Job Shadow Time Lapse

Background

On my hour commute to work I have lots of time to think about stuff. My frequent topics revolve around work and career since I still don't feel like I've found my vocational calling in life. One recurring theme in my career search is the mismatch between our dreams and reality.

For example, my first post-college job was essentially my dream job. I got hired at a prestigious company, working on cutting-edge technology with excellent compensation. But the reality of any job is that things are messy, at best. People can be the most challenging aspect of a job, and the work that you do is far from the academic rigor of the daily homework presented in engineering classes.

Company brochures, recruiting videos and people typically present only their best front about their jobs (which is exactly what I experienced when I tried to interview people on the inside). Work with robots that automatically build computer chips? Sounds awesome! But sometimes that daily work lacks luster. Long shifts, starting at a screen under artificial lighting. These are things that somehow get omitted from the company propaganda.

Even career services presents a biased picture of various jobs. But who can blame them? Their bottom-line mission is to get people into the work place to support themselves. Most people I know would rather do something other than their work, but we all recognize work as a necessary part of life. So everyone puts on a bit of a front.

But I think that makes it more challenging to find a fitting job. It's like you only look at half the job. And I love so many things, they all sound appealing. For me it's the negative aspects of a job that have made a bigger difference in my personal satisfaction.

I wish that you could get a fuller, unbiased idea of a job. I think job shadows are a great way to accomplish this. The difficulty of a job shadow is finding them. Linked-In can help, but in my personal experience people have been hesitant even when getting introduced by a mutual connection. There's got to be a better way?

The Idea

Create time-lapse, job-shadow videos. The videos would give a representative look at the daily activities for various jobs. This way you can see the statistician sitting for hours in front of his computer, or the manager sitting through hours upon hours of meetings. Important aspects of a job could be emphasized by slowing down the video. But not too much editing. If a job contains lots of walking then you want to capture that aspect.

Progress

I have no idea how to market something like this, but it would be a great addition to someone who is already in this space. Or maybe you could start the website and pay freelancers to take the video. With that approach, I wonder if this could fall under my "Teen Business" ideas.

This is another one of those services I wish existed. I would pay for this, but I don't want to start this business.