I graduated! I have my master’s degree… Okay, what now?

Whether you’ve just finished your up MLIS or your MARA degree or you’re considering entering a master’s degree program at the SJSU School of Information, the school’s website offers an excellent overview of the program as well as real-life examples of what people do with these degrees. With the iSchool’s “Life After the MLIS” and “Life After the MARA” pages, prospective students and those delving into their job search can read about what alumni are doing with their degrees. We do our best to keep in touch with our alumni from all of the SJSU iSchool programs and share their successes on our website.

The Master of Archives and Records Administration degree (MARA) offers students the chance to work in archival settings, manage digital assets or work in the field of information governance. SJSU iSchool alumni are using the skills they earned from their course work in companies and organizations that are regular household names. Alumna Kristen Cook who graduated in 2016 works for ESPN, while Jennifer Gavin found employment with NASA after working with the organization as intern. On the Life After the MARA website page, these alumnae and alumnus Robert McLauchlin talk about the value of their MARA degree and how the work they did at the iSchool prepared them to be highly valued employees. All three SJSU graduates went on to use the knowledge they gained while at the iSchool to become certified as Information Governance Professionals or Information Privacy Managers. With the degree, the certifications and the experience, they were able to really shine when it came time to meet potential employers.

The SJSU School of Information enrolls the most students for its exclusively online Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program. Graduates of the MLIS program have found an extensive variety of career opportunities in different work environments. Dolly Goulart, Whitni Watkins and Scott Brown all graduated from the iSchool’s MLIS program and have all found rewarding work in corporate library settings. Brown has even gone on to find work teaching as an iSchool instructor. Alumnae R. Lynn Baker and Sylvia Aguiñaga who graduated in 2015 and 2016 respectively, both work with young people. Baker is an author and early childhood literacy specialist and works with young children and families to ensure that preschoolers are prepared to enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed. Aguiñaga spends her time encouraging, engaging and learning right along with her group of teenage girls through the DIY Girls organization in the Los Angeles area.

If you want a more in-depth look at what iSchool alumni do, be sure to check out the MLIS At Work videos. On of my favorites is the video that features Santa Clara County deputy library director Chris Brown who put together a multi-media presentation of war veterans, their tattoos and the stories those tattoos represent. These videos feature alumni in unique job positions, using the skills they acquired at the iSchool to be knowledge infrastructure managers, digital assets managers or museum curators like Beth Atlas, who is the senior coordinator at the San Francisco 49er’s Museum at Levi Stadium.

These iSchool alumni are just a sampling of the amazing people who are using their master’s degrees to pursue careers in the wide and variety world of archives, information governance and information science. For more information about current students and alumni, check out the school’s Community Profile pages as well as the Alumni Career Spotlights.

If you are a prospective student and have further questions about either the SJSU School of Information’s MARA or MLIS programs, be sure to contact these people:

• MARA Program Coordinator: Dr. Pat Franks
• MLIS Program questions should be directed to iSchool Associate Director Dr. Linda Main

If a full master’s program is more than what your looking for, be sure to consider some of the other online programs offers by the iSchool, including:

• Teacher Librarian Program
• Advanced Certificate in Digital Assets and Services
• Post-Masters Certificate in Library and Information Science

For related content, be sure to check out:
SJSU iSchool Convocation– Dreams and Musings on Graduating

Looking for a Career in Public Libraries? The SJSU iSchool Has the Scoop with Career Webinars 

image courtesy of Stuart Miles