Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hide morning and night hours in Calendar, courtesy of Gmail Blog

From: The Gmail Team <gmailteam@google.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 12:20 PM
Subject: [Official Gmail Blog] Hide morning and night hours in Calendar
To: gmail-blog-posts@googlegroups.com


Posted by Oleksandr Kyreiev, Software Engineer

How often do you have something scheduled at 3am? What about 10pm? If the answer is almost never, you might want to try out the Hide morning and night lab in Google Calendar.


With a simple drag of a slider you can fold all those empty hours into a single row to set the time range you want to hide. The folded rows still show all your events, just in more compact form.


We're launching this in Calendar Labs (Settings > Labs) to gather feedback on how people end up using this feature. So don't forget to tell us what you think about this latest addition.

--
Posted By The Gmail Team to Official Gmail Blog at 11/28/2011 11:20:00 AM

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

A 'bamboo ceiling' at U.S. companies? Courtesy of Ask Annie

Subject: Ask Annie: Is there a 'bamboo ceiling' at U.S. companies?

   

Ask Annie

 

Is there a 'bamboo ceiling' at U.S. companies?

October 7, 2011. 10:50 AM ET

Few Asian Americans have made it to the top of the corporate ladder at Fortune 500 companies despite the minority group's outsize achievements. Why is that?

By Anne Fisher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: I just got passed over for yet another promotion, the third one in five years, even though I've been working flat-out and all my performance evaluations have been great. This is upsetting, but perhaps not surprising, considering that I am Asian American (third-generation Chinese) and there is no one of Asian extraction in any high position at this company. I hate to "play the race card," but given the circumstances, I can't help wondering if there is some subtle race discrimination at work here. What are your thoughts? — Invisible Man

Dear I.M.: You aren't the only one wondering. About 5% of U.S. residents identify themselves as Asian, but Asian Americans hold fewer than 2% of executive jobs at Fortune 500 companies, according to a study published in July by the nonprofit Center for Work-Life Policy.

The gap clearly isn't due to a lack of education: 16% of all Ivy League college grads identify as Asian or Asian American (over three times the group's representation in the population overall), and more than one-third (35%) of students at top schools like M.I.T. and Stanford identify as Asian or Asian American.

Granted, every now and then someone who identifies as Asian or Asian American scales the corporate heights, like Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products (AVP), and Citigroup (C) chief Vikram Pandit. Altogether, eight Fortune 500 CEOs identify themselves as Asian.

Partly for that reason, about one-quarter of Asian people surveyed for the CWLP study said they believe that race discrimination is holding them back at work. Interestingly, a scant 4% of Caucasians saw any evidence of bias against Asian people.

So what gives?

Human resources consultant Jane Hyun says that some Asian cultures encourage an ethic that rewards hard work without seeking public recognition. "'But hard work alone isn't enough," says Hyun, who runs an executive coaching firm called Hyun & Associates and is the author of Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians. "Asian cultures have sayings like 'The loudest duck gets shot,'" Hyun observes. "This is totally opposite from, and incompatible with, Western notions like 'The squeaky wheel gets the grease.'"

Michael Hyter, author of a new book called The Power of Choice, agrees. As head of Boston-based consulting firm Global Novations, he has noticed in his work with American and Asian clients that "there is a real cultural disconnect.

"Americans are taught to show leadership potential by being gregarious, outgoing, outspoken, and confident, but the Asian ideal is to work very hard, be humble and deferential, and blend in with the group. Expressing opinions or proposing changes is often seen [in Asia] as disrespectful."

About half (48%) of respondents to the CWLP survey said the biggest hurdle Asian Americans face is "conformity to prevailing leadership models."

Says Hyter, "It's important to take a close look at who is getting promoted at your company and analyze what they're doing, besides working hard. You need to understand how your company defines leadership qualities."

He notes that technical skills are the easiest kind to identify and measure, so "they tend to be how we evaluate our own performance. But, although no one talks about it, promotions are 85% based on other skills, like the ability to influence others and form strategic relationships."

You don't have to go it alone. Hyter, a former executive at Dayton Hudson (now Target) who happens to be African-American, says his own parents instilled in him the idea that "getting good grades and out-working everyone else would make me successful," he recalls. "Then I noticed that alone was not doing it. Luckily, I had a mentor who helped me figure out the unwritten rules."

You need one too. "It should be someone at least two levels above you in the organization," Hyter says. "Ask for feedback about what you need to work on."

At the same time, both Hyun and Hyter urge you to expand your network and boost your visibility by seeking out "opportunities to lead projects and influence people," Hyter says. "It requires you to stretch a little -- without losing sight of who you are."


Filed under: Ask Annie, Contributors

See more Ask Annie

About This Author
Anne Fisher
Anne Fisher
Contributor, Fortune

Anne Fisher has been writing "Ask Annie," a column on careers, for Fortune since 1996, helping readers navigate booms, recessions, changing industries, and changing ideas about what's appropriate in the workplace (and beyond). Anne is the author of two books, Wall Street Women (Knopf, 1990) and If My Career's on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map? (William Morrow, 2001). She also writes the "Executive Inbox" column on New York City entrepreneurs for Crain's New York Business.

Email Anne
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Monday, November 14, 2011

Job hunting tips for tech nerds thanks to Ask Annie

'...tech nerds "tend to focus too much on their individual roles, project successes, and the operational aspects of their last position."

All that stuff counts, ...But you now need to take one step further and "correlate your skills with ideas about the concrete value those skills can add to the organization as a whole,"...'

Really relevant for any engineer that is planning ahead. Some areas of tech are pretty hot now, one shouldn't sell oneself short...


Cheers,
Connie L. O'Dell
Sr. Verification Specialist
c.odell@co-consulting.net
303-641-5191
_____________________________________________
CO Consulting - Boulder, CO - http://co-consulting.net
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Ask Annie
March 11, 2011. 1:07 PM

4 job hunting tips for tech nerds

People with superb tech skills are not always adept at marketing themselves. How to build a solid job-seeking profile.

By Anne Fisher, contributor

Dear Annie: I was happy to see your post about signs of a recovery in IT hiring, because I'm just starting to look around for a job after taking a break to raise my kids. During that time, I went back to school and picked up a couple of new certifications, and former colleagues from my old systems analyst job tell me my current skills are "hot."

The only thing is, I've never actually looked for a job before: The Fortune 500 financial services company where I spent 14 years, until 2009, recruited me right out of college, and I worked my way up there (five promotions) without ever having to write a resume or go on an interview. Can you give me any suggestions about how to stand out from the competition and get hired? —Cyber Cynthia

Dear C.C.: No question about it, your timing is terrific. "The doors to employment opportunities for technology and quant analysis positions in the financial services sector are bursting open" right now, says Kathy Harris, managing director of New York City-based tech recruiters Harris Allied.

Moreover, you're not alone in wondering how to sell your skills. Personal branding -- the art of creating a unique professional persona that will wow hiring managers -- "is generally not a strong suit for many technology professionals," Harris observes.

As a rule, she explains, tech nerds "tend to focus too much on their individual roles, project successes, and the operational aspects of their last position."

All that stuff counts, of course, and it's unlikely you'd have earned five promotions in 14 years without excelling at it. But you now need to take one step further and "correlate your skills with ideas about the concrete value those skills can add to the organization as a whole," Harris says.

With that in mind, some suggestions:

1. Research prospective employers thoroughly, paying particular attention to news (online and in the trade press) about what their IT people are doing now and the direction they are likely moving in, whether it's cloud computing, VOIP, converging technologies, or some other Next Big Thing. "You need the right context for interviews, so you can explain how you see yourself adding value to the business," Harris says.

2. Be ready to give specifics about how your past accomplishments helped your employer reach quantifiable goals. Prepare for interviews by practicing succinct summaries of your successes, including "the original problem or challenge, your contribution to the solution, and the end result," Harris says.

If you're describing a project to a hiring manager with little or no technical expertise, she adds, keep jargon and acronyms to a minimum. Talk instead about the impact of your work in areas of the company beyond the IT department.

3. Don't forget to polish your image online by making sure your LinkedIn profile is current and complete, casting a critical eye on your Facebook page and deleting any comments or photos that are "unflattering or worse," Harris advises. These days, all job seekers in any field should "assume that, at some point in your job search, companies will check you out online." Try to make sure they like what they find.

4. Supercharge your resume. Use bullet points, which Harris says "make a resume easier to scan quickly for relevant skills and experience. Include a separate bullet point for each project --whether it's enterprise architecture design, a data center move, or a restructuring -- that led to greater efficiencies or new cost savings."

Because employers often search for candidates by keyword, include all keywords for your various skills in both the body of your resume and the technical summary at the top.

Avoid excess verbiage, but forget the conventional wisdom that all resumes must be one page affairs, Harris adds: "Resume length should correlate to your years of professional experience. For a seasoned candidate, a two- or even three-page resume is perfectly acceptable."

For detailed help with putting together a winning resume, including sample pages for various types of IT jobs, you might want to take a look at a useful guide, published last month, called Expert Resumes for Computer and Web Jobs, by longtime professional resume coaches Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark.

Just one more thing: You may be interested to hear that IT trade group CompTIA has launched an industrywide effort to entice more women into tech jobs. Why? A recent study from the National Center for Women and Information Technology shows that the ranks of females in the tech world have been thinning steadily for years. In 2009, only 25% of IT professionals were women, down from 36% in 1991. In 2008, the report says, women made up just 18% of those who earned computer and information science degrees, a striking drop from 37% way back in 1985.

"We're striving to make IT the career of choice for more women," says Charles Eaton, executive director of the CompTIA Educational Foundation, which has started a free training and certification program for women called Creating Futures. For information on how to participate, go to www.comptia-ef.org.

Talkback: If you're in IT, or a manager who hires techies, what advice would you give high-tech job seekers right now? Leave a comment below.


Filed under: Ask Annie, Guest Author
Anne Fisher
Anne Fisher
Anne Fisher has been writing "Ask Annie," a column on careers, for Fortune since 1996, helping readers navigate booms, recessions, changing industries, and changing ideas about what's appropriate in the workplace (and beyond). Anne is the author of two books, Wall Street Women (Knopf, 1990) and If My Career's on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map? (William Morrow, 2001). She also writes the "Executive Inbox" column on New York City entrepreneurs for Crain's New York Business.

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Verification presentations, courtesy of DVClub

Some very interesting material, speakers commonly post slides for your edification, very useful newsletter.

Cheers,
Connie L. O'Dell
Sr. Verification Specialist
c.odell@co-consulting.net
303-641-5191
_____________________________________________
CO Consulting - Boulder, CO - http://co-consulting.net


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: DVClub Newsletter <admin@dvclub.org>
Date: Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 5:38 PM
Subject: DVClub Newsletter: November 2011


Is this email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser.
DVClub Newsletter
In this Issue:
DVClub Events
DVClub Austin held jointly with MTVCon: Dec 7
DVClub News
DVClub in the Blogosphere
Software-Inspired Technique Predicts IC Verification Closure
RAM-Resident Database Speeds Verification Coverage Collection
Get Involved: Industry Events
Attend MTVCon in Austin Dec 5-7
DAC 2012 - Key Deadlines
Sponsor News/Events
MTVCon Scholarship - Deadline Extended [ARM]
CDNLive! - Call for Papers [Cadence]
DVClub Events


Austin - December 7 - Cool River Cafe - Register

The Cortex-A15 Verification Story

Learn the details of verifying the Cortex-A15 MPCore: this processor has an out-of-order superscalar pipeline with a tightly-coupled low-latency level-2 cache which can be up to 4MB in size. It can be configured in clusters with up to 4 cores, and supports MP cache coherency in hardware. Additional improvements in floating point and NEON™ media performance result in devices that deliver the next-generation user experience for consumers as well as high-performance computation for web infrastructure applications. This processor introduces new technology that enables efficient handling of complex software environments including full hardware virtualization, Large Physical Address Extensions (LPAE) addressing up to 1TB of memory as well as error correction capability for fault-tolerance and soft-fault recovery.

This presentation will describe the advanced verification methodologies which are employed in the verification of Cortex-A15, including:
  • Constrained random SystemVerilog unit level testbenches
  • Coverage driven methodology utilizing black box and white box functional coverage for each unit
  • Assertion based design where assertions are added by both verification engineers as well as RTL designers
  • Top level (full CPU cluster) verification with multiple diverse random instruction generators, focusing on comprehensive ISA coverage and extensive stress of MP cache coherency
  • System level (multiple CPU clusters + interconnect, memory controllers, graphics accelerators, other peripherals) emulation of the platform to enable booting of operating systems and running stress testing applications and workloads
  • FPGA platforms to provide additional cost effective throughput
Bill Greene, Austin CPU Validation Manager, ARM, is the engineering manager for the CPU Validation Team at ARM in Austin. He previously worked at Intel on Itanium processor validation and firmware development, and as RTL and verification manager at Marvell developing ARM-based SoCs for mobile applications. He holds BSEE/BSCE and MSEE degrees from Purdue University.
Micah McDaniel, Principal Design Engineer, ARM, was the verification lead for the Cortex-A15 processor. At ARM he was previously an RTL designer and verification engineer on Cortex-A8. He has also done RTL design at Chicory Systems, and circuit design at IBM. He holds an MSEE from the University of Texas, and BSEE/BSCE and BSPHYS from Louisiana State University.
Register Now!

DVClub News


Recent DVClub Event Updates

Hands-On Verification
- Doug Smith, Engineer/Instructor, Doulos
Austin, August 15th
New Reference Link posted in lieu of slides
Additional Bonus: FREE WEBINAR: Easier UVM Training

Using Bug Arrival Rates to Predict the Future
- Greg Smith,
Sr. Verification Manager, Oracle
Silicon Valley, August 17th
Slides Posted


High Performance Collection of Coverage Metrics Using a Relational Database Backend
-
James Roberts, Sr. Verification Engineer, Oracle
Silicon Valley, August 17th
Slides Posted


DVClub in the Blogosphere

- with special thanks to blogger Richard Goering

DVClub Talk: Software-Inspired Technique Predicts IC Verification Closure
What's the hardest question for a verification manager to answer? Greg Smith, senior verification manager at Oracle, found that out soon after he moved from design into verification at Hewlett-Packard some years ago. The question is, "when will you be done?"

DVClub Talk #2: RAM-Resident Database Speeds Verification Coverage Collection
Metric-driven verification provides a great deal of valuable coverage data, but where are you going to store it all? Merging coverage data from hundreds or thousands of parallel simulation runs can pose a huge bottleneck. One way to avoid that bottleneck is to write to a memory-resident relational database, according to James Roberts, a verification engineer at Oracle who works with Sparc processors.

Industry Events

DAC 2012 Deadlines

Have an emerging topic that's timely, enlightenting, and relevant to various segments of the Design and Automation community?
Call for Contributions

MTVCon 2011
12th Annual Microprocessor Test and Verification International Workshop

Join Leading Researchers & Practitioners in the Verification & Test Community
Austin, Texas - Hyatt Regency - December 5-7

Join attendees from industry and academia, including strong representation from companies such as AMD, Apple, ARM, Cadence, Freescale, IBM, Intel, Mentor Graphics, Oracle and Synopsys, among others. This year's theme is Common Challenges and Solutions.
  • Network with peers and luminaries.
  • Exchange innovative ideas.
  • Tackle difficult challenges in various processor and SOC design environments.

Design Verification Alerts from DVClub Sponsors

ARM Offers Scholarship for MTVCon - Deadline Extended!

ARM is offering numerous educational scholarships to the 12th Annual International Workshop on Microprocessor Test and Verification (MTVCon), to be held December 5-7, 2011 in Austin, TX. Eligibility is limited to graduate students and graduates new to the verification field. Deadline now extended.
For more info, visit: ARM 2011 MTVCon Scholarship
Know a grad student or a new grad who would be perfect for this? Forward to a Friend!

Cadence CDNLive! Silicon Valley - Calls for Papers

Abstracts are due before 5pm PST, on Friday, November 11, 2011
March 13-14th, 2012 - San Jose, CA

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Monday, November 7, 2011

If you choose an answer to this question at random, what is the chance you will be correct? A) 25% B) 50% C) 60% D) 25%

If you choose an answer to this question at random, what is the chance you will be correct?

A) 25%
B) 50%
C) 60%
D) 25%

Perfectionism works for you or against you? Courtesy of Ask Annie

Excellent perspective, applicable to engineers and others, from Ask Annie...

Cheers,
Connie L. O'Dell
Sr. Verification Specialist
c.odell@co-consulting.net
303-641-5191
_____________________________________________
CO Consulting - Boulder, CO - http://co-consulting.net


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Fortune online <mailings@mail.cnn.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 10:01 AM
Subject: Ask Annie: Does perfectionism work for you or against you?

Ask Annie

Does perfectionism work for you or against you?

November 4, 2011. 11:41 AM ET

For many high achievers, it does both. A noted psychologist explains how to make the best of a trait that may be driving your colleagues up the wall.

By Anne Fisher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: I recently had my annual performance evaluation. Like every other review in my career so far, it was -- how can I put this? -- excellent but mixed. On the plus side, my boss thinks I do great work, I'm conscientious and detail-oriented, and my ideas show "tremendous promise," he said. (I've been promoted twice in four years.)

Then comes the big "but…." I missed a couple of important deadlines, because I took too long trying to improve projects that I thought just weren't ready yet. Also, I find it really difficult to delegate anything. I'm leading a talented team, but I want to make sure everything is done right, and sometimes it's easier to do it myself than to explain how I want the finished product to look. My boss told me I should "try to be less of a perfectionist." But how do I do that, and still keep our standards and our productivity up? --Baffled in Brentwood

Dear BB: "When I hear, 'you're such a perfectionist,' it's never clear whether this is a compliment or an insult," says Jeff Szymanski. "Usually it's a little bit of both."

A PhD in psychology, Szymanski is a self-diagnosed perfectionist. He is also executive director of the nonprofit International OCD Foundation. A longtime therapist, he led a counseling program specifically for perfectionists at Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital. Now he's written a book, The Perfectionist's Handbook: Take Risks, Invite Criticism, and Make the Most of Your Mistakes.

Szymanski starts from the premise that the P-word is a double-edged sword. Some aspects, like extremely high standards and a do-or-die work ethic, are the fuel that make organizations (and careers) soar into the stratosphere. But it's possible to push all of these too far, and end up crashing.

You seem to be describing common symptoms of perfectionism run amok: Believing no one else can do their jobs as well as you can, refusing to let go of anything until it's flawless, and consequently blowing deadlines that matter more to your boss (and quite possibly others, like customers) than a "perfect" project does.

What's more, if you're like most perfectionists, you've been functioning this way for a long time, so it has become second nature. "Adult perfectionists usually tell me that they were often late turning in term papers in college, and even homework in high school, for the same reasons they're missing work deadlines now," Szymanski observes.

"The desire to keep on making something better and better is terrific, of course," he adds. "The danger is, you can get lost in your own head and forget what's most important to your audience."

But don't be discouraged. "The fact that you've been promoted twice in four years shows that some parts of your perfectionism are working for you," notes Szymanski. "What your boss is saying is, you need to tweak it a little."

Here are four ways to start:

1. Ask for input from others. Begin with your boss. "Some deadlines are more flexible than others. You need to know which ones are hard and fast, and which ones have some 'give' in them," Szymanski says.

"Then try showing rough drafts of your work to others, especially your boss, as you get nearer to completing it."

Perfectionists usually struggle with this, he says, because "they want others to see only their very best stuff. But saying to people, 'This is a work in progress. What do you think?' can be enormously helpful in avoiding the tunnel vision that makes you miss deadlines." Who knows, a little collaboration might make the final product even better. It's been known to happen.

2. Set priorities. "Perfectionists tend to believe that everything is equally important," notes Szymanski. "It isn't."

His book goes into detail about how to decide what you really need to hold on to and what you can trust colleagues to handle, but the point is to "pick the five most crucial tasks and keep those. Loosen your grip on everything else," he advises. After all, it's less about lowering your standards than it is about acknowledging that you have limited time and energy.

3. Hold others accountable. Szymanski has noticed that perfectionists sometimes insist on doing everything themselves because "the real issue, which can be uncomfortable to deal with, is that a subordinate is not doing his or her work, or is not making the effort to excel at the job. If that's the case, you need to sit down with that person and make your expectations clear."

Otherwise, he says, the more capable and productive members of your team will get tired of picking up the slack and start eyeing the exits -- and you'll end up doing all the work, whether you want to or not, a sure road to burnout.

4. Have more fun. Yes, fun. Perfectionism is often driven by anxiety. Yet voluminous research shows that "people actually perform better when they stop worrying about making a mistake," Szymanski notes.

"Try consciously looking for what's fresh and intriguing about what you're doing. Enjoying what you do, while you concentrate on reaching a goal, will help you focus less on what could go wrong," he says -- which can, over time, stop feeding the fear and anxiety that keep many perfectionists from reaching their stellar potential.

Talkback: Are you a perfectionist, or do you work with one? In your view, is perfectionism an advantage at work, or more of a weakness? Leave a comment below.


Filed under: Ask Annie, Contributors

See more Ask Annie

About This Author
Anne Fisher
Anne Fisher
Contributor, Fortune

Anne Fisher has been writing "Ask Annie," a column on careers, for Fortune since 1996, helping readers navigate booms, recessions, changing industries, and changing ideas about what's appropriate in the workplace (and beyond). Anne is the author of two books, Wall Street Women (Knopf, 1990) and If My Career's on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map? (William Morrow, 2001). She also writes the "Executive Inbox" column on New York City entrepreneurs for Crain's New York Business.

Email Anne
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Friday, November 4, 2011

7 billion people and you: What's your number?

BBC News - 7 billion people and you: What's your number?:

About me:
"When you were born, you were the:
3,044,577,732nd
person alive on Earth
76,701,102,629th
person to have lived since history began"

'via Blog this'

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Re: Ask Annie: 10 ways to use social media in your job hunt

Highly recommend the "Ask Annie" column for good, sensible career advice...

Cheers,
Connie L. O'Dell
Sr. Verification Specialist
c.odell@co-consulting.net
303-641-5191
_____________________________________________
CO Consulting - Boulder, CO - http://co-consulting.net

January 13, 2011. 12:47 PM

10 ways to use social media in your job hunt

Over 80% of employers now look for new hires on LinkedIn. Here's how to make the most of your online "personal brand."

By Anne Fisher, contributor

Dear Annie: I've been working for the same company for the past 19 years, but I just found out my department is being eliminated (outsourced) three months from now, so I'm job hunting for the first time in almost two decades. Obviously, lots of things have changed during that time, and I admit I haven't kept pace. A friend sent me your column about social media sites (Facebook your way to a new job?), which is very helpful. But I'm just wondering whether it's really necessary to put so much effort into this online stuff. I really enjoy in-person networking, and I think I'm pretty good at it, so isn't that enough? —Redundant in Raleigh

Dear R.R.: No question about it, face-to-face networking is crucial, and if you're good at it, you have a distinct advantage over many people who find it a chore. Even so, your friend is right: You'd be making a serious mistake to skip social media sites.

"People who have neglected to create and update a social media presence, particularly on LinkedIn, could miss out on being considered for positions," says Ali Chambers, vice president at Boston-based executive coaching and outplacement firm ClearRock. "Extensive, targeted in-person networking is still the best way to find a new job, but it may not compensate for the lack of a complete and updated social media profile."

That's because 83% of employers now use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to find new hires, according to a survey by recruiting platform Jobvite. Of those, by far the largest number, 89%, rely mainly on LinkedIn, followed by Facebook at 28% and Twitter at 14%.

Without a strong presence on LinkedIn in particular, Chambers says, you make it more difficult for hiring managers who need your skills to find you. "Employers are also using social media sites to find out more information about you after they receive your resume," she adds, "so it also helps to be visible online at that stage."

Chambers offers these 10 tips for getting noticed:

1. Think of your online persona as a brand. Identify the skills that set you apart from the crowd. "Your brand should define the areas where you specialize, and make a persuasive case for the value you can bring," says Chambers.

2. Use your professional headline to showcase your abilities. On LinkedIn, the headline right below your name is "an especially important part of your branding," Chambers notes. Rather than just stating your current (or most recent) job title, the headline "should consist of keywords that accentuate the range of what you can do."

Talkback: Have you found a job through a social media site? Leave a comment below.

3. Position yourself as an expert in your field. Your LinkedIn profile should "include searchable keywords that cover the depth of your experience and skills," Chambers says. "Employers often use social media sites to search for solutions to specific problems, and your expertise may be what they are looking for."

4. Check carefully for any discrepancies between your resume and your online profiles. "Dates of employment, titles, and other details have to match those on your resume precisely," says Chambers. "Employers will pick up any inconsistencies right away." Even a small, innocent error can make you look dishonest or just careless -- not the first impression you want to create.

5. Join LinkedIn and Facebook groups comprised of people in your field. You may well meet prospective employers this way, and "answering questions from other group members and discussing the latest industry trends is a great way to stay current in your field."

6. Include your LinkedIn URL in the signature block of your emails. Doing so encourages people to click on your profile, and the more activity your profile gets, the higher up your name will appear in a search.

7. Make sure you adjust the privacy settings on your profile to "public." You want employers to find your LinkedIn profile when they Google you, so "adjust your privacy settings to accept InMail, a service that is often used by recruiters," says Chambers.

8. Devote a Facebook page to your professional life, in addition to your separate, personal Facebook page. Include the same information that appears on LinkedIn, perhaps with a few more colorful details -- a photo of you giving a speech to a professional group, for example, along with a synopsis of what you said. A Facebook page that is strictly work-related gives you one more opportunity to impress potential employers when they go fishing online, so why not use it to the fullest?

9. Keep your social media profiles updated. "Give meaningful status updates, such as links to your blog if you have one, to show that you're continuing to develop your expertise," Chambers suggests.

10. Include brief reports on your job search in your status updates. This is especially important if your job search goals evolve over time, or if you acquire any new training or qualifications as you go along. Even if that's not the case, it never hurts to remind your connections every now and then that you're available. One of them may know of the perfect job opening for you.

Good luck!

Talkback: Have you found a job through a social media site? What proved most helpful to you in connecting with a new employer? Leave a comment below.


Filed under: Ask Annie, Contributors, Guest Author
Anne Fisher
Anne Fisher
Anne Fisher has been writing "Ask Annie," a column on careers, for Fortune since 1996, helping readers navigate booms, recessions, changing industries, and changing ideas about what's appropriate in the workplace (and beyond). Anne is the author of two books, Wall Street Women (Knopf, 1990) and If My Career's on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map? (William Morrow, 2001). She also writes the "Executive Inbox" column on New York City entrepreneurs for Crain's New York Business.


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Hardware DV job search tip

Helpful hint to the hardware design/verification job seeker,
If you join some of these linkedin groups that other design/verification folks tend to be in, you will be able to send direct messages to some of them (people get to choose whether group co-members can contact them or not), even if they are not in your network otherwise. Might be handy. :-)

Cheers,
Connie L. O'Dell
Sr. Verification Specialist
c.odell@co-consulting.net
303-641-5191
________________________________________
CO Consulting - Boulder, CO - http://co-consulting.net

P.S. Feel free to connect to me on LinkedIn, it may also help you connect with recruiters/employees, as I have a pretty massive network.