Professional associations can provide an opportunity to meet others in the same field, discover different ways of working and even new job offers - yet many people are not taking advantage of the resources these bodies offer. Bonnie Burke, an HR professional and co-founder of a staffing agency, told Delmarva Now that her own career has been helped "tenfold" by her membership of her local professional association. At the group's quarterly meetings, she has heard about the issues facing others working in her industry - and how they are developing solutions, she said. It has given her a new perspective and shown her how she could be doing things differently in order to improve her own situation. Ms Burke added that another benefit is having the chance to network - individuals should aim to meet between 2 and 4 new faces at each meeting - and in many cases, she said, meetings at a professional organization have led to job offers further down the road. "Professional associations are the most forgotten career development tools in the United States," she commented. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show there were 868,000 people employed as HR, training and labor relations managers in 2006.  |