Importance of professional societies

If you are a practising engineer/scientist, or a senior graduate student; you must consider joining professional societies operated by a global network of professionals who work in your discipline. This is essential for more than one reason. The network you build within your professional space plays a crucial role in your career and human development. You will learn about opportunities, and emerging directions within your chosen discipline through newsfeeds provided by well functioning societies.

For electrical engineers, joining the local chapter of IEEE makes a lot of sense. Like wise, being part of Materials Research Society (MRS) is recommended for materials scientists. Each discipline has its own top societies (eg. American Chemical Society for Chemistry). Being part of these societies may be expensive (especially from the point of view of a student), but it is worth it, since it is a simple and nice way to be part of a global network of professionals. Besides you never know, how and when you will know about the next big opportunity that comes your way! Professional societies can provide ways and means for you to network with your potential employers.