During one of his many shuttle flights between Boston and Manhattan, William W. Moyer wound up sitting with a few sportscasters from CBS. One of the men told Mr. Moyer he had a great voice and should consider doing voice-overs for television and radio.

CHERYL JUETTEN/Special Contributor

Brian Campbell test-drives a dream as a sports announcer with mentor Rich Burk.

"I'd never heard the term," said Mr. Moyer, 62, who had spent 40 years working in finance for Merrill Lynch and the Investment Technology Group. As his career was winding down, Mr. Moyer became intrigued by what the sportscaster had said.

Soon after he retired, Mr. Moyer's wife bought him a "Vocation Vacation." It allowed him to spend two days with Kim Crow, a professional voice-over artist in Florida. They began with the basics – reading stories and ad copy – then worked on intonation, speed and inflection.

CHERYL JUETTEN/Special Contributor

Vocation Vacations president and founder Brian Kurth has 300 mentors his company works with.

Ms. Crow taught Mr. Moyer how to download backgrounds from the Internet, mix sound on the computer and create a Web site. She taught him how to find work and explained the pros and cons of having an agent.

Vocation Vacations is the brainchild of Brian Kurth, a former business executive from Oregon. His company connects curious people with mentors who have the jobs they've only thought about pursuing.

JANIS MIGLAVS/Special Contributor

At Amity Vineyards in Amity, Ore., Gretchen Heilshorn tries out the duties of a winemaker with mentor Myron Redford.

Vacationers pay a fee ranging from $545 to $2,000 (airfare and lodging not included), though most are less than $1,200. Mr. Kurth estimates that 40 percent of his clients are baby boomers looking for a career change, 40 percent are Generation Xers (born in the 1960s and 1970s), 10 percent are millennials (born between 1980 and 1995), and 10 percent are retirees who are signing up for fun.

Mr. Kurth, who spent much of the 1990s in product management, said he began taking informal surveys in 2002 to see if people would pay to have a two- or three-day experience in a dream job. Two years later, he launched Vocation Vacations, starting with 10 mentors in Oregon. Today he has 300 mentors, who are paid each time they work with a client.

Debra Piver, a 47-year-old theater educator from Los Angeles, flew to Nantucket to explore perfume making. She paid $949 to spend three days with John Harding, founder of Nantucket Natural Oils.

"We started by training my nose – placing different drops and combinations of essences on coffee filters, as they have no scent," Ms. Piver said. Between a drop of rose, a drop of patchouli oil and a drop of orange, she was asked which smelled sweeter, richer, more feminine and sexier, to train her memory. She also learned how to identify oils such as amber, sandalwood and peony, and how best to combine them.

Mr. Kurth views Vocation Vacations as an instrument that helps people get closer to seeing whether they want to pursue a particular career path.

"We're not the Holy Grail," he said. "You're not suddenly going to be able to become a sports announcer, clothing designer or day-care owner, but you may be able to learn if you want to go on to write your business plan or go back to school."

Elizabeth Nill, 60, who spent 20 years in higher education, said she wanted to indulge her creative side, which she'd neglected while working and raising a family. A friend mentioned the vacation idea. "I was describing my fantasy of designing clothing for women between the ages of 55 and 70," she said.

Ms. Nill's mentor was a fashion designer in Los Angeles. "I got a feel for what the economics are and made a huge number of contacts," she said. The experience reinforced her desire to try designing, and she has devoted two years to launching her own line.

Mr. Kurth said his company especially excels when there's a barrier to break, such as in the fields of fashion design and sports announcing.

"You can't just show up in a stadium and say, 'Hey, can I join you up in the box?' " he said. Mike Capps, sports announcer at Round Rock Express, a minor-league baseball team near Austin, is one of the Vocation Vacations mentors.

Career switchers aren't the only ones who sign up. Adam Maltais, 18, of Framingham, Mass., a college student majoring in history, spent two days learning the art of sword forging in New Glarus, Wis. It was a high school graduation gift from his parents.

Mr. Kurth pointed to his family as inspiration for the business. "My dad was a very unhappy insurance claims manager," he said. "He had been a police officer, and his true passion was to be a private detective."