When it comes to finding a job, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” There is some truth to that statement, in that often times you find out about job opportunities from people in your professional network. You could be referred to a job opening that wasn’t on your radar, or hear that a friend of a friend needs some freelance work done. So when building your network, you need to be smart about it and do it for both professional and personal development.

A great way to start is to find out what professional organizations are available for your field of interest. Here are some of the many organizations for professional writers, editors, and designers:

Society for Technical Communication: For technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators, instructional designers, academics, information architects, usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web designers and developers, and translators.

American Copy Editors Society: For copy editors in newspapers, magazines, websites, and other journalistic endeavors.

American Institute of Graphic Arts: For professionals, educators, and students who are engaged in the process of designing.

Public Relations Society of America: For public relations professionals who represent business and industry, counseling firms, independent practitioners, military, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms, and nonprofit organizations.

American Society of Journalists and Authors: For independent nonfiction writers: freelance writers of magazine articles, trade books, and many other forms of nonfiction writing.

Organizations will often allow newcomers to attend an event for free or at a reduced cost, so take advantage of that opportunity to see if the organization is the right fit for you and will meet your needs. These events are great for meeting people who share similar professional interests and goals and hearing about trends and news in your field. You may also hear about job opportunities from your peers, and many organizations include job openings on their websites.

Keep in mind that networking is a two-way street, and a social one at that. Your peers want to get the same value out of networking as you do, so be ready to speak up and share what you have to offer. Participate in discussions, ask questions, and pass along job openings.

You’ll find that employers value your involvement in professional organizations as well. If you’re a job candidate, being an active member of a recognized organization shows that you are invested in your field, which employers hope will carry over into the work you do for them. Networking can increase your value as an employee (think of all the new things you’ll be learning!) and potentially bring your company additional business thanks to all those contacts.

Next up: social networking. In the meantime, share your favorite professional organizations in the comments.

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Tags: networking, professional development

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Career. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.