Spruce Up Your Social

Whether you’re changing jobs or not, you’re constantly being judged by your social media presence, so it pays to have everything in order. Here are a few minimum required steps to get your social media under control:

Clean up your posts. Go through your social media posts and ask yourself, “Do I want to explain this to a human resources person during an interview?” Pictures of you coaching your kids, attending a concert, or funny memes that show your personality are fine and likely positive. On the other hand, profanity, extreme politics, or pictures of drunken exploits should go. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram, the rules are the same — if you don’t want a hiring manager to see or read it, then delete it.

Update LinkedIn. LinkedIn is where the action is at, so make sure you’re putting your best career foot forward there by having your career timeline, certifications, and bio current.

Update bio/profile on other membership sites. User groups, volunteer groups, community theater, or any other web site you are active on should be updated as well. These types of activities reflect well on you, so make sure you manage your media presence there as well.

When you start a job search, you’re essentially throwing yourself open to investigation of your background and experience. Companies and recruiters will use your social media presence to do this investigation, so it behooves you to have everything in proper order BEFORE you start your search. I can’t stress this enough.

Self-Assessment of Your Skills

So, what is it you do well? What are your weaknesses? How would you describe yourself? What type of projects do you enjoy working on? You know you’ll be asked these things in a job interview, right? And, even if you’re not changing jobs, isn’t it a good idea to know the answers to these questions for yourself?

Let’s do a self-assessment homework assignment. You’ll need a pen, notepad, and a few uninterrupted minutes to write down your positive and negative assets as you might present them in a job interview. To give you an idea of what I mean here is my personal self-assessment:

Positive Assets:

• I’m an experienced mechanical design engineer who became a CAD manager.
• Languages I can speak: CAD, Engineering, Accounting, Management.
• I’m good at using programming tools to automate tasks.
• I have a persistent “How can we do this better?” persona.
• I’m good at communication and teaching CAD users.
• I have extensive experience in writing and public speaking.
• I’m very comfortable creating budgets and analyzing purchases.
• I have a solid knowledge of IT concepts and tools.
• I can easily explain technical concepts to non-technical people.
• My real joy is found by working through complex projects and seeing all players — from CAD users to upper management — enjoy the results of a job well done.

Negative Assets:

• I have little patience for those who won’t learn or work hard, and my management style sometimes reflects that.
• I lack practical experience in building and civil trades which makes me BIM weak.

 Almost any interviewer will ask you to explain your good points and most will corner you into describing a weakness. By preparing for these questions, you’ll do better in an interview and probably learn something about yourself in the process.

Now that you have listed your assets, learn how best to share them in an interview. If you're in a slump about your job, how do you snap out of it and put your best foot forward? Finally, how best do you spruce up your resumé and create an elevator pitch? Read more »

Tools and Resources

Exchange Formats

CADEX updated CAD Exchanger GUI, the company's 3D viewer and converter used to read and write 3D formats (SOLIDWORKS, NX, JT, IGES, STEP, JT, IFC, FBX, and others). In addition, the company updated its CAD Exchanger Cloud so users can collaboration in real-time via public clouds and on-premise. All CAD Exchanger products support 3D XML and Solid Edge import, broader versions coverage for CATIA, JT, Parasolid, and SOLIDWORKS mesh colors import.    Read more

WEBINAR: Driving Systems Modeling and Simulation Understanding and Adoption. 26 August 2021, 11:00 a.m. EDT.

CIMdata’s upcoming free educational webinar is designed to help attendees: Understand the development challenges leading to a simulation-driven systems engineering environment, realize how education improves the engineering maturity of organizations, and understand how SMS education can help businesses in their overall Digital Transformation.  Find out more

Collaboration Product 

CCE, a provider of CAD interoperability technology, announced an upgrade to its 3D Collaboration software EnSuite-Cloud ReVue. Users can download ReVue LiveLink integrations for Autodesk Revit 2021 or 2022. EnSuite-Cloud ReVue is CCE’s flagship real-time collaboration product using 3D digital assets while maintaining control of the users’ intellectual property. Participants can use 3D multi-CAD data from all major CAD formats such as CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, NX, Creo, Autodesk Inventor, Revit, Solid Edge, JT, IFC, and more, to conduct design reviews directly in the browser or access it from an active CAD session using ReVue LiveLink.  Read more » ▼▼▼

Organized by the European Center of Sustainable Development in collaboration with CIT University, the 9th ICSD 2021 is inspired from the critical challenge of human, environmental, and economic sustainability concerning the present and future generations in a global-scale context. The Conference theme is: "Creating a unified foundation for the Sustainable Development: research, practice, and education.” This interdisciplinary forum is for scholars, teachers, and practitioners from any professional discipline who share an interest in — and concern for — sustainability in an holistic perspective, where environmental, cultural, economic and social concerns intersect. Submit an abstract or sign up for virtual attendance. Find out more»

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