Welcome! Our Professional Designation Advisor service is an important piece in assisting candidates on their journey towards an IAAO professional designation. The advice and guidance a designee who has been through the program can provide to those aspiring to earn a designation can have a significant impact on their success. With this service, candidates (Mentee) can find an IAAO Designated Advisor (Mentor) that best-fits their designation path, whether they are in the same city, state, or in another time zone altogether.
Please take a moment to review the FAQ page to learn all you need to know about the Professional Designation Advisor program.
You can participate in this service in four simple steps:
START
Complete your IAAO Connect profile. Make sure your contact information is up to date, add a recent professional profile picture, expand on your bio and add your education and job history. Having a complete and accurate profile is crucial to the success of selection and matching. Once your profile is complete, you are ready to enroll.
ENROLL
Use the following links to enroll as an Advisor or as a Candidate:
• IAAO Designees: Enroll as an Advisor
• Designation Candidates: Enroll as a Candidate
Note: If you have not yet applied to be accepted as a designation candidate, you can do so here.
Make selections for each of the program demographics to set your preferences. Demographics include: job role, jurisdiction size, designation held/sought, and type of demonstration project. Please note that some fields are required for enrollment. The more information you provide, the easier it will be to make the best match. Keep in mind in order to participate, you must be enrolled in the service.
SEARCH
Use the Program Directory to input your search criteria. Start by selecting the topic(s) of interest which include:
• Years of Experience
• Designation
• Type of Demonstration Project
• Jurisdiction Size
• Your Availability
• and More!
CONNECT
Once you are enrolled, you can search for potential matches. Advisors can search for Candidates, but in most cases, Candidates look for Advisors. Do one search or multiple searches. If you're unsure of the search criteria, select "Search for ALL of the selected values." The Program Directory will do the work for you and populate the results.
Next click on the member's name that you're interested in establishing a connection with. The link will bring you to their profile page. If you think it's a desired match, look under their profile image for the Advisor/Candidate badge, which when clicked will allow you to request a connection. If it's not a desired match, you can simply select the back button to return to your previous search results. Note: be sure to click on their name to request a match, not the “send message” button.