What you’re looking for is an apprenticeship
I can’t speak for all jobs, but shadowing is an effective tool and I’d be shocked if it isn’t pretty commonly applied. Not always in an apprenticeship sort of way to learn from scratch, but certainly to better understand the nuances of a role.
Shadowing is very important for jobs where the outcome of failure is potentially harmful or costly. Biological research is done almost exclusively through an apprenticeship-like training system, and part of that system is that you shadow a mentor when you start. (You’ll also continue to work closely with your mentor so that they can continue to supervise you personally for a long while before you’re allowed to work on your own)
My understanding is that hospital or medical work is pretty similar in that regard
I’m a maintenance engineer, and when we hire new techs they shadow an experienced tech and/or engineer for 30 days before they touch a machine. We assume about 2 years of hands-on experience to be a fully competent tech. Of course there are exceptions based upon previous work experience, but generally we mandate a month of shadowing.
Every job I’ve ever had did some sort of shadowing period. From retail, to call center work, to on premise IT.
Guess I misspoke. I meant if I wanted to be a welder or computer person. Could I contact the company and ask to shadow a person so I can learn the trade before I see what I am getting myself into?
Ask to be an intern.
That’s a good idea, but if you’re not an employee of some kind (perhaps intern in some fields) it’s just a loss for them. If you’re lucky you might get a day or two, especially if there’s grunt work you can do in trade, or you might know someone who can grease the wheels a bit. Otherwise, you can likely pay for the privilege if there aren’t significant safety (may break insurance policies) or legal (confidentiality etc.) issues. Best you can do is ask, perhaps repeatedly in different places.
We use internships to work on designing small tools and jigs used around our product. That way they get hands on experience while developing something useful but staying out of the way of production.
