What happens when you

leave university….?

Big question!

Well, some of the things will involve:

• No-one coming to your office saying: « This is coming … you need to prepare for it…it is going to change your products, services and the way they are offered to your clients. So this is what you should do and how you should do it ».  You won’t have an early-warning and preparation system ‘on tap’.
• Potential employers being far less impressed and swayed by the fact that you recently graduated with a Master’s.  After you have left university, yiou will, of course need to be able to wave your Degree and Master’s certificates, but they won’t help get you the post you want, they will just be (as Hertzberg put it) a ‘hygiene factor‘: a necessary BUT NOT SUFFICIENT CONDITION.  Other factors will be in play:
  • The quality of your experience, certainly.
  • How have you been keeping yourself up to date with challenges facing the industry…?
  • What means do you have of doing research?
  • Are you ‘plugged-in‘ directly into a network in the field?   Do you have contacts and connections you can draw upon?

You will be thankful to know that this is not a problem that is facing only your generation of graduates – the same issue has been around for years and years.  Student have been graduating then working for 40-odd years for a good long while… and in such a period of time an enormous amount of change (= Opportunities + Threats) comes our way.  We rise and fall according to how well we rise to these challenges.

Clearly no-one knows all the answers.

Clearly, banding together (strength in numbers … synergy) is a natural and viable response. [TJ aside. Design of Eguisheim].

Where am I going with this???

Towards what have become known as:

‘Professional Associations’.

These exist in pretty much all professional careers and industries.  Sometimes they coalesce around:

• Industries / Sectors. For example, for years I was a member of the Tourism Society and at one point also member of the Chartered Institute of Insurance.
• Functions. Such as Marketing for example – eg. The Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Sometimes these operate at Global, Regional or National level.

Sometimes they bring together a sector and a function to target people who see themselves at the cross-hairs of the two.  For example, I was working in the Tourism industry whilst becoming very interested in new technologies and how they might effect the industry.  Tourism didn’t understand the technology and the Technology developers didn’t understand the particuliarities of the industry, so we established a body which brought both of these together: IFITT: The International Federation of Information Technologies and Tourism.

Shakespeare said (correctly) that ‘No man is an island entire of itself‘, which I take to mean that none of us will survive and prosper in a 40 year career unless we look beyond ourselves and outside the walls of our organisations.

So, my question to you is this:

What sorts of Professional Associations work in the area in which you see your career developing?

• What do they cost to join as a student member and what support / services might they offer you?
• Same Q… but as a full professional member
• How does your industry regard the association in question?
• Which offers the ‘best value‘ to you both now and in your future career?

NBs.

1. Professional Association members are generally viewed as ‘La Crème de la Crème‘... so if you were an employer (and probably an Association member yourself) where would you search for future employees….?   Most Associations allow employer-members to post job opportunities and individual Members to post up their career aspirations and CVs.  For the employer they are likely to find immediately, well-qualified candidates who fit the ‘Me-too‘ predeliction: we want people like us!  [This is called the ‘Halo Effect‘].
2. You can use the ‘letters after your name‘ on your CV and business card … and it is impressive!  For example, I could have added to my name my academic qualifications and then start with the professional association acronyms: MTS (Member of the Tourism Society), for example.  In the future your Degree and your Master’s will become less prominent – in the same way that your Brevet and your Bac have by now faded into the background now because they were but stepping stones towards your university studies: they don’t really ‘count‘ any more.

So… here is your task

1. Research (analyse and evaluate) these Associations yourself in order to select the best / most appropriate.

2. Pool your findings with your Mus or Arch colleagues to draw up a ‘Master’ list of the best of the best (say the top 5)

3. Produce a grid with which you can compare and contrast them according to key criteria. List them in order of suitability / priority : i.e. their value to you and your career.

4. Produce a group presentation incorporating this grid and offering a level of detailed analysis and evaluation that justifies your choices.

Consider seriously taking your own advice and become a Member.

Often it is free or subsidised for those still in Higher Education.

It shows potential employers that you are thinking ahead and that you already see yourself as part of your chosen profession!

T