IEEE Membership

[Waifian]

Why is the IEEE so expensive?
I am currently a member of 5 years now. Since I have been out of school they want $180 to renew for a year not including any their society memberships. $199 would be the cost for me this year. I think it's ridiculous...

Way to high for me... I am no longer going to renew... I can have some new test equipment for that price.
 

[migsantiago]

What do you get by being an IEEE member?

As far as I know, IEEE members can download IEEE standars for free.

[Time]

As far as I can tell you just get a pretty interesting magazine and large discounts on conference fees.

[JohnS_AZ]

I was a member for a few years a long time ago and finally let it lapse because I wasn't getting a thing out of it. Discounts to conferences I didn't want to go to, and discounts on standards I didn't need. What's more, there were far too many PhDs for my comfort level. 

It's cool if you're into being on standards setting bodies, and/or your employer is willing to send you to meetings and conferences several times a year. I just never got and practical value out of it.

An interesting aside ... my wife is a corporate clinical IT director for a major hospital system. She's non-degreed. About a year ago she got a letter from the IEEE asking her to become a member! I figured that would be a pretty rare (and kind of impressive) affiliation in her line of work, but I could never talk her into it.

[Waifian]

I agree with Time, It's a $200 a year magazine subscription.

[EEVblog]

I just got my renewal notice, $141

Yes, basically it's just a (nice) magazine + an extra wank thing to put on your resume.

Dave.

[rossmoffett]

I'm not a member anymore.. but I used to enjoy the papers I could read when I wanted to build a new kind of circuit in college.  The membership for a year was only $20 too, if I remember correctly, as a student.

[migsantiago]

I'm not a member anymore.. but I used to enjoy the papers I could read when I wanted to build a new kind of circuit in college.  The membership for a year was only $20 too, if I remember correctly, as a student.

In my school library there are some computers connected to the IEEE and ANSI libraries. You could download any standard for free as long as you were a student. 

[Zad]

Unfortunately, too many jobs require you to be a member of a professional body (even if they don't explicitly say so). I was an IEEE student member and then for shortly after uni. It was interesting getting endless journals from New Jersey, seeing what stuff was out there and likely to come mainstream in a few years, but they end up taking a huge amount of shelf/floor space. Having said that, the IEEE always seemed better than the UK equivalent, the IEE, which was (and probably still is) more obsessed with management, being a 'professional' and having meetings.

Having been self employed for so long, I don't have any mentor, or long term independent assessment of my abilities, so I doubt they would accept me as a member, and forget about chartered engineer status!

[Neilm]

the IEEE always seemed better than the UK equivalent, the IEE, which was (and probably still is) more obsessed with management, being a 'professional' and having meetings.

The IEE changed their name a couple of years ago - they are now the IET. Nothing else has changed though.

Neil

[EEVblog]

Unfortunately, too many jobs require you to be a member of a professional body (even if they don't explicitly say so).

Lucily that's not really the case in Australia, although it's not entirely uncommon to see a "must be eligible for IEA membership", even if you don't actually have to join.

Dave.

[Time]

it doesnt seem to be like that in the US either.

[scrat]

We have an old-fashion thing called "Ordine degli Ingegneri", here in Italy, which can sound something like knight stuff (we always recall to the past), while it is an organization with recognized institutional tasks. Representation of engineers (as for a trade union) is among those tasks. Membership is required by law only for certain kind of projects, mainly for buildings, and is achieved through a quite long exam and -not surprisingly- by paying an annual fee. Non-degreed technicians also have their organization, "Albo" (="registration book"), which requires exams after a practice period (2 years!).

IEEE membership is mostly a matter of Academics, but does not give automatical access to articles, which are the most interesting thing of IEEE. In fact, good companies which try to innovate usually take a look at IEEE articles, at least in my research field, electric drives.
I'm going to register as a PhD student, just to have conference discounts.
@JohnS_AZ: there is a strange tension between academics and industrials, which I don't think is worth. We should be working in the same direction...

[saturation]

I've been an IEEE member since the early 1990s.  I don't think it will help you as much in industry, but it invaluable in academia and research; much of what goes on is not in the commercial sector.