What do you want to be when you grow up?

iStudent Blog

In many ways I envy new students to SLIS. A blank slate lies in front of you. You get to put your toes in the water and find out which aspects of the information profession interest and excite you. What courses you take may determine what kind of job you get in the future.

So why don’t you check out the Emerging Career Trends for Information Professionals report? Every summer a student assistant at SLIS looks at more than 450 job postings for information professionals. Each posting is scanned for keywords, required skills and duties, and the work site where the job will be based. The results are tabulated and organized so both students and working professionals can explore a brief snapshot of what the job market looks like.

Here are some highlights that stood out to me in the most recent report:

32% of jobs required significant technological skills

56% required additional work experience

(Keep that internship in mind for later.)

Many of the required skills and qualities that were found across all job listings were those we build and maintain here at SLIS, such as the ability to work independently and in groups, the ability to multitask, and the ability to perform research.

While 72% of the jobs studied were categorized as “traditional,” meaning those typical librarian jobs such as reference librarian or archivist, I found the 28% called “emerging jobs” to be of interest. These are jobs that deal heavily with technology and may not be in the typical work environment.

Examples of emerging jobs are virtual services librarians, digital archivists, and metadata managers. Many of these jobs, about 30%, deal with electronic resources.

Looking at the Emerging Career Trends report could be very beneficial to you, no matter if you know what you want to do in the future or not. It gives you a sense of what is out there, both in traditional informational capacities and nontraditional. Give yourself the chance to explore the possibilities of your degree.

Which jobs look interesting or intriguing to you?

Additional pages to peruse:

Information about internships

SLIS career blog

Find your career direction

Student assistantships

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