Well, my first week of work is over (nice to start on a week with a stat holiday!) and as I dig into my bag of bookmarks for something relevant to post on a day where I'm burned out after a day that started early, included a lot of miles on the road, finished with a pre-natal class and will start early tomorrow when I drive Shea to work at 7am, I find that I had the MLIS Placement Surveys bookmarked for just this sort of occasion. Some useful information there if you're a recent grad or especially if you're a soon-to-be grad about what your prospects might be.
I haven't been formally asked to do the 2006 version of the survey (not sure when it's done) but here's the answers I would give (and the most common answers in italics after:)
Type of Employment: Full-time Temporary Professional (Full Time Permanent)
Related to MLIS Degree? Yes (Yes)
Location: In Public Library (or possibly Library Cooperative/Network would be a better fit?) (Public)
Primary Job Assignment: my duties encompass a lot of different things but if I had to choose one from their list, it would likely be Administration/Management (Reference)
Employed By Former Co-op Position: Not applicable (No)
Salary Range: $40 000 – $49 000 ($40 000 – $49 000)
Geographic Location: Saskatchewan (Ontario)
When Employment Found: 3-6 months after graduation (well, again, a bit tough. In my mind, I don't count December as part of my job hunt as there was nothing out there and I wasn't too anxious to find something either. So to me, my job hunt was Jan-March and really, less than 3 months in my mind.) (Less than 3 months)
Skill or Knowledge Most Useful In Finding Position: For me, it was the professional mentorship program as that's how I heard about the job and in the end, I'm actually replacing the person I was paired with during my final semester. (Subject specialization)
I wonder if there are any questions they miss that would be interesting to know the answer to? Not off the top of my head.
You also have to be aware of the self-selection bias of a survey of this – they point out at the start of each year's results that most of the respondents are people who have found work and even then, they only get response rates of 35-40%. It would be a lot more informative if they got a 100% response rate but of course, that's all but impossible.
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