For Ryan Witt, Senior Operations Analyst at PCG, it was a positive change of pace to welcome eight local high school students to PCG’s Chicago office for a recent Job Shadow Day.

For the third consecutive year, PCG had juniors and seniors from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) focusing on careers in entrepreneurship and business administration spend a half day learning from PCG professionals about the work they do supporting clients to improve operations and implement solutions.

“Some of the students we met had never really spent time inside an office environment like PCG, but it was interesting to see them make connections from their own lives to the work that PCG does,” Ryan said. “We all were impressed with how particularly interested they were in the technology and software that we use.”

In addition to attending a presentation on PCG’s business and participating in a 30-minute data analysis exercise, the students also brought their resumes to get feedback from PCG staff on how to best present their experience and interests. Through its work in human services and education, PCG has been particularly interested in supporting students in career readiness by collaborating with CPS and the Illinois State Board of Education.

Alongside Ryan, Jesse Shepherd, Senior Compliance Advisor, and Katie Bright, an Associate Manager within PCG’s Human Services practice, led the high school students through an interactive and fun day filled with interview preparation, skill-building activities, and learning about the various areas that PCG serves within the public sector.

One student noted the benefit of the program at PCG was “coming into the office and seeing what [PCG] does. [And seeing] how you help each other has really helped me [understand] how businesses work." 

“We felt this was a great opportunity for students to think about unique careers and how they can combine current interests into a career,” said Jennifer Mitchell, Career and Technical Education Partnership Development Liaison for Chicago Public Schools.

All the participating PCG staff greatly enjoyed the day and appreciated the chance to interact with high school students from the community. PCG is excited to see what next year’s Job Shadow Day brings.