Student jobs

After class today, I had a conversation with a number of masters students about their job prospects. Students everywhere are always worried about getting that all-important first job, after which all future employment becomes easier, and German students are no exception. They have, however, less institutional infrastructure to help them.

One of the real problems they face is that Germany does not have a single source of accreditation, like the ALA in the US. Each state within Germany has its own standards for hiring librarians. Humboldt's distance-education program has an excellent set of contracts with the various states, but those contracts do not apply to the regular masters program. This leaves students in the awkward position of having an intellectually serious degree that fits the standard employment model so badly that people from the German equivalent to trade schools have an advantage in the job market. Our students need an advocate and I promised to do what I could.

Happily the problem may grow less with the "new" masters program that was designed to meet the pan-European reqirements for accreditation, though of course old employment habits die hard. Despite these worries our students do get jobs, often rather good ones.

We are having the second ever alumni meeting this Saturday, and I will be curious what it is like. I may talk to them about helping our job seekers.