While personal contacts may or may not play a role in landing you your first position, contacts are very important in subsequent job changes. The importance of contacts increases with the level of the position you are seeking. If you restrict your professional activity to your own company, you are missing a giant opportunity to expand and demonstrate your skills. Every major discipline has a technical society, such as the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Narrower disciplines or specialties may have separate societies or interest groups within the larger societies, such as the Society of Professional Well Log Analysts and the Society of Core Analysts.
Some groups focus on a geographic area, getting together for lunch, dinner, or golf tournaments.
Others focus on technical issues and may have a global reach. All of these groups are always looking for responsible, reliable people who will volunteer their time to help run the organization. You may wish to be active in several groups with different focal points. As in many types of activity, it is important to maintain a balance between dissipating your energy over too wide a range and concentrating on too small a target. Try to set your level of involvement at the point at which you will be remembered and can make an impact.