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My wife is in this sort of professional association -- 2 different ones serving different purposes actually.
One of them functions more like a union, and is the body that issues their licence to work. Since you can't work without a licence, everyone is in it. They are supposed to advocate for the rights of their members, but I feel like they actually have very little bargaining power with the government. In that sense, it is really unfortunate.
The other professional association is not mandatory, but is a very useful B2B type of thing. One of their primary functions is to act as an intermediate / negotiator between suppliers and the association members. In that role, the professional association can leverage their numbers to get some meaningful discounts on products for their members. They also provide resource and seminars to help with different aspects of business operations, so that's useful too.
p.s. Good for you to get on top of job hunting! Hopefully it'll get you a nice raise?
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