It's called commercial flying buddy, something you have not done yet.
You are paid to give it a go, while doing it in a safe and commercially viable manner.
It sounds to me like your pilot did a gps DME arrival and circled in the circling area.
If you're in and out of small patches of cloud that you can see below and see the extent of, well provided you can keep orientated with the runway and you can keep visual reference (or expect to) then this it what IFR flying is all about.
There is a reason you were up the back, it's exactly where I would have put you.
You'll be doing much worse in much more arduous conditions VFR in our first charter job I can assure you.
Stay safe!