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We now have SolidWorks 2013 ready to install! The latest release of SolidWorks software from Dassault Systèmes will offer our Design Engineers powerful design tools, faster model creation, improved performance and enhanced collaboration. Our continual investment in the latest technology allows us to offer high quality engineering design services, whilst staying as efficient as possible.
Due to the size of the projects that we undertake in our design office, design reviews are an increasingly important part of our engineering design process. Done either digitally or face to face, they allow us to provide our clients with regular updates before and throughout each design stage. Catering to a client base which now encompasses the whole of the UK, digital design reviews are being used on a regular basis to ensure our clients are satisfied with the CAD drawings and models that we are producing, before they are finalised.
Digital design reviews allow us to take away any of our client’s concerns during a project, by showing them exactly what is going on at short notice. We use collaborative tools such as WebEx and Skype to show our clients what is currently being worked on and what has been done so far, giving them several options if they’d like something done a particular way. We know that everyone is unique and has different preferences, therefore initial meetings and possibly additional design reviews are important to understand our client’s requirements. Due to the complexity of our work, digital design reviews are the most efficient way for our clients to highlight any changes or tweaks they may wish to make to a design.
We came to realise a long time ago that our clients often don’t have the time in their diary to meet face to face with us, and therefore introduced digital design reviews. This now allows us to clear up any concerns our clients may have in a matter of minutes, by allowing them to see things for themselves from the comfort of their own office on their own monitor. They have become particularly useful for the larger, more long-term projects that we carry out, allowing us to give our clients peace of mind in terms of meeting their deadlines with high quality, on time deliverables.
Digital design reviews are just one of the tools we use to keep our engineering design clients happy, in order to consistently supply them with CAD drawings and models of the highest quality.
A social media presence is something that many individuals have today, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or many of the other options that are currently available. As a technical and industrial recruitment agency, we know the ins and outs of the hiring process and we know that companies want to find out as much as possible about potential employees, sometimes before they even get to the interview stage. As well as checking references and carrying out telephone interviews, companies are now checking social media profiles to try and get an idea of an individual’s personality.
It’s a good idea to make sure your privacy settings are adjusted to suit. Drunk, embarrassing photos of people are easy to come across on the likes of Facebook, but would you want a potential employer seeing these before they’ve had a chance to meet you? Rightly or wrongly potential employers are forming an opinion of people from their social media profiles, and privacy settings are a great way to filter out the things you don’t want them to see. This way you can have your Facebook profile as you want it, and you will have full control over who can see what.
Many Twitter profiles are ‘unprotected’ meaning Tweets that an individual posts are viewable to anyone who wants to look at them. You need to be aware of what you’re posting on your profile, or at least protect your Tweets so they can’t be viewed by just about anyone. An employer may think twice if they disapprove of the content of your Tweets, for example if you are being overly aggressive or starting unnecessary arguments with other people online.
On a positive note, you can also utilise your social media profiles to help you gain an advantage when looking for a new job. For example, LinkedIn is the most widely recognised social media site on a professional level. Make sure you have a LinkedIn presence, build up your connections, ask for recommendations and use it as a tool to market yourself. Many companies (including us) are now using LinkedIn as a recruitment tool to source candidates, so make sure your profile is ‘complete’ so that potential employers can find you easily. You can also join hundreds of groups made specifically for people looking for work, and for companies looking to recruit. We have our own ‘Recruitment Division’ group on LinkedIn which now has over 600 members. If we are viewing a LinkedIn profile which is neat and up to date, with good spelling and grammar, we would be more likely to want to progress with this person, over someone who has neglected their profile.
We’re not saying that your social media presence is the be all and end all of recruiting, in fact many companies will be very understanding of what people put on their profiles, and appreciate that what people get up to in their own time is up to them. However, if a recruiter is struggling to decide who to take on between two candidates after the interview stage, they may check their social media profiles to aid their decision process. Considering the impact this could have on your career is certainly worth it.
As an engineering design consultancy providing professional CAD services, we have come to know the ins and outs of what makes a good, reliable Mechanical Design Engineer. Also acting as a recruitment agency, we need to ensure we supply our clients with the best Design Engineers available. Employing around 35 Mechanical Design Engineers in our modern office in the West Midlands, our design team possess the relevant mechanical engineering knowledge, combined with the correct attitudes in order to produce the highest quality CAD drawings for our clients.
When recruiting mechanical engineering design staff to come and work in our design office or for our clients, we look for the following skills:
When recruiting for a senior design role, we will also look for years of experience and examples of success (in the form of a portfolio or references) in mechanical engineering fields relevant to the work we carry out.
We believe a good Design Engineer will work quickly, efficiently and meticulously, taking no shortcuts or skipping stages during the design process. Knowledge and experience with CAD software can be essential, so an individual has had experience learning particular software techniques in order to work efficiently.
As our CAD services cover the majority of engineering disciplines, the staff that we employ are from a variety of engineering backgrounds. Regardless of experience, no Mechanical Design Engineer will possess the same skill set, as they will all have certain skills which are geared towards certain industries.
If you’re looking to recruit or you’re looking for ways to make yourself more employable as a Mechanical Design Engineer, keep in mind that mental attributes such as attention to detail and passion for mechanical engineering can be just as important as skills and qualifications.
So you’ve spent the last few years working hard to attain your degree and now you want to put it to good use by finding a job relevant to your qualification. You only need to ask a handful of graduates to find out just how difficult this can be, with many people being stuck in a job not relevant to their degree several years after graduating. This is why it’s important to be proactive and to begin your search for employment as early as possible.
Offering a full technical and industrial recruitment service, we have placed many graduates in various positions over the years, and we advise the following:
1) Utilise your University’s careers department, find out what links they have within your industry and make sure they have your full contact details to get in touch when a position becomes available.
2) Make sure your CV is up to date and that it emphasises the skills you have learnt during studying, don’t just put the name of the qualification you have attained. Simple bullet points are a clear way of showing exactly what you studied during your time at University.
3) Join LinkedIn and start marketing yourself. Make connections with relevant people, join graduate groups and search for graduate positions in the industry you are looking to join.
4) Utilise online job boards and graduate specific job sites, a quick Google search should bring up plenty of sites to register with. Upload your CV and start searching for positions.
5) Register your details with agencies such as ourselves, making sure they are aware of the type of position or career you are looking for.
6) Apply for relevant positions quickly, this can be done during your last year at University or just as you’ve graduated.
7) Don’t be too fussy! You may not find your dream job straight away, but as long as a position is relevant to your degree, it could be a vital opportunity to build up your experience and develop your skills. You may also want to consider temporary or contract positions.
8) If you are struggling to find that first career step, don’t be afraid to continue learning. Many industries have specific qualifications that you can work towards that will make you more attractive to potential employers. Training courses and working towards a qualification can also help to fill in gaps on your CV whilst you’re looking for employment.
If you are looking for a graduate position in engineering design, or any technical or industrial position, make sure to keep checking our own vacancies page! Many of our clients are often looking to take on graduates and our recruitment team will happily talk with you and assist you in your search. Historically we have operated as a CAD agency placing Design Engineers and Draughtspeople, but now fulfill several roles under the categories of technical and industrial recruitment.
Here at Nova Design we have a commitment to certain levels of quality when carrying out our engineering design projects, and we provide our CAD services to the highest professional standard. We are fully approved to BS ISO 9001:2008.
The CAD drawings we supply to our clients are produced by our experienced, meticulous Design Engineers. They are made aware of our standards and must follow our guidelines to ensure all of our design work is of the highest quality. All of our employees are committed to maintaining and developing the established image of Nova Design as a professional engineering design consultancy, which has existed for almost 25 years. Communication between our staff is made regularly to ensure projects are kept on schedule.
As a team we pride ourselves on offering highly professional 2D & 3D CAD services, and this has been central in assisting the growing reputation of the company. Working in partnership with our clients, we keep them informed throughout every stage of a design project by conducting design reviews either in person, or digitally by using WebEx or Skype. This allows them to be involved as much or as little as they like, and allows them to see clearly how a project is progressing. Any queries or questions can be relayed and dealt with by us instantly. We also use our own upload area to ensure the transfer of all data is secure, fast and done with ease.
The state of the art hardware and software we use equips us with the latest tools and technology, which allows us to produce the best CAD drawings possible, whilst achieving maximum efficiency. All of our 2D & 3D CAD software is supported by Ansys DesignSpace which allows us to carry out FEA and stress analysis in real environments.
We do not subcontract any of our work, and it is all checked and controlled within our design office in the West Midlands. This ensures we can maintain our levels of quality and provide our innovative design solutions in line with client deadlines.
We have recently downloaded the full release of NX 8.5 software, provided by Siemens. Taken from the Siemens website, this will allow us to:
“Improve efficiency and reduce design time with more powerful tools in NX 8.5. This latest NX release includes new and enhanced capabilities for feature modelling, sheet metal design, synchronous technology, freeform modelling, validation checking and drafting. Streamlined CAD workflows and an enhanced user experience improve productivity, minimize input, and reduce the effort required to accomplish design tasks.”
This latest release of the software has been downloaded and installed on our system without any issues.
All of the CAD software we use is kept on subscription, ensuring we are always equipped with the latest modern technology. This ensures that the CAD services we provide are of the highest quality.
To assist our visualisation team, we have recently built an in-house render farm. This allows high quality, high-resolution illustrations, animations and walkthroughs to be rendered in much shorter amounts of time. Ultimately this means we are able to significantly reduce project turnaround time for our visualisation clients.
Many companies may not see or understand the benefits of outsourcing their design work, or may not like to consider it as an option. There is often fear of not having control over a project once it has been outsourced, but with a company such as ourselves, you can relax knowing it will be in safe hands. Please see below for some of the main benefits you can gain from sub contracting your design work.
Benefits of outsourcing include:
Why outsource engineering design projects?
Why outsource to Nova Design?
We have added CATIA V5 to the design packages we are currently using in house! We also use Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Solid Egde, NX and Creo Elements Pro, also known as Pro/ENGINEER. Check out our CAD Expertise page to view all of the packages we are currently using.
