Let me tell you about my school's ploy to tease alumni with jobs through their listserv and share with you why I consider it to be the ultimate tease. So, I subscribe to the list serv at my school for jobs geared to UWM alumni. Since I graduated from the School of Information Studies, almost all of the positions I am sent via email are for Masters-level education positions such as librarians, archivists, historians, technology coordinators and information architects.
Now, I had always planned on attaining my Master's Degree in Library and Information Science and working in the librarian (academic or special) field. The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, MLIS graduate blogs and these job postings from my school have all teamed up to deter me from this pursuit. Librarians are experiencing a negative growth rate as potential retirees decide to stick around longer, more students are pursuing the degree and increasing the competition and the entry-level positions to start out in (job titles including words like "substitute" or "assistant") usually recquire a Bachelor's Degree and some professional library experience and will start out at uncharacteristically low pay- think $11-$12/hour. Yes, you may be able to start at that and get your "foot in the door" or start your professional career, despite being very entry-level, but how do you feel about having a degree and working for that kind of wage in any scenario?
