Resume Data Visualization -- Self Experiment

(06/13/2018) Many people try to make their resumes stand out from all applicants. How can we do it? If you want to demonstrate your skills in data visualization, maybe you can try to use Tableau Public to build your resume, put it on the Internet and show the interactivity of Tableau's dashboard.

Below is an example of simple online resume that highlights my career development. You can scan the mouse through the screen (the actual online resume is bigger than the embedded screen size, so you can scroll to the right to see more) and more detailed information will pop up.

The resume above is following this Youtube video instruction. Thanks for her contribution!

MOOC Wave #2 Coming?

(3/13/2015) When several ivy league universities like Harvard, Stanford and MIT jumped into the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) bandwagon three years ago, many predicted that our traditional college systems can be in trouble. But the impact is not that big, so far. Today, the New Work Times has an article arguing that the technology and online education ecosystem is not there yet now, but it may come soon.

I think I agree with the author on the point that the technology and online education ecosystem is not there yet now. But I don't think an "Open Badge" can change the tide at all, at best, it generates some ripples. The real problem for students finishing an official degree through MOOC is the "advising process" that will accompany students in their course selection and scheduling. That is, if someone is interested to claim (s)he earns an Business Analytics degrees, there should be one or several curriculums that guiding students through this process. The curriculums have come from some well recognized associations. For example, for the business school, AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) can be one of such organization to set up such curriculums for various business degrees. Without such a supporting system, not many self-motivated students will be able to figure out the path.

Microsoft Excel Is Crucial To Making More Money

(3/8/2015) According to Burning Glass Technologies (a labor research company) from WSJ, they found that the most important basic knowledges for middle-skill jobs are: spreadsheet and word-processing software such as Microsoft Corp.’s Excel and Word, or the software from SAP and Oracle."

"Positions that require basic digital skills tend to pay 13% more than jobs that require no digital chops: median pay of $22.66 per hour versus $20.14 per hour."

Social media messages speak louder than CVs

(10/10/2014) As titles, you just have to click the following link (and answer three questions if you are not FT subscriber) to know what Financial Time's survey say.  Wait for several days, we may be able to get this survey from another website.

The conclusion is:
48% of employers use social media to check applicant's background information.
12% of employers plan to do so.
40% have not planned to do so.

What are most important parts that employers are looking? (sorted by ranking)
1. Posts about drugs and drinking
2. Negative comments about work
3. Improper photos and text
4. Lies about qualification (like the school of graduation, age...)
....

I bet quite a lot of young people will be shot down in top three.

Job Hierarchy in Zappo's Is Now Holacracy

(12/30/2013) The world largest online shoes shop -- Zappo's -- has gone through some organizational structure changes. Their new structure is called "Holacracy, a radical “self-governing” operating system where there are no job titles and no managers." As the business continues to grow, the Holacracy introduced into Zappo's is to "scale Zappos without letting bureaucracy set in." This reorganization gets much attention because Zappo's the largest company to implement Holacracy so far. Next time when you are upset by Zappo's customer service representative, you cannot ask "let me talk to your manager!"

Your Dream House Maybe Better Comes Later

(11/1/2013) Owning your dream house is a recent American dream, which also triggered the housing bubbles mid 2000's. After the biggest recession in 2008, the US employment situation grew very slowly even though the overall recovery is good.  The national average unemployment rate in the US is still around 7.2% now. People call it "jobless recovery." What is the cause of low-job growth in the economic recovery after 2008? One of the reasons maybe the higher house ownership. Based on this study of economics professor Andrew Oswald from Warwick University, the states with higher house ownership is significantly related to their higher unemployment (their research covered some European countries too). The reason: the labor mobility drops because the labor prefers a job near the house. It may sound ironic at first, but it is pretty reasonable. The global economy now just changes so fast. A booming industry in a city may move to another state in 5-10 years. The employees who buy houses during the booming years face a big change in the job market once several business employers move somewhere. Then they are stuck.

Your dream house maybe better comes later.

No Jerk, Please!

(10/4/2013) We probably all worked with jerks sometime in our life. It is pain in the ass and we just try to avoid any encounter with that person. If "No jerks, please!" is the sign on a job description, what would you think of this company? It seems now some firms dare to take a firm standing saying that: we don't want jerks to work with us. Life is too short to deal with jerks, isn't it?

Bring Your Parents to Work

(9/12/2013) Should you bring your parents to work? For the millennials, their parents are playing a more important role in the children's career. Now some companies have held social event like "bring your parents to work". Personally, I am OK with it. But taking your parents to job interview? That is a little bit over the top.

 

Underemployed Generation

(1/28/2013) A recent survey says that many college graduates hold jobs that don't require a college degree at all. Several things we should think about:
(1) What are the jobs generated by this lukewarm economic recovery?
(2) What do we teach in the college?
(3) What skill set do our college graduates hold to do their future jobs?

What Jobs Are Still Open in the US

(1/23/2013) CBS's 60 Minutes aired this story on 1/13/2013. Today, HuffingtonPost.com continues a followup report. They are saying: robots are taking over many jobs that are used to be done by people. Our technology advances have reached to a level that the robots we make are doing much better job (faster, better quality and no complaints) than human beings. One thing we should think about is what jobs will be left for our future and next generations?


In this news, it shows that technology always kills old jobs and creates new jobs. Joel Mokyr, a historian of technological change at Northwestern University says: "But that is the price we pay for progress."  How can we keep our skills updated and desirable in the job market?

Monkey's Reaction to Unequal Pay

(12/3/2012) Based on an 2011 research, the gender wage gap for American working women of all ages was 82.2 percent. Huffington Post has a new about monkey's reaction to unequal pay, extremely hilarious. This is part of the video on the Monkey's experiment. 

GM Will Hire 10000 Computer Professionals?

(10/8/2010) This can be an alarming news to some people. Why will GM need 10,000 computer, IT workers in the future? It is a sign that the future job market will be very different from our current imagination. Sometimes, I hear students talking about their career future and I am a little bit worried for some of them. These students often have a career vision like their parents, become a salesman, an accountant, or own their business one day in a Pleasantville type of town. They think they should be able to find a well-paid job with a college degree and deserve that. But they don't see that this job market is changing too fast even to their parents who are not much older than my age. Not many jobs can really enjoy a long-term job security and the job loss to another cheaper region is not limited to manufacturing jobs. White-collar jobs or those service jobs can also be replaced. If young-generation students are not capable to adapt to the changes, how can other groups in the society to take the responsibility of our future?

The followings are two pictures that I capture from GM's job webpage today (10/8/2012), what will you position your career future?