CAD Manager's Newsletter (#409)

Your CAD Management Career Wake-Up Call, Part 2

You've made an important decision — to keep your current position, or move on to greener pastures — but what comes next?

In the previous edition of the CAD Manager's Newsletter, I addressed job dissatisfaction and provided some steps you could follow to determine whether leaving your job might be the right decision. Hopefully you had a chance to go through the exercises; if not, take some time to do so now, so you'll know whether you're ready to move on or not.

In this edition, we'll focus on preparing for a job search, or — if you're happy with your current position — analyzing your own strengths and weaknesses. These steps are presented chronologically, so take care to tackle them in the order presented. Here goes.

Polish Your Image

If you're moving on to greener pastures, or even just considering a possible move, there are a few things you absolutely must do before you send out your first resume:

Clean up social media accounts. Don't delete them entirely, but remove anything that you wouldn't want a human resources department seeing. For example, those pictures of you coaching your kid's soccer team should stay, but any profanity-laden political rants must go. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, the point is the same.

Update LinkedIn. LinkedIn is where the action is, professionally speaking, so make sure you're putting your best career foot forward with complete, up-to-date information.

Check profiles on any professional membership sites. Whether it be a user group profile, a volunteer association website, or even a hobby site you visit, make sure your information is current on these sites as well. And if you're no longer active on these sites, delete them and clear your digital desk of clutter.

The bottom line is that when you begin a job search, you're inviting people to check out your background and experience, and these days that includes your online presence as well. If you haven't looked for a job in the past five years or so, I can't stress enough how much things have changed with respect to your digital footprint.

Assess Your Skills

So, what is it you do well? What are your weaknesses? How would you describe yourself to someone interviewing you? You know you'll face these sorts of questions in a job search, but even if you're not looking at the moment, it pays to know where your strengths and weaknesses lie. So, get out a notepad and write down a plain-language summary of your skills. Here is a quick assessment I've done on myself that you can use to get your juices flowing. Read more »
 

Tools and Resources

Dassault Systèmes Offers Free Guide to Connected Product Design
"The Engineering Handbook for Designing Smart Connected Products," an ebook by Lifecycle Insights, is now available from Dassault Systèmes. According to the company, firms that are designing smart products are trying to determine the answers to three major questions; this ebook addresses the answers to these questions, and tactics for smart product success.
 

What's New at Cadalyst.com

AutoCAD Video Tips: Create Paper Space Viewports from Named Views in AutoCAD
New to AutoCAD 2019 is the ability to easily drag and drop Named Views onto your paper space layouts. Join AutoCAD tipster Lynn Allen as she shows you how to quickly insert those named views (complete with their saved layer settings) and control the various scale factors. Done properly, this technique will save you plenty of time in creating your final drawing sheets! Watch the video »

Umbra Levels Up to Take on 3D Optimization for AEC
After mastering occlusion culling for video game engines, the company is expanding into CAD territory with a platform that serves AEC professionals' needs. Read more »

Herrera on Hardware: CAD Workstation Form Factors 101, Part 2 — The Tried-and-True Deskside Workstation
You know that the deskside form factor is the familiar mainstay of the CAD workstation world — but do you know why? Read more »