5 National Associations to Advance Your Career

By Harrison Kratz on November 17, 2011
While it is tempting to think your career may advance through hard work at a current job, the reality is it can take more than doing a good job to move up the business ladder. There are a wide variety of organizations that help people with professional development and career advancement, whether you are focused on developing a broad skill, like leadership or public speaking, or you want to strengthen skills within your professional field. To find organizations that will help you advance professionally, check with your local chamber of commerce or search for organizations related to your industry.Here are five organizations that can help with career advancement:

Toastmasters International
What began as a local club at a YMCA in 1924 has grown into an international organization with over 270,000 members who work together to improve leadership and communication skills. Anyone can join a local chapter of Toastmasters for a small fee and become part of a group that practices learning by doing. There is no instructor, so members take turns leading the meetings, giving speeches and critiquing each other. In addition to the local meetings, new members work through the Competent Communications manual, which is a set of ten speaking assignments that provide an introduction to proficient public speaking. Over four million people have been a part of Toastmasters throughout its history, and have become better speakers and leaders with increased self-confidence. These skills are helpful in nearly every job and spending time with Toastmasters can help with career advancement.

Business Networking International
Like Toastmasters, Business Networking International (BNI) is not industry specific. Instead, it helps people in many professions. BNI focuses less on developing skills and more on fostering relationships through frequent networking meetings with members, participation in business trade shows and workshops on networking. Each local chapter only accepts one person from each industry and members support each other by passing along fellow members’ business cards to others outside of the BNI group. The referral program is well organized and has been highly successful.

 

Photo by alla_g on flickr.com

Industry Specific Organizations

National Education Association
The NEAis the largest professional organization and labor union in the United States, with 3.2 million members. As a labor union, some of its efforts are directed at lobbying Congress and representing education professionals in collective bargaining, but it also helps with career development. Teachers and other education professionals can seek advice and training from NEA, get connected with a mentor or find help on specific topics, like benchmark tests.American Institute of CPAs (AICPA)

The AICPA targets Certified Public Accountants and is focused on training and professional development. Members have access to more than 100 online courses, frequent webcasts, accounting publications and assessments to help determine skill gaps. Their materials include information on professional ethics in accounting and the latest news on regulatory changes. AICPA organizes over 60 conferences a year, and members can serve on committees to serve the organization and network with others in the accounting field.
National Association of Social Workers
Another industry specific organization, NASWhas 145,000 members and is similar to the AICPA with emphasis on providing members with the resources to stay current in their field. For social workers, it is essential to keep informed of current research and techniques to be effective, and the NASW helps through a variety of online courses, webinars, presentations and more. In addition to general information, they also have information targeting specialty practice areas. With regards to career development, the NASW has a series of documents called Leadership Ladders, which has career advancement advice for all social workers. NASW’s website also includes a career center where social workers can look for jobs.There are countless other organizations similar to the three industry-specific ones listed above that target other professions. Find the ones most appropriate for you by speaking to other professionals in your field or through a simple search engine query.

Harrison is the Community Manager at MBA@UNC, the distance MBA program offered through the University of North Carolina.  Students from around the world now have the opportunity to earn theirMBA degree from a top ranked business school. Harrison also sticks to his entrepreneurial roots as the founder of the global social good campaign, TweetDrive.

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