- The Sobering Stats You Need to Know When Seeking Your Next Job
Don’t be discouraged by the “one-in-100” stat. According to Lever’s breakdown, your best bet is to be referred to a new company. Referred candidates have a one-in-16 chance of getting hired. Using a third-party agency can also better your odds — those submitted by an agency have a one-in-22 chance of being placed. Whatever you do though, forget about applying through a company’s careers site: only one in 152 candidates gets hired this way.
- Applying Deep Machine Learning to Spend Analysis
Not only can its deep machine learning identify tail spend suppliers, company specific categories, and even individual items coded in obscure ways, but it can learn over time and adapt to different data models, especially since it can use evolving knowledge bases. Whereas the majority of first generation classifiers used naive statistical classification that could not learn and had to map to a fixed (UNSPSC) model, Spend360′s uses deep machine learning (based on LSTM and encoder/decoder technology) that maps to custom data models using extensible knowledge bases (which can be created and maintained by the organization) that can encode organization and industry specific knowledge (and negate the need for custom mappings or override rules).
- In buyers’ market, acquirers look to lock in management teams longer
Steve Fletcher, a managing director at the global investment bank GCA, notes that it’s “hard to say” whether it’s universally the case that management teams are getting locked into longer contracts with acquirers in this market. “I don’t think anyone has a large enough sample size to say that,” he notes. But he adds that of the deals he is seeing, there is a move to sign on incoming talent for a longer period, sometimes “three or four years as opposed to [the previous standard of] 18 to 24 months.”
- A Reminder From Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Put People First’
Zuckerberg explained that the way in which tech tools are structured today — as suites of apps — will not last long into the future. When a group of people is communicating or working together, they often toggle between a chat app, a video call and a shared document interface, for instance. The need to switch from one app to another doesn’t produce a seamless experience, and it makes each interface the focus, as opposed to the people working within it.
- IT moves to open workspaces, but not everyone is happy
What’s needed, both sides agree, is a range of workspace options that address organizational goals while still meeting employees’ needs — meaning physical space that allows for private meetings and quiet concentration in addition to community seating. Even more important: Corporate culture likewise has to value collaboration and innovation if IT organizations are to truly reap the benefits of open space.
Photo: Paul Gilmore