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To quote Shakespeare’s Richard III, ”Now is the winter of our discontent”, or at least, we’re hoping that it doesn’t get much “colder”!  While pundits do say ”it” will still get worse before it gets better, the current economic climate will not last forever.  So, ever the optimist, the longer we’re in it, the closer we are to the end!

However, in this period of job (in)security, we’d like to announce that Xuropa has just opened two ”Job Centers” within the Online Electronic Design Community.

• Career Center: Seeking Career Positions - where to post a description of the ideal job you’re looking for
• Career Center: Seeking Professionals - where to post a description of the professional you’re looking to hire

It’s perfectly FREE for anyone to list positions that are open and for job seekers to post their ideal career move.  Just go to one of the Job Center Online Booths and make your entry in the Forum or browse the positions and professionals as the forums become populated.

Once you’ve made a post to the Forum you’ll be automatically updated with any responses.  If you want to contact the poster, go to the posters Professional Profile and send them a message.  Email addresses are kept strictly confidential, but we facilitate you making the connection.

Note however that we do not allow any anonymous postings.

Of course, this ties in closely to your Professional Profile on Xuropa.  Ensure this is current either manually or by importing your LinkedIn profile.  Also, make sure your list of specializations and skills is up to date.  LinkedIn doesn’t cover these aspects of an electronic design professionals background, so you’ll need to do this manually.

Good luck, what ever you’re looking for!

Posted under Community, career, industry

We’re very excited to announce the latest release of the Xuropa Platform.

We’ve been working hard to bring new and improved features to help you be more effective in your work and career.

Release objectives:

1. Increase platform interactivity
2. Make it easier to find electronic design professionals
3. Make it easier to manage your Professional Profile
4. Make it easier to build professional networks

We’re most excited about our new Professional Network Map tool.

Xuropa Electronic Design Community Network Map

You will find dozens of enhancements throughout the Xuropa Platform.  However, here is a list of the major features we’ve added and enhanced in this release.

Summary of New and Enhanced Features

1. Visual Professional Network Mapping
   • Network distance mapped by career metrics: Specializations, Skills, Employers, Product Reviews, Ratings, and many more
   • Understand the proximity of connections within your Professional Network
   • Explore the entire community for proximate members you’re not yet connected to
   • Explore Professional Profiles, send messages and make connections to build your network
2. Enhanced Professional Profiles
   • Upload your photograph
   • Easier user interface
   • Enhanced LinkedIn profile import
   • Enhanced Skills and Specialization creation
   • Product Rating and Review linking
3. Community Search & Navigation
   • Find colleagues to make connections
   • Find professionals with the skills you need
   • Find professionals with the experience you’re looking for
   • Navigate the community via your Professional Network Map
   • Navigate the community by Field and Specialization
4. Contact Database Import and Upload
   • Import your contacts from LinkedIn to quickly invite professionals to connect
   • Upload your contacts database to quickly invite professionals to connect
   • Manage your connections and contacts easily
5. Profile Statistics
   • Increase statistics to increase network proximity and better promote your expertise
   • Your Specializations
   • Your Skills
   • Your Product Reviews
   • Your Product Ratings
   • Your Network Connections

Sign in or join the Xuropa Electronic Design Community today and start using the tools to build your career, try new technologies and find new team members.

- The Xuropa Team

Posted under Features, Xuropa

As an engineer, the measure of your experience is in what you’ve done and what tools you’ve used.  It’s crucial to your career that you not only keep ahead of the learning curve, but ensure that people know what you’re good at - what you’ve used and how well you know a technology.

This is where rating a product can help your profile within the industry and help the community at the same time.  While writing a review is a clearer indication of your abilities, we don’t always have the time.  Rating a product can be done in just a few minutes.

Why rate a product:

• Show future employers your depth of experience

By rating a product you’re showing that you’ve used it enough to have a good understanding of what it can do.  Its pros and cons.  More than that however, it also gives an indication that you have an appreciation of higher level concepts beyond the functionality of a technology - “Quality” could be considered a subjective metric, but we know good quality when we see it and it is good to work with people with a good appreciation and high standards of quality.

• Give guidance to fellow engineers

Other potential users of a product appreciate what another user thinks of a technology.  Everyone is busy, and so the rating of a product by a fellow engineer can help someone in the community.

• Give vendors feedback

Technology vendors also appreciate objective feedback on how their product is perceived in the field.  They need to know how their product is being used and where they can improve it to better meet the requirements of the users.

With just a few clicks you can promote yourself, provide the community input and give vendors feedback to improve their products.

Sign-in to the Xuropa Platform and click on the “Rate a Product” button on the left hand side.

Posted under Features, career