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24-Feb-07 6:00 PM CST Your Professional HomeYour Professional Home – Once upon a time, when many engineers spent most of their time at one corporation, you could build up a network of friends and colleagues to meet your needs. Furthermore, the corporation tried to meet you half way. They looked for a job where you fit fairly well, and they cared about your long-term development. Can you say that today?Multi-Profession Careers – Once upon a time, the majority of people who got a degree in chemical engineering stayed with the profession throughout their career. Some became managers, sales engineers, etc., but they stayed within the chemical processing industry. That has changed significantly, and will change further with time. Professional societies can help you reduce the number of forced career changes, help you decide where to go next, help you get there, and help you come up to speed in your new career area. Job Hunt Networking – Engineering is a cyclic business. There will come times when you need jobs, and they’re hard to find. At those times, the majority of jobs are found by networking. A professional society is a great place to network. Active membership takes it a step further. Somebody you know casually in your professional society will be happy tell you about opportunities and pass your resume along. Furthermore, if you have worked closely with somebody in your professional society and you have favorably impressed them, they can give you valuable advice and vouch for you with their employer. How to Job Hunt – During hard times, job hunting skills are critical. They aren’t taught at engineering school. The professional society and the people you meet there can provide critical information on how to job hunt in your field. Source of Mentors – Once upon a time, every company had plenty of gray-haired engineers around to serve as mentors. That’s no longer true. Furthermore, finding a good mentor is like finding a good friend – not everybody is right for everybody else. You can look over lots of potential mentors at your professional society. Technical Information – Once upon a time, there were lots of gray-haired engineers where you worked, and when you had a technical question, they had an answer. That is no longer true. However, there are lots of experienced engineers in your professional society. If you help other people, they will help you. Networking for New Ideas – More people work for smaller companies, where technical resources are slimmer. In addition, people change jobs more frequently, and have fewer old friends to help and advise them at their current job. Your professional society can help fill these gaps. Continuing Education - Professional societies offer continuing education for professional development and licensing requirements. The cost is far lower than commercial and university-sponsored classes. Social – Professional societies offer opportunities for social friendships. For young engineers, there are young professional groups in the societies. Some societies have formal professional development programs for young members. STS-AIChE offers some good opportunities, and the programs of other societies are available through ECH (Science, Engineering & Technology Council of Houston). Opportunity to Try New Job Functions – Interested engineers get to try functions such as sales, marketing, technical writing, teaching, etc., on a low risk basis. You get to learn and test yourself before changing jobs. If a field isn‘t for you on a full-time basis, you haven’t lost much. Or, it gives you a chance to broaden your skills without changing the main thrust of your career. Work on Professional Skills – If you’d like a project to broaden your skills, the society will help you define a project where you can learn something of value to yourself, while you help your profession or society. This could help you explore or get into a new engineering specialty. Project Management Experience – Perhaps you want to try managing a project or two on a low-risk basis, before you try it at work. Or, success at managing a project with your professional society could help convince a reluctant manager that you can handle it at work. Supervisory Experience – Supervision of others is a skill that most engineers don’t learn quickly on the job, but it can be learned. Professional societies have courses on it, and you can practice being a committee chair or chapter officer. Strategic Planning – Again, this is something you don’t automatically experience on the job, but can learn and practice in a professional society. Experience Running Trade Shows & Meetings – Many businesses have events for advertising, demonstrating their skills, attracting new employees, etc. Again, participating in and running these events, is learned by experience, and professional societies are a great place to learn. What if you have needs that the professional society doesn’t seem to meet? Perhaps the programs that STS-AIChE advertises don’t meet your particular needs. First, you can propose an idea that you feel would be mutual beneficial. As volunteer recruiter, you could come to me, and I’ll work with you. Second, there are many other professional societies that might meet your needs better. Visit the ECH web site: www.echhouston.org.
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For additional information on this Careers article, please contact:
Mattthew Kolodney
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