Dear Readers,

I hope you had a chance to attend a users group event this year; what a great networking opportunity. After this year’s conferences, I truly understand their career-building value.

I met a SAS user at NESUG who’d recently been hired after several months without a job. He said that the company that hired him had based the decision upon his resume, published papers, LinkedIn connections and SAS certifications. He'd also met some of the company’s staff members at SAS users conferences.

At the fall regionals, you may have heard SAS CIO Suzanne Gordon talk about taking time to get to know one another: new users with more experienced users and vice versa. This up-and-down ladder would keep you connected as your careers progress.

Gordon and others also recommended connecting with online users and building an online resume. Employers often look at online connections and publications as a pre-interview vetting process. Add a little juice to their online search with contributions that highlight your skills, include SAS paper contributions and LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts and submissions. (Look at this Google search.)