This was at a well-ranked MLS program, and it was more than a month into the program, and the student I was talking to already had a master’s degree in education. She was changing careers after having been a classroom teacher.

This is a true story – if I could make up stuff as crazy and horrific as this, I’d be putting Stephen King and Joe Hill out of business.

I put a lot of work into the process, above what was required, so found that I got a lot out of my classes. Still, no one has seemed to care either in my undergrad or post graduate days where I went to school. They always seemed to be far more interested in what I could do. Interesting that maybe I matters more than I thought it did, and perhaps it did help in landing that first job (even though I didn’t think it did) since the professors at my school were well known in the field. Three of my main teachers now teach in those schools ranked number one and two.

(To others – my point above was that I don’t think your choice of library school matters unless you plan to leave the profession. In that case, I think it does matter. I don’t mean that you need to attend one of those “highly-ranked” library schools – those programs are often at schools which otherwise are not very well-regarded. Instead, attending a program at a university which is considered a research powerhouse and has a good international reputation will serve you well when dealing with people (future admissions committees, hiring managers) who don’t know anything about an MLIS program. a 3.9 GPA from a top-ranked university looks a lot better than a 3.9 for University of North Texas or whatever that school is.

Schools also matter when you are first entering a new field (not librarianship, see above comment.) Trust me, my undergrad institution is what got me my first job out of college, and continued to make me stand out and be successful in all of my job searches. I also now have two very powerful alumni networks behind me, with successful people in all industries willing to help out fellow grads.

I definitely agree experience is important, and great experience can trump a Harvard degree that’s coupled with less experience. But it is simply not true that nobody cares where you went to school. Admissions committees for future degree programs, and hiring managers, DO take your education into consideration. I have inside knowledge of this.

I agree with one of the commentators that the school you go to and the grades you earn generally don’t matter either in library world or in other professions. Being mobile and gaining pre graduation experience is important. Employers are interested in what you can do for them now.

But it’s so hard for new grads to find a job currently that I actively discourage people from going into the profession without knowing what they are getting into first, particularly if they are unable or unwilling to move wherever. It’s unconscionable to expect people to take out loans and go for a degree with little hope of finding a job because there are too many people in the field. Yes, this can be said for other fields too, but I’ve been told by older librarians that this idea of mass retirement has been around for a very long time, far more than the 10 years indicated in the graying of the profession article on another page on this site.