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ZDNET's key takeaways
Most job opportunities never make it to the want ads.
Networking is the most powerful job-search tool available.
There's a professional association or user group for every aspect of technology.
First, a confession: I have a bias toward this article's topic. In a previous career, I served as director of a professional association, called the Administrative Management Society, which produced events, publications, and research for its 12,000 members across North America. The membership consisted of IT, HR, and finance managers, who joined to advance their knowledge and connect with colleagues. It is here I learned how networking -- the human-to-human kind -- is the key to career advancement in this world. And this holds true more than ever as we journey into the digital age.
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It's that golden rule -- the more you know, the better your employment-advancement prospects. But the more people you know, the more those prospects expand. Nothing is more powerful than the networks you build. If you have a problem with a certain technology, you can contact someone who may have experienced the same issue. If you need a well-vetted professional to fill a job role in your ranks, you can call a colleague for recommendations.
And if you need new employment, you can contact people in your network for leads.
A job is actually a need. Most needs are not advertised on online job-search sites; they are gaps or deficiencies into which many companies plug their overworked staff. Yes, there are some great job-search tools out there. But you won't see most of these opportunities on those cold, featureless, AI-infested online job-search sites -- although you may hear about such opportunities through your networks of colleagues. You could even potentially design your own job as you learn about unadvertised internal needs.
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How do you build a network? Within the business technology world, the way to do that is to get involved with professional associations and user groups. Many offer events -- both locally and at a national level -- to get to know people in your area of interest, and they get to know you. You gain access to directories of fellow members, as well as knowledge bases, which will incorporate on-demand videos, presentations, and articles.
Organizations for networking building
Here are some leading organizations that may be beneficial for network building:
IEEE Computer Society: Open to interested computer scientists, engineers, and professionals of all stripes, the IEEE Computer Society has close to half a million members across more than 400 chapters in just about every country on the planet. Membership opens up connections with IEEE's other 39 societies.
The society hosts more than 189 conferences worldwide. For example, the 2025 IEEE Visualization and Visual Analytics conference will commence in Vienna on November 1, and SC25: International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis will meet in St. Louis on November 16.
SHARE: A membership-run organization for people involved or interested in larger enterprise systems, SHARE was launched in 1955 as a mainframe user organization. It was then -- and remains -- unaffiliated with IBM -- though its focus is IBM systems. Over the past two decades, it has evolved beyond the mainframe to all enterprise-scale platforms.
It hosts two annual in-person conferences and offers educational and networking webcasts throughout the year. The association also offers access to online communities, including specific groups such as zNextGen. Its 2026 conferences will be in Orlando on February 22, and Pittsburgh on August 16.
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ASIS International: Also dating back to 1955, ASIS International is a global community of security practitioners. These days, we definitely need their help. Members range from entry-level managers to CSOs and CEOs, from security veterans to consultants. The organization has close to 34,000 members across 240 local chapters, and hosts a range of in-person and online events and workshops, as well as a certification program.
Oracle Applications and Technology Users Group: OATUG is an independent user group for users of Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Fusion Cloud applications, Oracle Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and other Oracle technologies. The organization boasts an impressive network of local and regional affiliates spanning the globe, as well as special interest groups (SIGs). SIG topics include AI and generative AI, cloud, enterprise resource planning systems, and, of course, databases. The association hosts an annual conference, with the next scheduled for Orlando, Florida, starting June 8.
Women in AI Ethics: WAIE, an advocacy group, was founded in 2018 to elevate the voices of experts from multidisciplinary backgrounds and showcase the role of diverse perspectives in the responsible design and development of AI models and systems. WAIE conducts regular expert panels and offers free AI literacy classes at public libraries.
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The group also awards and publishes an annual list of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics. The group's stated mission is to "increase representation of women at AI and tech conferences and companies, and make it easier for conference organizers and recruiters to recruit talented women working hard to make AI ethical, inclusive, and accessible for all."
AWS User Groups: Directly supported by Amazon Web Services, AWS User Groups are localized groups of AWS developers who can discuss new releases, meet, and network. AWS reports about 600 AWS User Groups around the world, from Norway to Nepal, with meetups happening in person or virtually.
AWS User Groups also create AWS Community Days, local community-led conferences. These events feature technical talks, workshops, and labs that enable peer-to-peer learning among builders.
Microsoft Azure User Groups: These groups comprise a large global mix of various Microsoft user groups, with about 235,000 members across 156 cities. Group titles include the New Startups and Entrepreneurs Networking Group in Dubai, the Surrey Azure User Group in Woking, UK, the Danish SharePoint and Office 365 User Group in Copenhagen, the Denver Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Professionals Meetup, and the Microsoft Power Platform User Group Belfast.
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American Management Association: For those wishing to advance into management or to polish their team-building skills, AMA offers a broad array of seminars, workshops, and conferences, both in-person and online. The association hosts events that feature discussions and forums on various professional topics and emerging trends. Some categories covered include management and supervisory skills, communication skills, leadership training, finance and accounting training, project management, and artificial Intelligence.
The above is just a partial sampling of the various professional groups out there. Job-hunting or seeking career advancement should never be a go-it-alone process for anybody. Strong networks of your peers can provide the support you need to succeed in today's economy.