I have been through the well-trodden route of work experience/part time jobs followed by graduate traineeship and then masters degree, which I'm still in the process of finishing. My experience of graduate traineeships was very positive - Oxford run a really good scheme, with lots of opportunities to meet up with other trainees (some of whom I still hang out with) and go on lots of training courses. If you get onto a good scheme, it really does give you a good jump start in your career and allows you to do things that you can't normally do in a regular library assistant post.
My experiences of library school have been a bit more mixed, but not as bad as some. I've been taking the MSc at UWE, which is taught in the same faculty as the engineering and compsci students, so it's got quite a techie feel to it. I've found the commute to Bristol from Oxford every week a bit of a killer, especially the journey back late at night. Some of the modules have been very interesting, but I'll admit that I found some of them a little dry. I'm currently working on my dissertation about using web 2.0 for staff training, and starting to quietly panic about the November deadline! I'm hoping it will be worth it though - most librarian jobs at the moment require you to have a masters or at least some kind of qualification before they'll even look at your CV.
I have no experience of chartership or other things further up the chain at the moment, but I can talk a little about mentoring (hence Mr Miyagi's appearance on this post). I've not had anyone I could specifically call a mentor, but I have been quite lucky in the managers I've had in my past few jobs. Each of them, in different ways, have taught me a lot about library management; how to manage workflow, how to communicate well with your staff and keep them motivated, how to deal with problems when they come along, and how to keep a good balance between work and home life. Even if you don't feel confident asking someone to be your mentor, don't be afraid to ask questions of people in more senior positions than you. Most librarians are, to quote a guest speaker from OU at a CILIP event a while back, 'pathologically helpful' by nature, and provided you haven't interrupted them in the middle of something important (e.g. doing the accounts, having their coffee & biscuits) they will most likely be happy to talk to you and offer advice. Also, if someone less experienced than you asks for your advice, try to help them out and encourage them to ask for help if they need it. One thing that librarians can do really well is help each other out.
image from ~db~'s photostream at flickr.com
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