Hello Latinkat,

Welcome to Austin, and to WomenBloom! Hope you're enjoying our fair city and our website!

I would start by checking out our local AHRMA chapter: http://www.austinhumanresource.org/ and going to some of their luncheons.

Also, the Austin chapter of ASTD, http://www.austin-astd.org/, same thing as AHRMA.

If you haven't already learned this, people in Austin are super open to networking...meet some folks there and then follow up with them after by asking for their advice and who else you should talk to. I think you'll find them very useful for figuring out the HR landscape here and pinpointing needs and pain points where you could focus. Actually, with the downturn maybe this is a time when companies prefer to consult than have their own HR people on the payroll.

Hope that helps!

Thank you great information. I do believe I will attend one of the luncheons and just start networking. I will never know if I can do this, until I just get out and give it a try.