Young professionals meet friends of like mind via network

 

Press of Atlantic City, March 11, 2006
By COURTNEY MCCANN


Ah, the joy of having your first full-time job. Your rent gets paid. Your mother finally takes you seriously. And your long hours continue to pay off with promotions and raises.

But while your career is on the fast track, your social life is left in the parking lot.

Laura Occhipinti, 29, of North Plainfield, felt that way two years ago when she moved from Bergen to Somerset County to start a new job as a social worker.

"I was living all by myself, and I was starting a new job," Occhipinti said. "I didn't have any friends."

It prompted her to form the New Jersey Young Professionals (NJYP), a group that provides social and networking opportunities for the state's career-driven twenty and thirty-somethings.

Now in its third year, the group has 5,500 members. Professionals can be single, married or in a relationship and there are no dues. A weekly newsletter and the group's Web site at www.njyp.org keeps members updated on social events.

"We do everything from dinners and pizza parties to happy hours," Occhipinti said. "We also do singles events at least once a weekend because such a large majority of the group is single."

Die-hard workaholics can get a little social interaction and further their careers by attending NJYP's networking dinners.