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> For more than 40 years, IEEE has been a great place to build my personal brand and to create a valuable professional network. I know it can do the same for th

by cvoss 2y ago

> For more than 40 years, IEEE has been a great place to build my personal brand and to create a valuable professional network. I know it can do the same for the next generation of engineers. If they have to make this case, it suggests some combination of 1) the organization doesn't actually provide these opportunities to most people, or 2) people don't actually care about this anyway. For me, this language is business-speak. When the business people in my company start talking like this, I stop listening. It's not interesting. Hard problems are what's interesting to me. That's why I'm in this field, not to "network" or hone a "personal brand". For me, IEEE student membership was worth it for the significant registration discounts at IEEE conferences. After graduating, since I'm no longer in academia, the one and only benefit ceased, so I immediately canceled my membership.

roughly 2y ago
I don’t know about IEEE in particular, but - > 2. People don’t actually care about this anyway Is substantially different from “this doesn’t generate value”, “the people who do not care would were they to engage with it” (ie: the justification for marketing anywhere), and “people, especially young people, know how to evaluate this kind of thing.” In particular, there’s a generation gap around networking, professional organizations, etc, and indeed that may be because those organizations aren’t valuable, or it could be some combination of “the older generation didn’t explain this to the younger” and “the younger generation is convinced it knows everything it needs to”, and I suspect if you’re old enough at least some part of that will ring true to you.
a_thro_away 2y ago
I'm truly interested in your thoughts... where would you discover truly hard problems? What do you feel would make you qualified to work on them, over, say someone else? enough to prove it to someone that could authorize such a salary and expenditure of time? Unless you were self-funded, of course. I've always wondered where and how would you discover what the edge of the knowledge and science actually is, and stay ahead of it? That is, to prevent reinventing the wheel and not to waste time? Just wondering as I've understood it by a lot of people over my career lifetime. Thank You.
- reliabilityguy 2y ago
  You read papers and learn where the edge of the science is.
  - a_thro_away 2y ago
    Of course you do; and thats where a lot of the papers are locked up, behind IEEE/ACM/Science/Nature, other journals. I guess that's a huge reason to stay involved, if nothing more to access the different subgroups, both for journals and papers. There is often no other place, in my experience, to access that level of information and knowledge. And especially if you wish to publish, on the edge, yourself.
- ubj 2y ago
  In academia this is typically accomplished through staying up-to-date with top tier journals and conferences. I would say this is one of the benefits of IEEE--they have quite a few high-quality venues. However, there are also plenty of top-tier venues that are not associated with IEEE.
  - laymansterms 2y ago
    Unfortunately, they also have plenty of low-quality venues that dilute the discoverability of the high-quality ones. Some orgs (Usenix for instance) hold to at least a decent standard across nearly all their research conferences, so I can better gauge the quality of a paper in a field I'm less familiar with based on whether it was accepted to a conference in that org. When it comes to IEEE, it seems like they'll let any low-quality journal or conference spring up with their brand as long as it brings in the cash.
  - a_thro_away 2y ago
    Exactly; if you wish I replied below. That is exactly the point of staying in such organizations, especially if you wish to be on the edge, and especially if you wish to publish, yourself.
- p1necone 2y ago
riedel 2y ago
I also once in a while have IEEE membership because of some conference discount (even if it is not such a nobrainer as with student membership). Other than that I am just seeing a very intransparent huge org that does not provide much benefit. Some field are dominated by US researchers, some by Chinese. IEEE does not show much interest in breaking non-inclusive networks. Unlike ACM (which is far from perfect), I don't even recognize small bits a tranformative spirit. I had colleagues that had their IEEE status in their footer and used their IEEE, but most of those have been retired by now.
OldGuyInTheClub 2y ago
> For more than 40 years, IEEE has been a great place to build my personal brand When I hear the phrase "personal brand," I normally throw up. Today was a normal day.
eykanal 2y ago
I stayed past that for a bit but eventually cancelled as well, even though work offered to pay for membership. Same as above, once the conference discount wasn't necessary I gained absolutely nothing from the membership.

by cvoss 2y ago

roughly 2y ago

I don’t know about IEEE in particular, but - > 2. People don’t actually care about this anyway Is substantially different from “this doesn’t generate value”, “the people who do not care would were they to engage with it” (ie: the justification for marketing anywhere), and “people, especially young people, know how to evaluate this kind of thing.” In particular, there’s a generation gap around networking, professional organizations, etc, and indeed that may be because those organizations aren’t valuable, or it could be some combination of “the older generation didn’t explain this to the younger” and “the younger generation is convinced it knows everything it needs to”, and I suspect if you’re old enough at least some part of that will ring true to you.

a_thro_away 2y ago

I'm truly interested in your thoughts... where would you discover truly hard problems? What do you feel would make you qualified to work on them, over, say someone else? enough to prove it to someone that could authorize such a salary and expenditure of time? Unless you were self-funded, of course. I've always wondered where and how would you discover what the edge of the knowledge and science actually is, and stay ahead of it? That is, to prevent reinventing the wheel and not to waste time? Just wondering as I've understood it by a lot of people over my career lifetime. Thank You.

reliabilityguy 2y ago
You read papers and learn where the edge of the science is.
- a_thro_away 2y ago
  Of course you do; and thats where a lot of the papers are locked up, behind IEEE/ACM/Science/Nature, other journals. I guess that's a huge reason to stay involved, if nothing more to access the different subgroups, both for journals and papers. There is often no other place, in my experience, to access that level of information and knowledge. And especially if you wish to publish, on the edge, yourself.
ubj 2y ago
In academia this is typically accomplished through staying up-to-date with top tier journals and conferences. I would say this is one of the benefits of IEEE--they have quite a few high-quality venues. However, there are also plenty of top-tier venues that are not associated with IEEE.
- laymansterms 2y ago
  Unfortunately, they also have plenty of low-quality venues that dilute the discoverability of the high-quality ones. Some orgs (Usenix for instance) hold to at least a decent standard across nearly all their research conferences, so I can better gauge the quality of a paper in a field I'm less familiar with based on whether it was accepted to a conference in that org. When it comes to IEEE, it seems like they'll let any low-quality journal or conference spring up with their brand as long as it brings in the cash.
- a_thro_away 2y ago
  Exactly; if you wish I replied below. That is exactly the point of staying in such organizations, especially if you wish to be on the edge, and especially if you wish to publish, yourself.
p1necone 2y ago

riedel 2y ago

I also once in a while have IEEE membership because of some conference discount (even if it is not such a nobrainer as with student membership). Other than that I am just seeing a very intransparent huge org that does not provide much benefit. Some field are dominated by US researchers, some by Chinese. IEEE does not show much interest in breaking non-inclusive networks. Unlike ACM (which is far from perfect), I don't even recognize small bits a tranformative spirit. I had colleagues that had their IEEE status in their footer and used their IEEE, but most of those have been retired by now.

OldGuyInTheClub 2y ago

> For more than 40 years, IEEE has been a great place to build my personal brand When I hear the phrase "personal brand," I normally throw up. Today was a normal day.

eykanal 2y ago

I stayed past that for a bit but eventually cancelled as well, even though work offered to pay for membership. Same as above, once the conference discount wasn't necessary I gained absolutely nothing from the membership.