By Barbara Hewitt
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Career Services Institute East conference which was held at Penn this week. It was a terrific opportunity to learn from well-respected professionals in the field, to network with career services staff from a wide variety of institutions, and to walk away with a whole array of new ideas. I came away from the conference feeling energized and excited about the new academic year.
As a current student (or perhaps even as a working professional), you may not have given much thought to attending a professional conference or joining a professional association up to this point. Now is the time to consider it!
Professional associations are organizations that unite professionals within a given industry for networking, educational, lobbying or other purposes. A few examples of professional organizations include the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM). Professional associations are great resources because they often offer industry-specific job or internship listings for their members, as well as general career advice. They can also help you keep abreast of what is going on within the industry. These organizations typically have annual conferences that facilitate networking opportunities among professionals in the field – in many cases, student memberships are available at reduced rates. You can research professional associations online – you may also want to consider asking professionals in your field of interest what professional association memberships they may hold. Following are a couple of places to start your search, but you can also simply conduct an online search using keywords:
- Weddle’s Association Directory: http://www.weddles.com/associations/index.cfm
- Career Services Career Resources By Fields Page: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/careerfields (This site lists selected associations in various fields.)
In addition to joining a professional association, you might consider taking advantage of the many conferences organized by student organizations here at Penn, whether it be the Penn Microfinance Conference or the MARC (Marketing, Advertising, and Retailing) Conference sponsored by MUSE. There really is something for everyone at Penn! Keep your eyes open throughout the upcoming year to register for conferences to learn more about different career fields. We often promote student conferences in the weekly Career Services listserv emails, but you can also check the webpages for relevant student groups to see what they may have planned for the year.
