Best IT Organizations to join?

Good day to you all!

What are the best IT Organizations to join?

Since it seems like it is a combination of what you know and who you know (more the latter unfortunately), it seems like networking through organizations would be quite good.

I see IEEE and ACM --- anyone a member of these? Any comments on them?

What have you joined before or currently, and is it worth your membership fees?

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Comments

hiddenknight821

In my opinion, organizations like those are irrelevant unless you actually participate and make contributions to it. I'm a triple-A (AAA) member, and I'm currently on AAA Plus subscription plan. I don't consider myself as a true member, but I only sign up for it for the free 100-mile toll benefit. I drive a 14-year-old car. So this was my deal breaker. They sent me newsletters and many discount offers that I never bother with. If you find the IT organization that will benefit you, then I believe you should join.

I wanted to join the networking organization and almost signed up for one until I had this talk with my professor who said that he doesn't believe in only paying the membership fee merely to claim that he's part of the organization when he contributes nothing. He has seen his colleagues (my other former professors) that did the same thing, except that they were mediocre. I guess people need some sense of belonging just to make themselves feel important.

RobertKaucher

I think you would do better in joining or starting a User Group for whatever technology you are leaning on specializing in. If you were a SharePoint or SQL Server admin the are groups like PASS or local SPUGs (SharePoint User Groups) that you can participate in and that will help build your personal network. Presenting and attending meetings of groups like these will likely to be of greater benefit to you.

Claymoore

RobertKaucher wrote: »

I think you would do better in joining or starting a User Group for whatever technology you are leaning on specializing in. If you were a SharePoint or SQL Server admin the are groups like PASS or local SPUGs (SharePoint User Groups) that you can participate in and that will help build your personal network. Presenting and attending meetings of groups like these will likely to be of greater benefit to you.

+1

Any national organization that only requires you to pay dues to achieve membership are probably useless. The local user groups are the way to go. Sharepoint and SQL seem to have the strongest local user communities, but you can always start a group focused on your favorite technology if one does not exist in your area.

NetworkingStudent

whatthehell wrote: »

Good day to you all!

What are the best IT Organizations to join?

Since it seems like it is a combination of what you know and who you know (more the latter unfortunately), it seems like networking through organizations would be quite good.

I see IEEE and ACM --- anyone a member of these? Any comments on them?

What have you joined before or currently, and is it worth your membership fees?

The ACM is good if you pay the student fee, which I believe is $20.00 a year. You need to be a student and have and .edu address. The professional version is 100 per year. I never converted to the professional version, I thought it was too expensive and the networking benefits were little to none. I though about joining HDI, but I added one of their certs to my resume and a lot of employers kept asking who the organization was, so I skipped joining their organization. You get out what you put in to these organizations. I have thought about joining toast masters though.

Note-I have a link below of some of the organizations in MN this may help a bit. I will say that most of these groups you can join on linked for free. I know you can join HDI for free.

I belong to ISSA and I don’t get much out of the membership. I went to a chapter meeting, and I was lost for the most part. When the speaker asked how many are in IT? …only 4 people out of 40 raised their hand. The topics were somewhat interesting, but sometimes I felt the issues were way over my head. I was expecting that there would be more IT people, but I was wrong. Also, there are only meetings every other month, so it’s not much of a benefit to me. I think this group is strictly geared to individuals that work in the security field, and not those wanting to break into the field.

Some of the user groups in MN, they might be in your state too!
Check out the local User Groups.