The following is a summary of Session 17 of my podcast, The Engineering Career Coach (TECC) Podcast with Anthony Fasano, PE. I will summarize the main points in this post here; however, you can also listen to the show through the player below or by subscribing on iTunes. I offer a career-changing tip at the end of each podcast session.
Cordero gave three key benefits of involvement in professional associations for engineers:
1. Associations allow you to develop a community and network to help you achieve your goals. An association membership not only makes it easier to accomplish your goals as an engineer but also motivates you and opens you up to new goals that you never thought of. This is a natural byproduct of surrounding yourself with other motivated professionals. For students, having a support network can dramatically increase your odds of successfully graduating from an engineering program. This support in your career can mean everything.
2. Develop professional skills through leadership opportunities you might not have at school or work. Experience that you gain as an active member in a professional association can be just as valuable on your resume as your paid work experience—or even more so. Also, as an association leader you will have to manage volunteers, so you must lead by influence and have a strong-value proposition to motivate their contributions. This skill can be very helpful in your paid job. Your work as a leader in associations forces you to engage in strategic planning and execution, budgeting, and negotiation, all of which will help you tremendously as an engineer. Lastly, as an active association member you will be forced to develop better communication and speaking skills, which you can utilize in your engineering career.
3. Develop your technical skills through training opportunities. In some engineering jobs, you get pigeonholed into a very specific component of the industry. Professional associations offer training that might help you expand your technical skills beyond the training available from your company. You also often have access to information, such as journals and research papers, through associations.
Another key point that Cordero mentioned was that to realize all of these benefits, you must become active in the leadership of the association you are involved in. This will dramatically increase the impact of your membership on your life, both personally and professionally.
Please comment below and offer some benefits that you have received from professional association membership.
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 for free engineering career advice and other resources.