Author Archives: SDA Seattle

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On April 23rd, we hosted an “Ask Us Anything” event and collected anonymous questions from our fellow SDA members to answer as a panel of experts. We were overwhelmed by the responses, and received more questions than we could answer during that session, so we’ll be sharing some of them in blog and social media posts.

To widen the experts that we heard from, we reached out to several long-standing members of SDA from other chapters and invited them to weigh in on a few of the questions. For this first post, we’re sharing one of the questions we tackled in person, and a summary of the answers presented.

Q: A small firm of 30 people doesn’t have a robust social media policy with guidelines for employees around photos (site visits, social events, in-office meetings, etc.). How long can the firm get by on common sense and hope?

A: Relying on common sense can work – until it doesn’t. Leadership in smaller firms can set a more informal tone, but gaps will emerge as the firm grows or takes on more sensitive projects. Beyond client confidentiality, firms need to consider their own intellectual property, site safety, and liability risk. A social media policy should be put together as soon as possible, even if it’s brief to start with. Some things to include:

  • Get permission / approval on content from leadership or marketing before posting
  • Obtain photo release waivers from people in the pictures
  • Photos and posts should showcase the firm positively; avoid negative comments or inflammatory statements on company channels
  • Give credit to collaborators – tag the project owner, contractor, etc. when appropriate
  • Be cautious with construction photos – they often show far more than you really want
  • Talk to your professional liability insurance broker for advice on risk related to photos

Musings on cover letters

A recent conversation with folks who are involved with screening applicants for job openings had us talking about cover letters – are they still relevant? Worth the effort? The consensus from our group was a resounding yes. A well-crafted cover letter connects the job advertisement and your skillset; it’s an extension of your resume that gives you a chance to stand out from your fellow applicants. We can receive dozens to hundreds of resumes a week; this is not an exaggeration and there is limited time to screen each one for qualifications. The cover letter is an additional point of differentiation that can put you in the “further review” pile.

How long a cover letter should be varied a little bit but everyone agreed no more than one page, and most thought 2-3 paragraphs was sufficient. If you’ve never written one, or you thought they were a waste of time, here’s what our group of reviewers look for / appreciate in a cover letter:

They allow you to ‘speak’ in a more conversational tone than a resume, and gives you a chance to share what you value or are looking for beyond the typical Objective statement. This is where you can mention an element about the company that really appeals to you, or what got you excited about the advertisement. Think of the cover letter as your introduction call – a balance of personal and professional. No need to tell us your life’s story, though; keep it on topic and relevant to the position.

It is the perfect place to reinforce why you are a match for the position – such as how your skills will transfer to a new company, a specific example that makes you a solid candidate, or aligning your past experience with what the potential employer is seeking. This isn’t just rehashing what’s in your resume, this is connecting the dots. For example: those three years at the front desk gave you excellent time management skills, an ability to juggle multiple deadlines and competing priorities, and a knack for dealing with strong personalities that you can immediately put to use in a new position as a project coordinator on a design team.

If the position requires top-notch writing skills, like a marketing position or executive assistant, the cover letter is where you can really shine. Mention special software training or aptitude if it applies to the position. And we are definitely checking your spelling, so have someone read your letter. We may overlook a typo or two, but if your cover letter is riddled with blatant spelling or grammatical mistakes it will be noted.

Cover letters also show that your application was intentional. In the age of bots and one-click-applications, many of us get flooded with resumes that have nothing to do with the position we need filled because a key word triggered a “match” – your cover letter could keep you from being screened out if your resume doesn’t immediately seem like an obvious fit. This really comes into play if you are making a career change or your resume has untraditional experience; use the cover letter to close that gap.

You can mention your next steps, timeline, or other important points in your job search. List the dates you will be in town, whether you are available to interview in person or via Zoom, or what your preferred contact method is (phone, email, etc.). Be sure to have your contact information on the cover letter!

While we’re talking about applications: your resume packet should be submitted in a format that is readily accessible by offices, such as PDF. Many offices still print and circulate hard-copies of resumes, so make sure yours is printable on standard paper and use readable colors (no yellow fonts, please). It’s great to have a link to an online portfolio, but also include a smaller, printable version in the PDF just in case.

EDSymposium24

Seattle member EB Meyer was awarded a chapter scholarship to attend EDS24 last June, and she hopped on LinkedIn to spread the word and share her experience at the annual convention.

“Skot Waldron engaged our hearts with an excellent talk on intentionality, Gregory Hart spoke to our business frontal lobes with an AEC market update, and Scott Warrick lit up our amygdalas with offensiveness in the workplace. What a morning!”

She’s not kidding, EDS is always packed with excellent presenters. They inspire and energize us to be more efficient, authentic, and relevant. It’s a whirlwind three days and it goes by so quickly, but the things we learn and the connections we make last for years.

“Wrapping up in #ColoradoSprings! The knowledge sharing from 6 members at the SparkSDA session was incredible. We installed a terrific new executive committee. It’s all about the people.”

We’re glad you were able to attend, EB! Here she is, with other Seattle members.

Tech Tip: Reducing multiple PDFs at the same time

I learned a new thing today that I thought is probably helpful to other admin/support staff: how to reduce the file size of multiple PDFs at once. The caveat: my tip is reliant on having Adobe Acrobat Pro (not just the free reader).

If you already know how to reduce a single PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro via Menu/Save as Other/Reduced size PDF, you’ve seen how much of a difference it can make to crunch down a big document. Depending on how the PDF was made (looking at you, Bluebeam!) these files can be pretty hefty – adding unnecessary digital weight to your project folders. Add in large-format scans and you may be saving unnecessarily large PDFs on your network or paying for cloud storage.

What if you have lots of PDFs to reduce? Like if you are prepping a project for archiving? Or need to send several via email? Well! Adobe Acrobat Pro can handle these in bulk without having to open each PDF separately.

Start by opening Adobe Acrobat Pro. I have the subscription, so it’s the current version 24. In mine, the tools are at the top – there’s one called Compress a PDF. If you can’t see it, the toolbar may be minimized; click on “see all tools” and that should show you lots of options.

Once you click on Compress a PDF, look in the left-hand menu bar — select “Multiple Files”. Now, you can browse out to the PDFs you want to reduce, or drag & drop. (One note here: your computer is going to require some processing oomph to reduce a lot of files, so maybe just choose 2-3 to start with and see how it performs. I crashed mine with 20 very large files, oops…)

Choose the Acrobat version you want them compatible with – I always go with the “10.0 and later”. Click OK.

Now – pause and take a look at the options in this next window and make sure you like the settings. You might want to save a separate, reduced copy and append the file name with “reduced”; maybe you just want to replace the original. Make your choices, then click OK.

Sit back and let Adobe do its magic! It will take a few minutes, so be patient; I regularly take 50MB PDFs down to 3MB, saving tons of storage on our file server.

Farewell to 2023

Our last Business Practice Event (“BPE”) of 2023 was last week, on November 16th. We met for dinner and a presentation by the amazing Jess Hickey, where she walked us through the tricky realm of workplace harassment (she’s in the black jacket in the picture). We are grateful to Jess for sharing her knowledge and experience with us!

The Board of Directors for 2024 has been voted on, and the officers will be installed on December 12th at our holiday social. We’re looking forward to another awesome year here at SDA Seattle!

Best in Class Award 2023

The Seattle Chapter was the proud recipient of the 2023 Best In Class Award: Program Winner for our 4-part educational series presented by Jess Hickey, titled “Stories They Never Told You About Business.” The presentations covered finance, human resources, marketing, and administrative topics, and everyone resonated with Jess’ honest, down-to-earth communication style and wit.

This is the first time we’ve done a series like this, and it was successful by all measurements; it was well-attended, received positive feedback, included tips that we could use immediately, and was enjoyable to attend. Having four guaranteed presentations took a little weight off the planning of our education calendar and attendees knew what to expect. They resonated with her speaking style, and Jess did a great job overlapping just enough fill any gaps between sessions without wasting time rehashing what we’d already learned.

Congratulations, Seattle!

EDSymposium 23, in the bag

I was not able to go to the national conference this year, but we had seven Chapter members attend, flying all the way to Tampa, FL for the June national conference. I’m looking forward to hearing debriefs on the sessions they attended; the speakers are always top-notch.

L-R: Brittany Jamison, Emily Meyer, Gretchen Renz, Kurt Wong, Carol Wanda Spradlin, Eunoh Lee, Judy Beebe.

Seattle Vice President Brittany Jamison and Director Carol Wanda Spradlin kill some time at the airport with a beverage.

We are the winners of the 2023 Best in Class Program Award.

We also celebrated our Chapter’s 55th Anniversary!

New SDA Fellow!

Huge shout-out to Amy J. Nanni on becoming an SDA Fellow, class of 2023! SDA’s Fellows program recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to SDA and to the A/E/C community, and who have elevated the standards of practice management. Amy is a member of the New York chapter, and works at Construct Architecture Studio. Congratulations Amy!

Glorious day for an architectural walking tour!

Hearty shout-out to Jim Gregson of Parker, Smith & Fleek for sponsoring our Seattle Architecture Foundation walking tour of Hidden Spaces around downtown Seattle on Sept. 8. And many thanks to Dan from SAF for leading the tour!