Learners aged 14+ preparing for future job shadows, internships, or career observations; adults and teenagers can finish entirely from the fictional scenario.
Course 75 · Work course 28
Prepare for Job Shadowing and Internships
Prepare useful questions and learning goals so you can make more of a future workplace experience.
Before you start
Use Sam’s fictional scheduling-office scenario.
See everything you’ll needWhat you’ll leave with
Clear learning goals, questions for a potential host, and a way to turn observations into useful next steps.
Start course Start without an account. Sign in to save lesson progress across devices.
Your project
Start with the practice files. Build your project one lesson at a time.
Practice files are free without an account. Sign in to save your project record in My Proof: a description, checklist, and optional work link. Keep the original files in your own app or notebook; saving a project record does not upload them.
- Get your materialsDownload the practice worksheetUse the downloadable worksheet or toolkit alongside the lesson instructions.
- Make your projectView the project checklist Work in your own notebook, document, or software. Use the supplied practice examples when you prefer.
- Keep a private recordSave a project record Sign in to save a description and checklist, then return to update them.
Course handbook
Know the route before you begin.
Here’s what you’ll need and what you’ll make. You can return to this guide during any lesson.
- Use Sam’s fictional scheduling-office scenario.
- Prepare a notes document with goal, observation, interpretation, and question columns.
- Read the public sources; university account tools and real outreach are optional and not needed.
Finish with proof you can use.
Prepare a plan for a future workplace visit or placement, then explain what you learned from the supplied fictional observation.
Save a project record in My ProofSee project checklist and review criteria
Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.
What to include
- Distinguish the learning format and its limits.
- Write two observable goals, four questions, and an evidence plan.
- Check supervision, activities, pay/expenses, access, safety, permissions, and privacy.
- Draft an unsent introduction and time-bounded agenda.
- Create a fact/inference observation log and an honestly labeled final reflection with a next question.
Review and revise
Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.
- Learning design: two observable goals, questions, and evidence plans fit the proposed experience format.
- Participation readiness: supervision, access, safety, pay/expense, privacy, and permission questions are recorded before attendance.
- Observation accuracy: facts, inferences, and unobserved steps remain separate in the fictional log.
- Honest reflection: the final caption and next question follow the evidence and never claim a real placement or credential.
Three ideas to help you along the way
Three useful ideas
The rules behind the steps.
Design the learning
A clear goal makes a short observation useful.
Verify participation conditions
Supervision, access, safety, and responsibilities need explicit answers.
Describe only what happened
Simulation and observation do not establish independent job competence.
What do these words mean?
Key words
Key terms worth knowing.
- Job shadow
- A career-learning activity primarily involving observation of work.
- Internship
- A structured experience with learning goals and defined activities; terms and legal status require verification.
- Learning goal
- An observable understanding or skill the activity is intended to develop.
- Inference
- An interpretation drawn from observations rather than a directly observed fact.
- Reflection
- A review connecting evidence, learning, limits, and next steps.
Your route6 lessons.
6 lessons.
One useful project.
Work in order the first time. Each lesson makes something the next lesson can use.
- 1Up next
Know what kind of experience you are preparing for
Distinguish an informational conversation, job shadow, internship, and paid job.
- 224 min
Write goals that observation can answer
Turn a broad interest into two observable learning goals and focused questions.
- 328 min
Check the host and participation conditions
Prepare a verification sheet for supervision, safety, access, pay, and permissions.
- 424 min
Prepare an introduction and an agreed agenda
Draft a short message for before the visit and a learning agenda that fits the available time.
- 524 min
Keep observations separate from interpretations
Create an anonymized observation log from a supplied workplace simulation.
- 630 min
Turn the experience into honest learning evidence
Collect your preparation work and explain what the simulation taught you. Choose one small, specific next step for learning.
Use the tools
See all tools Tools to help you practice.
Source transparency
Sources and further study.
Explore the references behind the lessons and take your learning further. Source notes explain access and reuse.
UC Berkeley Career Engagement — Internships
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Read the definition, structured learning, timeline, supervision, feedback, and compensation questions. The page’s Berkeley account services and opportunity listings are optional and may require affiliation; no learner is enrolled or placed.
Access: This Berkeley guidance page is free to read. Linked alumni, advising, and opportunity services may require accounts or affiliation and are optional; all required practice is fictional and offline-capable.
Reuse: This specific UC Berkeley Career Engagement — Internships resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
UC Berkeley Career Engagement — Informational interviews
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Read preparation, open questions, agreed meeting duration, note-taking, and follow-up. The course writes original fictional dialogues and does not require outreach or access to alumni tools.
Access: This Berkeley guidance page is free to read. Linked alumni, advising, and opportunity services may require accounts or affiliation and are optional; all required practice is fictional and offline-capable.
Reuse: This specific UC Berkeley Career Engagement — Informational interviews resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
OpenStax, Rice University — Learning from career experience
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Read work-experience reflection and evidence sections. The course uses simulated observation and clearly labeled artifacts; source examples and exercises are not copied.
Access: This specific OpenStax chapter is freely readable in a browser without an account. All required exercises are supplied here; no enrollment, certificate purchase, or university affiliation is needed.
Reuse: Original Life Starter examples, questions, and lesson sequence are informed by this OpenStax chapter. No source exercises, illustrations, quizzes, or logos are reproduced; consult the source’s own license for separate reuse.
CDC NIOSH — Young worker safety and health
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Read current employer training and hazard-communication responsibilities. Learners prepare questions; they do not conduct an actual placement or receive hands-on safety instruction.
Access: The dated CDC NIOSH safety page is public and free. Linked curricula or training are optional; this course does not require a workplace visit or hands-on activity.
Reuse: This specific CDC NIOSH — Young worker safety and health resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
eCFR — Child-labor scope and task restrictions
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Read current nonagricultural age/task provisions. The course does not assume that an internship, volunteer, or shadowing label creates an exemption; minors’ actual arrangements require official local verification.
Access: The cited eCFR provision is publicly readable without an account. It is a current legal-reference resource, not an official legal edition or a personal eligibility determination.
Reuse: This specific eCFR — Child-labor scope and task restrictions resource supports the cited lessons. Life Starter’s scenarios, calculations, scripts, and questions are original; no source worksheet, logo, or endorsement is reused. Free reading is not a general reuse license.
Ready when you are
Start lesson one Start with the first useful move.
You’ll always know what to do, what to make, and where to go next.
Open collaboration ideaHelp keep this complete course free.
Potential collaboration: Suitable for school career programs, colleges, youth organizations, and employer partners providing preparation before separately arranged placements; no placement, credit, or grant eligibility is implied.
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