From Dal News (read the full article here). The story features photos and quotes from MLIS students Christine Cousins and Ali McLaughlin.

The MLIS Career Discovery Tour is just one of the ways in which Management Career Services supports our students. Learn more here. You can also read MLIS student Rebekah Prette’s personal account of her Discovery Tour experience here.

In December, Faculty of Management students in the Master of Library Information Studies (MLIS) and Master of Resource and Environmental Management (MREM) programs took part in Career Discovery Tours. These two-day experiential learning opportunities allow students to connect in person and network with program alumni and professionals in related careers and organizations. Students also visit a range of workplaces, participate in practice interviews with industry professionals, and learn about career choices available after graduation.

The MLIS tour to Toronto was organized by Management Career Services (MCS). Robert Wooden, Acting Director of MCS, led nine students through two jam-packed days of activities designed to prepare them to take full advantage of their education and training. “They don’t necessarily know all the different directions their degree could take them or understand how their competencies could apply in many different industries,” he explains. On this tour alone, students visited the Toronto Public Library, the University Health Network and Michener Institute, Ryerson University Library and Deloitte Consulting. They also attended panel discussions, networked with alumni and gained invaluable feedback through practice interviews.

Second-year MLIS student Christine Cousins, from Guelph, was struck by the “openness among my future colleagues and their willingness to talk and answer questions. If you’re undecided or uncertain about where you want to go, this tour is excellent because it gives you lots of options. Information management is not just libraries anymore—our professors tell us this, but it’s good to see how it plays out in real life.” Cousins is leaning toward public librarianship.

When first-year MLIS student Alison McLaughlin signed up for the tour, she wasn’t sure what to expect. She’s interested in academic librarianship, but she’s also considering special libraries and other non-library information management careers. For her, the tour demystified the process of choosing a career path. “I’ve been a student my whole life,” she explains. “It made the whole starting to work thing a little less daunting. We had panels and got to ask people questions about how they got where they are and how they made that decision.”

Another bonus was discovering that a city like Toronto might be a fun place to live. Coming from tiny Grand Falls, New Brunswick, McLaughlin had never experienced a city bigger than Halifax. The verdict? “I could live in a big city and actually like it!” McLaughlin even scored an unscheduled tour of the Toronto Public Library with the head librarian.

[photo: L-R: Benji Spagat, Emilie English, Christine Cousins, Alison McLaughlin]