Professional Memberships

I don't consider myself as a good professional, but I know for experience that many times the info on the web may lead to big errors... nothing like to have a pretty good library to confirm the information! (not to talk about "external" disturbances)!

yes , i agree info on the web is always not correct. we have to check at our end, considering all the basics.

But my question was regarding memberships of all these professional institutions. Some one without formal education but years of experience and needs recognition or certificate , and gets it from these institutions. then OK.

But someone qualified [ formal education channel ] should also get entry without fee.

Ok they can charge for periodicals / publications or voluntary donations etc.

They are formed for good cause of engineering discussions and professional enrichment , updateing knowledge etc.

But now it seems that they are running the unaided college.

it is a hairy question! a recognized institution (in principle) have the means to form a good professional, and take credits for it... a person that claims to have experience, the other must take is word for it~! it may be or it may not...is a risk for both parts!

Professional Engineering Institutions such as Institute of Production Engineers U.K, Indian Institution of Engineers etc. regularly publish valuable information in their journals for updating professional knowledge. You may get some such publications on the net. They also organise seminars on different topic. You may not get hands on such knowledge on the net.

I'm only an old shade tree mechanic whose only organization (and I use the term loosely) is the CR4 crowd, but it would seem that memberships in said organizations would be based on what one hopes to either A) get out of it (benefits), or B) put into it (contributions).

In that context, there's probably no reason a person shouldn't join up. It looks good on one's curriculum vitae, after all. Networking with like minded professionals could be seen as a career enhancement, too. And, of course, some organizations don't view their publications as 'open source' and restrict its use to members or those who pay a user fee. As for prestige, that's a 'maybe' benefit that's like an inside joke; only those who care will know what the membership implies. Anyone else will have to have it explained to them and, depending on the situation, that could go either way.

On the flip side, being 'qualified by education' doesn't mean what it used to and employers have caught on to the concepts of diploma mills, Internet plagiarism, posting homework questions on CR4, etc., so having letters after one's name is no longer a guarantee of anything. Likewise with memberships; it's only one more thing for the background check people to have to sift through.

Now that we've drilled through my personal hangups, I would hope that the real benefits one would get from joining a professional organization would be the 'warm fuzzy' feeling one gets from contributing to the group's knowledge base and helping solve real-world problems, contributing to research, and so on.

In short, joining a professional organization depends on the reason(s) a person wants to belong. And that's a question every potential member has to ask him/herself.

(It's taken quite a few minutes for me to type this, so if I repeat a point that someone else has already made, my advance apologies.)

Regards,

Spook