It331: Technology Infrastructure

331 Words2 Pages
Lee Schwab Unit 1 Assignment IT331-38COBL: Technology Infrastructure Professor Shelia Sorensen Kaplan University 1) Would the cost of becoming a member in one of the professional associations above provide more benefits than joining one of the free networking sites, such as LinkedIn or monster? What are those benefits? I do feel that the cost of becoming a member, let’s say TechAmerica for this part of the assignment, of a professional association most definitely outweighs some free networking sites like LinkedIn. I read in an article online from Bloomberg Businessweek that the more contacts you have on LinkedIn, the more desperate you might appear to be (Paskowski, 2008). If you join TechAmerica, you would be able to be in contact with key policy-makers with 35 advocates on staff, they build connections with a list of over 34,000 active members that is continuously growing ("About us," 2013). 2) Is the cost of joining any of the professional associations worth it, based on what you can see from the information on their website, when it comes to making professional contacts that can benefit your career? Why or why not? If I was making more money than what I get on disability then I would most definitely pay the membership fee to join a professional association over the free sites. The reason why I say this is because the professional sites that charge a membership fee offer more options and services than that of free sites. Also if you are trying to move up in the business world and being associated with the free sites, major companies could look down on that and could ultimately cost you a job or some very important contacts. References: About us. (2013, January 01). Retrieved from http://www.techamerica.org/about/ Paskowski, M. (2008, December 24). What does linkedin really get you?. Retrieved from
Open Document