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Associations can help your career (duh)

I put "duh," but sometimes this point is not that obvious, even to folks who work for associations.

Via the lifehacker, I found this article that talks about how to move along in your career, how not to get fired, etc. The thing I noticed about it was that near the end, it talks about signing up for a trade publication as a starting point for beginning to network professionally. I've found that associations (in my case, ASAE) are a super place for someone just starting out to get to know the ropes. I think that's because if you volunteer on a project, or suchlike, the others working with you are so glad to have help they don't care if you're young or not. That stands in stark contrast to the way things are in the office where you're busy paying your dues. If you have a brain on your head and shine in the volunteer setting, it'll go along way. That's my idea for how to tap into generation x, y and beyond: show them that your association's contacts will help them kick butt.

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