IEEE Members' opinion - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Dongulus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2014, 05:28:27 pm
content: The year is up so IEEE is hounding me to renew my membership. I'm still in my first year out of college so I qualify for a discounted price ($94) instead of the full price membership ($192). Looking at it, I'm having trouble finding a reason to renew. As a student, I had a some reasons to be a member: I got discounts for lab kits at school, I liked the magazines they sent me, and it helped out with my job search. Most importantly, the membership for a student was only $32. Now that I am out of college and no longer looking for a job, I don't really see why I should continue it. I still like IEEE Spectrum, but most of the articles seem to be available for free for anyone on their website.I haven't really looked through everything else IEEE has to offer, and I haven't really been active in anything IEEE related outside of college. Is anyone currently a member that finds any features in particular worth the money? I'm willing to give the membership another year because of the discounted price to explore some of what the IEEE has to offer.

author: Kremmen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2014, 05:43:59 pm
content: Well, i am a member. Mainly just for the hell of it (no real reason). I have subscribed to a number of societies and the ieeexplore archive comes in handy for the archived papers. I don't know if it is worth the money but basically it is not an issue for me so i don't care.In the end i guess it is a little like the bank "golden piggybank club" of my penny saving childhood. A fine sounding association with no real tangible benefits. Maybe it is just nice to belong - i don't know.

author: Dongulus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2014, 08:51:53 pm
content: The societies seem like they might be worth while. I miss having access to loads of papers on specific topics like I had in college. The publications that the societies put out seem to offer quite a lot of interesting area-specific articles for fairly cheap membership fees.

author: Balaur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 10, 2014, 09:04:07 pm
content: As a general rule, if you ask yourself is something is worthy, then the answer is noRegarding IEEE membership, here is my perspective (I'm a senior member). As always, any personal opinions are highly contextual and background-sensitive.An IEEE membership makes a lot of sense if you do research, either as a part of your job or because you like it or want to progress towards a R&D career and want to be somewhat active in the community. Some positions/activities require IEEE membership.As an example, if you have to participate, the discount on registration fees for most IEEE conferences makes up the membership costs.Of course, there are some tangible benefits as well (discounts on Dell products, car rental, etc).As always, it's better if your employer pay the membership for you. I also know people who pay that by themselves.Best regards,Dan

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 11, 2014, 09:54:17 am
content: Quote from: Balaur on January 10, 2014, 09:04:07 pmI am one of those, I'm the main R&D guy on my team so I need the archive. Originally my previous job reimbursed my fees but even after switching jobs I figured it was worth continuing on my own.