Acronym

Coming from an early professional and hopefully an “emerging professional” perspective I try to stay well rounded as possible and am constantly looking for opportunities to gain experience in different areas of Association Management. I think having a variety of skills and experience is important especially in association management since there is no telling what hats you will be wearing in your next job depending how large or small an organization is or how it is structured.

I would also love to hear from more seasoned professionals about what makes an applicant stand out in the bunch.

Great questions and I hope you get some good feedback.

My advice is to simply step out from the crowd (and I think blogging on acronym is a good start). It can be intimidating (trust me), but it's amazing how quickly people will overlook youth in its various forms when you have something insightful to share.

Great questions and I hope you get some good feedback.

My advice is to simply step out from the crowd (and I think blogging on acronym is a good start). It can be intimidating (trust me), but it's amazing how quickly people will overlook youth in its various forms when you have something insightful to share.

What a wonderful post Aaron - I too would like to hear what people have to share. In my experience, it seems those professionals who come prepared with recommendations for improvements and/or solutions earn a reputation as 'emerging professionals.'

Alyssa – If I’m hearing you correctly, your feedback is to diversify. And I think that’s a terrific strategy. I never say no to a project – sometimes to a fault. In fact, I often seek out opportunities in my office to gain new knowledge, skills or experience. I think that being open to these opportunities – even if they don’t fall within your current job responsibilities –is an absolute must. As you point out, there’s no telling what hats you’ll wear in a month, six months or even a year from now.

Bob – Thanks for your comments. I think that taking risks and getting noticed is an important part of building a reputation within the association community. I also challenge seasoned professionals in this field to allow emerging professionals like myself the opportunity to try new things and to make some mistakes. For the last six years, I’ve come up with at least one outlandish idea to implement at our annual convention; however, I will never regret the hoops I had to jump through to coordinate hundreds of burning candles during the final moments of our award luncheon. It was one of the most moving experiences of my career.

Katie – I’m glad you enjoyed this post and thanks for your feedback, as well. I think you’re exactly right. Seasoned professionals do take notice when “emerging professionals” come to the table with solutions, rather than problems. The lesson here is to think before we speak. It’s not necessarily prudent to speak up about a concern until we’ve given sufficient thought to possible resolutions. Being solutions-oriented, at least in my mind, demonstrates experience, maturity and professionalism.

Aaron, great post, and great question! I love the advice so far.

I don't think I'm an emerging professional anymore (although it's hard to say where the line is that tells you "now I have emerged"). But I do think that back at the beginning of my career, a couple of things helped me stand out at the associations where I worked. They all seem pretty obvious, but I think they made a difference for me:

- Working really hard--and not just on my own projects. Pitching in wherever I could on other people's projects, to help the organization as a whole, helped me stand out.

- I proofread my e-mails/memos/PowerPoint slides/etc. It's silly, but I really do think it makes a difference when people see a lot of typos in your written communications. (Or perhaps I'm just biased about the importance of editing ...)

- I volunteered. I was surprised at the time at how many opportunities there were to contribute to professional organizations I belonged to, and how grateful the professional staff were for the help. And once I had proved reliable on small projects, bigger volunteer opportunities came my way. (And I learned a lot from volunteering, on both big and small projects.)

Like I said, these all seem really obvious--but I do think they made a difference for me.

Lisa:

Thanks so much for your comments! I think that the most obvious answers are sometimes the most overlooked; however, your advice has helped reassure me that I’m on the right track.

--aaron

In my former life (large charities) I generally hired only "emerging professionals" because of our pay scales and my own tendency to prefer an enthusiastic, motivated younger person to a burned-out older one or a younger one who had already picked up bad work habits. (It's my own personal bias, but one that I would re-examine periodically ... for example checking with my staff first without rendering my own judgement, debriefing after group interviews with candidates.)

I second the idea that volunteering (internal & external) is critical for a couple reasons. Anytime you're perhaps 22 to 26 and/or just 1-3 years out of school, your work experiences (breadth & depth) are important for the content you've learned and also your precedence for setting a tone in your approach to work. Will you be eager to embrace and creatively apply the skills you've acquired to the next new challenge, or will you be quickly trying to settle into a comfort zone, setting boundaries on what you want to do and what you do best (which is often an appropriate personal career attitude, but not so good for teamwork)?

I believe in most associations and some charities we get far broader responsibility early in our careers than we might have in corporate positions, especially if we actively seek more responsiblity. I always looked for and rewarded people who would welcome rather than avoid the next task and find ways to solve them.

I also found that so many environments seemed to teach bad work habits that I found that training a 23-year old with the right attitude and a history of volunteering for a broad range of tasks was a far better choice than hiring someone 28 with deep experience but also learned to emphasize office politics and risk aversion over pragmatic job skills ...