Professional and social networking is one of the most important tasks in the early career of an engineer. Therefore, the IEEE Young Professionals Affinity Group of Germany provides numerous networking opportunities for its members. Getting in contact with peers from your field across the globe is most relevant, and IEEE can provide this better than most professional organisations. Two major pillars of networking opportunities have been identified:

Conference Event (Power and Energy Student Summit 2015 in Dortmund)

Young Professionals Metropolitan Area Groups (MAG) – There is no better way of communicating than doing it face-to-face. The Young Professionals Metropolitan Area Groups provide an excellent opportunity to get in touch with other engineers from your area. Workshops, Company Visits, Q&A-sessions with senior experts or simply meeting up in a pub to help broaden one’s personal and professional horizon. Three MAGs have been organised so far (Munich, Berlin, Rhine-Ruhr) with more to come.
Young Professionals Conference Events -Joining a technical conference as a young professional sometimes feels like being merely tolerated and a little overwhelming at times. Young Professionals Conference Events provide a great opportunity to get in touch with those that share the same fate. Here, substantial conversation can easily be achieved with a much greater depth than the occasional small talk in the conference hallways. Interesting workshops, guided city tours and dinner events provide an adequate setting. Many of these events in different conference fields have been held during the last two years in Germany, which certainly will be continued because of a lot of encouraging feedback.

YP Germany Team from left to right – Sebastian Sichelschmidt, Ana Cigaran Romeroc, Arne Redl

Article contributed by Sebastian Sichelschmidt, Young Professionals Chair of Germany.