Entering a difficult job market fresh out of library school can feel like being dropped into a foreign land. In our panel discussion, we will share how our LIS education prepared us for library jobs, but also how choosing a specialization such as business or pursuing generalist roles impacted the way we approached networking, selecting mentors, and finding career opportunities. Library school may have started us on the path, but finding mentorship within these specialties is where we found our true sense of direction in navigating the academic and professional space. We are going to further discuss how it led us to making professional connections through workshops and conferences as library students and early career librarians. These experiences have proven valuable to our panel as Ben acquired a business liaison position six months after graduation and Elizabeth became an instruction and research services librarian prior to graduation. We also plan to dive into what it has been like adapting to the current political and economic uncertainty surrounding higher education and academic spaces while starting off our careers. This panel will offer insights to library school students and seasoned professionals looking to support new librarians. In addition to answering questions moderated by Nancy Lovas (Entrepreneurship & Business Librarian at UNC Chapel Hill), there will be time set aside at the end to respond to questions from the audience and hear from them about their own experiences with mentoring, difficult job markets, and uncertainty for the academic space.
