<p>Is there any advantage as a student to join a student chapter of a professional engineering organization such as ASME, ASCE, IEEE ?</p>
<p>Networking, networking and networking! That is absolutely an advantage.</p>
<p>Yep, do it! You can list it on your resume, get contacts, and you can get discounted prices on some cool publications or conferences.</p>
<p>You can also win scholarships or compete in various competitions. I wound up doing both during my undergrad career and got some money out of each!</p>
<p>Agree with all of the above. There’s no reason not to join.</p>
<p>A truly professional organization like IEEE is a good deal - there a ton of resources out there, most especially (to me) the research journals. It is great to be able to go to a website and instantly search through a half century of research. Plus, it gives you an additional venue to publish, always a good thing for prospective or current grad students!</p>
<p>IEEE is not a professional engineering organization. They are a pro-busienss lobby masquerating as a professional organization. If you join, you will be funding the destruction of your own career. But don’t take my word for it:</p>
<p>[The</a> H-1B Battle: The war within IEEE - Computerworld Blogs](<a href=“http://blogs.computerworld.com/the_h_1b_battle_the_war_within_ieee]The”>http://blogs.computerworld.com/the_h_1b_battle_the_war_within_ieee)</p>
<p>Homer, chill. Professional societies are entirely governed by people within the profession. There may be some in-fighting, but to say it’s destroying the profession is contra-definitional.</p>
<p>IEEE also publishes a huge amount of research required within the field. At my company, IEEE is the most used resource in our library. Most of our senior engineering positions require some amount of professional standing, most often demonstrated by positions and publications in societies like IEEE.</p>
<p>“Professional societies are entirely governed by people within the profession. There may be some in-fighting, but to say it’s destroying the profession is contra-definitional.”</p>
<p>Really? Tell that to the ABA, which in 2008 allowed attorney positions to be outsourced. Goodbye attorney jobs!</p>
<p>What, so what does the ABA have to do with engineering? I doubt many, if any people here aspire to be attorneys. Come on, keep the examples relevant. Furthermore, I highly doubt that IEEE or AIAA or ASME or any other major professional organization has much control over whether or not Intel/Boeing/Ford outsource some of their work.</p>
<p>It’s really only advantageous if you do something with it. If you join solely for a line item on your resume and never put any effort into it, it’s a waste. This is true of any club/society/organization. Similarly with contacts, you won’t just get a great network that will fall into your lap and guarantee you a job upon graduation. It’s something you have to work at and will take many years to develop.</p>
<p>How useful these organizations are in the professional world varies greatly based upon your job. I don’t follow the latest happenings in EE because it would not help me in the least and quite honestly I just don’t have much of an interest in it. However, for those in more research oriented positions I could see the journals being a valuable resource. Also, depending on what field you end up in there’s a good chance there is a smaller, more focused professional society that is more relevant/helpful.</p>