Many engineers belong to professional societies for a variety of reasons. Some engineers belong to these societies for career development support, others for continuing education, and others to find mentors to guide them in their careers. In my opinion, belonging to a professional society can be most beneficial when you are unemployed because these societies often have several different avenues for connecting members with prospective employers.
First of all, if you belong to a professional engineering society, it is your responsibility to be active. The more active you are, the more people you will know, the bigger network you will build, and the better chance that when the time comes when you need a job, one of your contacts will be able to help you. If you pay your society dues each year and are not active in the society, you are doing yourself a great disservice.
Beyond your own involvement, most of these societies have specific benefits to help you find employment. These benefits may include:
A job board, which is a portion of the website where member companies post job openings on a regular basis.
A career center that will contain a job board, resume and interview assistance, career coaching and other helpful items for job seekers.
A mentoring program where you can get hooked up with a mentor to help guide you in your engineering career. When you are unemployed and you have some downtime, it is a great time to find a mentor. Your mentor may be able to give you some tips or contacts that will help you to land your next job.
Belonging to a society is also something that can look very favorable on your resume, especially if you volunteered for a leadership position. Be sure that your position and activities are clearly shown on your resume. Many prospective employers really like seeing that a prospective employer volunteered for a leadership position in an organization.
So if you are unemployed and looking for an engineering job, join and become active in a professional engineering society; and if you already are be sure to utilize all of the benefits that I have listed above.
This is a guest post by Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success. Anthony found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website at EngineeringCareerCoach.com and subscribe to the top 3 resources Anthony has used to become a partner in a firm at the age of 27.