One of the biggest parts about high school in grade 10 and above is deciding and planning what you are going to do in the future. There are many different options for us when we leave school and we have explored these as part of the grade 10 planning course. As the final part of this course we have had to complete a job shadow. We were tasked with finding someone to job shadow that works in an area that we think we might want to work in when we are older and out of school. This was something that I knew would be very challenging from the very beginning, mostly because I have no idea what I want to when I leave school. However, it was a great way to start exploring my ideas for a future career.

One of the first things that we had to do to prepare for the job shadow was create a list of places or people that we would like to go job shadow based on our interests. Because I don’t know want I want to do when I am older I created a list of jobs that are based on some interests I have now. Some of these included photographers, park rangers and animal workers like the SPCA. These were all jobs that I think I might like to do in the future because they all involve things that I am interested in now. On this list we had to put down addresses, phone numbers and any other contact information.

 

After making this list I contacted all of these places to see if they would let me follow an employee around and see what they do on a daily basis. This was probably the hardest part of the whole project as every single response I got from these places was “no” or I received no reply at all. Some of the places I called referred me to other job sites but even then the answer was “no”. This really caused a struggle for me because after this I had no idea what to do. Eventually my old soccer coach, Dale Schienbein agreed to let me job shadow him, which was great.  He is the manager at the Seymour Golf and Country Club in North Vancouver. This was interesting to me because I really enjoy sport and outdoor activities and I looked forward to seeing how to develop a career in this area.

After I had made the call list I made a list of questions that I wanted to ask my job shadow about their job and how they got to this point in their career.  We have done lots of interviews before as part of our normal schooling so this wasn’t too hard to come up with. I would ask these during the job shadow and in the end he had some very interesting answers to these questions. There was a lot I learned from him that came from these questions and I’m very happy that I asked them. 

 

The actual job shadow was something that I wasn’t sure would be very interesting or I wouldn’t learn a lot from, but I was definitely wrong and I really enjoyed the day at the golf club. I was pretty nervous at first, but once we started everything was okay. Dale  is the Head Professional at the the golf club, and I started the day by meeting him at the pro shop. This is basically a store for all the golf equipment you need. He gave me a quick tour of all the buildings and I met some of the employees that work there. There were quite a few things that I noticed while I was on the tour as there were a lot of things going on. 

One thing that I noticed right away was how professional everyone must be while working there. I had to wear a collared shirt and pants even though I didn’t work there. Another thing I noticed was how organized that everything had to be to keep everything running smoothly on the course. They had to keep everything like cleaning things and organizing the golf clubs ahead of the schedule to make sure that people kept moving through the course without waiting too long. This was something that I did not expect as I thought it would be something that people just show up to, but there is a lot more planning and organization involved than I realized.

I was at the club on a very busy day because they were getting ready to open a brand new driving range. This had been in the construction phase for a couple of months and it was opening in just a few days. A lot of the work I saw was to deal with how they were best going to reveal in an event for their members so they could get the most out of it. I got see how they were planning to do such a reveal and how they are fixing some of the problems that might slow down their progress. One thing that I found to be very important about how Dale managed things there was how he expected the employees to act. If there was a problem that staff came to him with he wanted them to already be thinking about a way to fix the problem and to act on it. This was something that I have not seen in a lot places before and I thought it was very interesting. 

These are some of the most interesting answers that Dale gave me to my very long list of (he was very patient!):

Why did you decide to do this job?

The variety of the things that they do. Hiring staff, training staff, purchasing products, dealing with problems and figuring out the solution, talking to people to make sure that they have the best experience they can at the golf course. 

What is your least favourite thing about this job?

Not getting things done, always have lots of things that need get done. Where does the time go and who gets the time? Every day we have loads of things that need to be done and not a lot of time to do them. 

How long have you been working here?

26 years!

What other jobs have you had that have helped you with this job?

He worked as a bank teller and that helped him. Most of the jobs have been in golf. The game needs both golfers and golf professionals. 

What qualifications did you have to get for this job?

He went through the Canadian PGA program and started out as an assistant professional. He has a 4 year business degree and was 5 years as an assistant. There is one head professional at each club and many assistant professionals. 7 pros, 5 full time students, 15 part time kids, staff of 8 marshals at the Seymour club. About 35 employees when it gets really busy in the summer. They hire kids to help them in the summer. 

What is most useful thing you have learned from this job?

People skills. Communication with people is key. If you can’t communicate then you will never do it. You find a way to make the staff do the work that he needs to be done. Make sure the member experience is as great as possible. 300 to 350 people can come to the club in one day in summer. In winter it could be as low as 30 people a day. 

Do you ever wish you have a different job?

Sometimes! But it could always be a lot worst than it is. Very nice place to work which is very good, one of the things that keeps him at the job. 

Does this job affect you much when you are not working?

It effects him when he’s not working. Late nights when they have something busy to do. Work at home is something that they have to do. He does it because he loves to it. 

Towards the end of the day I listened in on a conference call that Dale attended with other golfing professionals from all over Canada and the US.  It was very relevant to me because it was about setting goals and how to attain them. The attendees on the call talked about how it is one thing to set a goal, but another thing to achieve it, and how can people set and achieve their goals.  They talked about SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound) goals, and how it is good to set goals in sand instead of stone. Goals in sand can change, versus rock in which they cannot. I thought this was really interesting.  

This made me think about the skills and knowledge that I have now, and what I need to learn to be able to do a job like Dale in the future.  I definitely need to get the best education possible, and research ways to improve my chances of getting experience in the areas that I am interested in.  I don’t know what I will choose as a career in the future, but this job shadow definitely helped to give me some ideas and I learnt a lot about working in the leisure industry and the hard work involved.