Adventures in Job Shadowing

Last week’s classes were canceled (yes, after only one full week of classes following winter break) for “career week.” The intent was for students to have  a week to search out job prospects and internships, but the consensus of my classmates was that most of the time was spent either catching up on assigned readings, getting sick, or having babies (congratulations again, Tim).

On Monday I helped out with the kid’s home schooling and applied for two internships, both in Utah with city governments. On Tuesday I helped with home schooling again, caught up on some reading, and enjoyed time home with my Family. By Wednesday, I went to Eagle Mountain to job shadow the city manager, John Hendrickson. Eagle Mountain is a city of about 25,000 citizens and John has been the manager there for a few years. He has been in city management for over twenty years. It was great to see “a day in the life” of a city manager of a smaller city and become familiar with some of the challenges and opportunities that come with working in/for a small city. John was great to let me shadow him for the entire day, and even allowed me to sit in on all his meetings (including a top secret meeting with ——- and ——- about —————-). We had lots of one-on-one time for me to ask him specific questions about his career and some of the things I had learned over the past semester.

I also got a new favorite quote from him. it is taken from his great-great-grandmother who used to always tell him, “Everyone is a little strange except for me and thee, and sometimes I wonder about thee.” We were discussing how he deals with personnel issues and how reminding himself that not everyone will see things the same way he does helps him keep things in perspective.

Time to head to class. My next entry will be on Thursday’s job shadow in Sandy City.