We help people in their 40's and 50's accelerate their journey to rewarding, meaningful work through carefully created job shadowing opportunities from successful people doing work they love. Stop dreaming and start doing!
How ViewVo Works
Explore
Nearly 150 life changing, job shadowing opportunities.
Connect
Email our experts, ask questions & schedule your day
Experience
...a different job! Mystery solved & confidence built. Nice :)
We carefully vet and source mentors who are professional, credible, experienced and friendly. Their success, impartiality and willingness to share gives you the honest insight you need to make informed decisions. Not everyone wants to help you. We've solved that problem: learn from the best - because now you can.
View a Vocation - ViewVo
Short of an internship, job shadowing is proven to be more effective than any other form of career change learning. We've given people the confidence to take next steps (such as opening the coffee shop they've always dreamed about) and we've stopped others investing time, energy & savings, into work/retraining not right for them.
£ Value
Six sessions with a career coach typically costs £1k - 3k. Training courses are typically £500 - 5k. Job shadowing opportunities on ViewVo range from £60 - 1250. Some mentors ask you to donate the fee to charity. Either way, you are supporting small businesses, social enterprises and charities. Give as you learn.
No question unanswered
Our mentors will share insights on what costs and income is realistic, what systems and processes work best, what business development strategies do/don't work. Depending on the opportunity you'll be re-caning chairs, pruning vines, observing a coaching session, learning about which websites your B&B should avoid... and much much more.
Through Viewvo I received a valuable introduction to Ben and his team and was able to shadow what they do for a day and witness that this is not always a straightforward or easy process. In truth, one day is not a lot of time to spend in an organisation but it is enough time to gain a powerful impression of the type and focus of the work and the calibre of the team. This can be valuable in making a decision regarding career direction or learning how to be a professional consultant and my day was hugely beneficial in guiding my future career path.
*Update* - 10 months on from Felicity’s shadowing opportunity, she’s building experience to work out exactly what field within Occupational Psychology she wants to be doing. Her time with Ben was really helpful in refining focus to enable her to do this, and she secured a starter position as a Research Intern working in Learning and Development.
Felicity O'Hanlon
Mentor: Jonny Lattimer
Meeting Jonny has been a fantastic experience. I don’t think there’s any substitute for talking to someone that's not just in the career you want to do, but being incredibly successful in that career. One of the things I was keen to ask Jonny is what were the skills he thought he had and that someone like me could learn. So, I’ve got a long list of things to do and I’ve got some equipment to buy as well. I’ve learnt a lot, had a fantastic experience and would highly recommend it.
Alexander Stevenson
Mentor: Hannah Courtney Bennett
I worked as MD at a large investment bank in Canary Wharf managing over 300 people. I really enjoyed the people management side of the role, so after 20 years thought I might like to move more into coaching. After spending a day with a Hannah I realised I would miss being part of a bigger team and having a more strategic business remit and operations to guide. I'm now working in consultancy helping companies go through change management processes - so very much focusing on people management, but giving me more of the strategic business focus I realised I needed.
Paul Burleton
Mentor: Jehane Boden Spiers
I found Jehane very warm and welcoming, lovely and easy to talk to. Jehane gave me feedback on areas in my portfolio which could be improved & developed. I found it useful to get Jehane’s opinion on where she thought my work would fit in the industry. She encouraged me to keep pursuing personal projects and was able to offer really constructive feedback on my portfolio which will hopefully see me improve my work and gain more freelance job opportunities in the future. I would definitely highly recommend Jehane to friends looking to publish and license their work.
Tabitha Mardle
Mentor: Susannah Hunter
I’m an accountant by profession. I’ve been making things all my life and I’ve got to the stage now where I didn’t want to do accountancy anymore as it wasn’t really fulfilling me. I found the day with Susannah absolutely brilliant. She’s been really generous to me in opening up her contacts book so that I know who to go to now for leather suppliers and materials, and she’s given me really good insight into how the mechanics of the business work. the nuts and the bolts of it, the highs, and the lows. I’d definitely recommend job shadowing!
*Update* 7 months on Mary is looking at buying a leather goods production company, which would be a faster route to market for her. Meeting Susannah helped her decision by providing invaluable insight into the industry.
Mary Byrne
Mentor: Fiona Tothill
What ViewVo offers is a really cool way to get behind the scenes, to see the bits that you would never get to see as a customer or as an outsider. I had the opportunity to spend the day at the stables and ask all the questions I had but wasn’t sure who to ask. I’ve had a great day and it’s been really helpful – I would highly recommend job shadowing and being able to meet a mentor.
Lorraine T
Mentor: Mark Hislop
I used to work in private equity and wanted to run my own business. I love beer so spending a day at a brewery made sense. It was colder, smellier and harder work physically than I'd anticipated - it really opened my eyes to the reality. I also realised I'd miss too much of my analytical skills so instead, I do now work in the beer industry but in my own boutique business. I even stock beer from the brewery I shadowed!
Jon K
Mentor: Richard Malloy
I’d always wanted to see what it would be like to work at my own firm. Using the ViewVo website I was able to get in touch with Richard who worked in the exact field I was interested in.
Richard was the nicest, friendliest mentor in the world. He showed me loads of different aspects of the job. Seeing him in action made me realise that I wasn’t ready to follow in his footsteps. I would absolutely recommend ViewVo to anyone thinking of changing jobs and wants real, unbiased and bespoke advice.
Lizzie Thomas
Mentor: Sheryl Jefferson
‘The call was brilliant! Sheryl is so awesome and her energy is just infectious. Using Skype worked really well as I’m a mum of two, so we were able to have a break for baby feeding/lunch in the middle. I learnt so much – I have 6 A4 sides of notes and loads of action points to take away. Sheryl shared so much knowledge and I’m definitely reassured that I can go and do this! I can't wait to start my business.’
*Update* 1 month on from Anna's shadowing opportunity with Sheryl, she's setting up her website and has already met her first potential client!
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London