Harness the Power of Professional Associations to Boost Your Career

If you want to open up opportunities for yourself and your career, consider joining a professional association.

Professional associations are organizations of people who share a common background in a particular career area. These organizations are typically nonprofit, cooperative and voluntary, and exist to serve their members in a variety of ways, providing networking and social events, professional development activities, and career services. They also compile and disseminate information about the field and may lobby for legislation that is sympathetic to their particular cause.

Professional associations are committed to attract and support people interested in entering particular career fields. You can often find names and email addresses of professionals through such associations or follow up on an open invitation to attend association events to network with people in the field.

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  Associations on the Net - Links to over 2000 associations.
• ASAE Gateway to Associations Online - Search a database of over 6500 links to professional associations. Directory by the American Society of Association Executives.
• Yahoo: Professional Organizations
• Scholarly Societies Project
• Yahoo: Student Organizations