Professional Associations – Avenue to Inside Info for Your Job Search

I recently received this question from a reader (I changed her real name) about informational interviewing. This is a great tool for exploring new industries, job roles or career changes. But the real question is: “Where can I find people who’ll talk with me?”

Hi, Joe,

I would like to change careers and am exploring human resources. I would like to learn more about this area by speaking with people who hold HR positions. I want to do some information interviewing with HR people. I want to speak with HR but everytime I call the company the operator refers me to their website. Most of these websites do not have management team pages. How can I contact someone in HR to request an information interview?

Sincerely,
Sara

Hi Sara,

You might try their professional organization, SHRM, the Society of Human Resource Managers. You can Google to find the nearest chapter in your area. Most likely they’ll have a website that lists all sorts of info there. You should be able to contact several people who would be willing to share info with you. Perhaps you could even sit in on one of their meetings.

Regards,

By the way, this can be expanded as it applies for most professions for which you’re applying. Virtually every job title or professional position most likely has at least one professional association associated with it. These organizations perform various roles including acting as public relations liaison to the media, maintaining professional standards and establishing a vision for the future of their profession.

Here’s the point: many of the hiring managers that you’ll come into contact with may, in fact, be members of one of these professional associations. The SHRM mentioned earlier is but one of thousands that exist.

If you’re not already a member of an association that represents your specialty, you might want to look into it. If you’re looking to expand your job search, you might also want to start here.

The perfect resource for this is a reference called Associations Unlimited. This is a database containing profiles of approximately 460,000 international and U.S. national, regional, state, and local nonprofit membership organizations in all fields, including IRS data on U.S. 501(c) nonprofit organizations.

Don’t waste time Googling this as you’ll most likely find it in your local library. A great way of using your local library to widen your job search, many library reference sections include this reference work. In fact, it should be available online there.

The bottom line is this: professional associations are a great resource for networking with members of your own profession, trade, or job title. You’ll find their membership to be employees, managers and executives who are working in the very same corporations, small companies and organizations to which you’re applying.

In fact, your dream job could be within one of these companies. The potential hiring manager or associate may also be a member of the same professional association you could belong to.

If it makes sense, join the organization. They most likely have a local chapter in your city or close by. The very least you could do is to find out who these people might be and to make contact on a professional level as a starter.

Professional associations are another way to get on the inside and be in a position to receive referrals and leads for opportunities that will never make it to the outside world.

As they say, “membership has its privileges”.

Joe