Career Areas
Participating in the Extern Job Shadowing Program allows you to explore a career area
of interest. If you are undecided about your career placement choice, your campus career centre
can suggest workshops and resources to assist you in discovering your options. You can also
access many online resources including Choosing a Career.
Each year, the program places hundreds of students in a diverse variety of career areas.
We encourage you to apply in the career area that you are most interested. Some of the more popular career areas include health care (doctors, nurses, technicians), lawyers, teachers, however you are not limited to these areas. Please review the following restricted career areas before you submit your program registration form .
Career Areas where Job Shadowing Placements are Not Possible
- Airport Services/Customs/Immigration Due to security reasons placements with pilots
and other airport personnel are not possible.
- Consulates and Embassies Due to security reasons,
placements are not possible in any consulate or embassy.
- Policing Accompanying police officers in police
cruisers is not permitted. For most policing agencies, a placement is usually restricted
to an information session.
Career areas Restricted to Informational Interviews/Tours
- Accounting February through May is audit, tax,
RRSP, and fiscal year-end periods in Canada. For this reason, large accounting firms
will not participate in the Extern Job Shadowing Program. On occasion,
the program has been able to organize group information sessions with accounting associations.
- Investment Banking/Corporate Banking Sector The banking sector is regulated
by privacy legislation. Participants will not be placed with hosts who have access
to financial data, such as those in investment and retail banking. Most placements
in this area are restricted to informational interviews.
- Forensic Sciences Placements are restricted to
tours and presentations.
- Management Consulting Due to confidentiality issues, placements in this career area are rare and are limited to informational interviews.
- Psychology/Psychiatry/Formal Counselling Exposure
is usually limited to informational interviews due to confidentiality issues.
Other Program Restrictions
- Medical-related placements While we have found placements in
many different medical areas (including nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and some
doctors), there are a number of privacy regulations in this industry. Participants will not have access
to any medical records. In addition, it is rare to sit in on appointments with hosting
doctors, dentists or nurses, since patients always retain the right to refuse any
job shadowing during their care. In addition, placements are not possible inside
operating rooms and emergency rooms.
- Newspapers and Publishing Large newspapers and
magazines do not usually participate in job shadowing programs (they restrict their activity
to formal internships). Placements are possible in smaller publications.
- Pharmaceutical/Biotech Research These organizations
have various confidentiality and safety concerns. Placements may be possible in
hospital or university labs.
- Software Development Confidentiality issues and
competitor concerns means that participation by the software development industry
is limited.
- Teaching/Placements in schools Most schools require that you have a recent police check. Police checks can be done at the Toronto Police Services Head Office (40 College Street). Further information is available at the Toronto Police Services website (www.torontopolice.on.ca)
Who to contact
If you have questions or concerns, please contact
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