below any jobs or internships. Name the organization, the role you shadowed, the dates and the total hours if they matter (they do for health programs). Then add one line about what you observed or learned.
For example:
Job Shadow, Physical Therapy | Riverside Outpatient Clinic | June 2026 (24 hours) Observed evaluations and treatment sessions for orthopedic patients; learned how therapists plan progressive exercise programs.
But once you have hands-on work, like an internship or an Externship project, put that higher on the page, because it shows what you can do rather than what you've seen.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does job shadowing usually last?
Most job shadows last a few hours to a full workday, and some run for several days or a week. School and employer programs set their own length. In healthcare, students often shadow across several sessions to build up the hours that programs expect.
Do you get paid for job shadowing?
Usually not. Job shadowing is observation rather than work, so it's typically unpaid and short. If a host starts asking you to do real work for them on a regular basis, it's closer to an internship, and you should ask how the role is set up, including pay.
How do you get a job shadowing opportunity?
Start with people who already know you or your school: alumni, family contacts, professors and your career center, which may run a formal shadowing program. Send a short, specific request for a few hours on a day that suits them, and offer to adjust to their schedule.
Is job shadowing the same as an externship?
Not always. In medicine and law, an externship often means supervised observation, which is close to shadowing. Extern's Externships are different: you complete a real project for a company remotely, with guidance from professionals, so you finish with work you can show employers.
Can high school students job shadow?
Yes. Many high schools and community groups run job shadow days, and programs like JA Job Shadow are built for students in grades 9 to 12. Some settings, especially hospitals, set minimum ages, so ask your school counselor or career center what is available locally.
Is job shadowing worth putting on a resume?
Yes, if it's relevant to the role you want and you describe it honestly as shadowing. Put it under a section like Career Exploration or Relevant Experience, name the organization and the role you observed, and add one line on what you learned.
Is 40 hours of shadowing enough for PA or medical school?
It depends on the program. Many physical therapy programs and some PA programs list 40 hours as their minimum, while others ask for 20, 50 or more, and medical schools generally don't set a fixed number. Check each program's admissions page and log your hours with dates and signatures.
About the Author
Bifei Wang has spent 17 years focused on human flow and the growth of young professionals, spanning international education, career training and coaching, and recruitment process outsourcing. Over 7 years at Extern, he has had one-on-one sessions with thousands of students exploring careers in consulting, finance, tech, marketing, and data, giving him a firsthand view of how the job market has shifted for early-career professionals and what it actually takes to break in.
