Tag: Career

Posted on

News You Can Use: 10/23/2019


Photo by sebastiaan stam on Unsplash

  • Warren Dares Facebook With Intentionally False Political Ad

    The Democratic presidential candidate bought a political ad on the social network this past week that purposefully includes false claims about Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and President Trump to goad the social network to remove misinformation in political ads ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

    The ad, placed widely on Facebook beginning on Thursday, starts with Ms. Warren announcing “Breaking news.” The ad then goes on to say that Facebook and Mr. Zuckerberg are backing the re-election of Trump. Neither Mr. Zuckerberg nor the Silicon Valley company has announced their support of a candidate.

    “You’re probably shocked, and you might be thinking, ‘how could this possibly be true?’ Well, it’s not,” Ms. Warren said in the ad.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/technology/elizabeth-warren-facebook-ad.html

  • Trump’s old lawyers really, really love Comic Sans

    As absurd as it sounds to use such an intentionally juvenile font in relation to PRESIDENTIAL IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS, Trump’s former lawyers have a peculiar habit of using Comic Sans at the worst possible times—which, to be fair, is basically all the time for Trump.

    John Dowd also chose the goofy font in 2018 while representing Trump in a letter to Robert Mueller.

    And it’s not just Dowd! Back in 2017, Trump attorney Ty Cobb used Comic Sans to make a statement after Trump’s security adviser Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI regarding conversations with Russia. (Oh right, remember that?? Ukraine is only the 58,923rd scandal Trump has faced in office.)

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90414127/trumps-old-lawyers-really-really-love-comic-sans

  • Sink or swim: How to survive waves of change in a fast-paced industry
  • No-deal Brexit data – should firms worry?

    Right now data can flow freely across the EU as long as companies conform to its tough new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

    And as the GDPR is being incorporated wholesale into UK law, there should be no real change after Brexit – as long as we leave with a deal.

    But if there is no deal, we will be treated as an external country, needing what is called an adequacy ruling showing our data protection standards are up to scratch – and the European Commission has indicated that this would not happen in a hurry.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49980327

Posted on

News You Can Use: 10/16/2019


Photo by Alex Iby on Unsplash

  • Scratching the Itch: Knowing When to Leave a Job or to Stay

    Because talent can be difficult to come by, an employer should do something that recognizes your worth. Despite it being in the HR department’s best interests to retain talent, incentives are actually skewed to get employees to leave. Employees more quickly leave “incentivizing” companies in favor of companies that help them visualize their path within the organization.

    It’s hard to walk away from a clearly communicated path to success. That’s the bet that companies are making in the HR space. For example, Instructure introduced Bridge, an employee development platform that creates a visual roadmap for success. Bridge also connects employees with mentors, but the real benefit is that it allows each employee to visualize what he has to do in the next six months to get promoted to get where he ultimately wants to be in his career in the next three years.

    “In the 1990s and early 2000s, customer centricity was used by corporations who wanted to effectively connect with and understand their clients,” noted Dan Goldsmith, CEO of Instructure. “We see a similar focus by companies today who want to be more employee-centric.”

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/340220

  • Meetings aren’t the biggest time waster at work. This thing is

    “There’s been an explosion in the number of software applications available,” says Jody Shapiro, Productiv founder and former head of Google Analytics. “The struggle is in the organic adoption of these tools. Ten years ago, everybody used Microsoft Office and Adobe tools. Today, SaaS [software as a service] vendors are selling directly to business units, and we are experiencing a sprawl of applications meant to increase productivity. The problem is that different departments are using different tools, and that slows everyone down.”

    Shapiro says the biggest challenge is redundancy. “Within a company, the legal team might use Microsoft Word, the engineers are using Google Docs and the marketing team is using Dropbox Paper. If you want to find a document, you may need to check five different tools. This is a massive productivity killer, and it can impact morale.”

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90411686/meetings-arent-the-biggest-time-waster-at-work-this-thing-is

  • Talking Tech with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
  • Millennial and Gen Z employment: 7 things young talent wants in a job

    Working in the field often requires on the spot decision-making. Without a supervisor hovering over you, one of the most essential skills field service technicians have to master is how best to solve problems. Armed with tools like augmented reality interfacing and video tutorials, service technicians are given the freedom and trust to reach the best conclusion for each customer.

    This kind of autonomous work environment demands independent thinking, keen insight, clever workarounds, and confidence in one’s own abilities. Millennials, accustomed to seeking out information just within reach of their fingertips, are ideally suited to handle the pressure and reap the rewards of satisfying tough customer requests. And this in turn explains the trend towards a gig economy.

    https://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2019/10/02/millennial-and-gen-z-employment-wants/

Posted on

News You Can Use: 10/9/2019


Photo by Anton Darius | @theSollers on Unsplash

  • Jenny Odell on why we need to learn to do nothing: ‘It’s a reminder that you’re alive’

    Many commentators have zeroed in on our relationship with technology as the source of the problem: Newport advocates a 30-day “digital declutter”, while others suggest using apps to monitor or restrict screen time. But Odell sees that approach as too limited, not only inadequately isolating tech as the cause but also framing it as the answer. Her proposal is that we train ourselves to assume a different perspective, one that allows us to see familiar things in a new way and in the process find momentary relief.

    “When I try to articulate it, it sounds really abstract, but I think it’s actually very practical,” Odell says. “If you think about your mindset when you go to a place you’ve never been, especially on vacation, the way that you look at things is quite different than how you would normally look at things while on your way to work. A lot of what I’m describing is trying to apply that same mindset to things that you’ve seen many times – you will always be surprised.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/27/jenny-odell-on-why-we-need-to-learn-to-do-nothing-its-a-reminder-that-youre-alive

  • Blockchain simplified: How it eliminates the middleman
  • Willingness to learn is number one skill when hiring says IBM chief

    In an interview with Bloomberg TV, she talked about what she looks for when recruiting. ‘’The number one thing we hire for is now is propensity to learn. It doesn’t matter about age. If you think about tech, the half life of a skill is less than five years. If I hire you with a skill today, it’s not going to matter in a very short period of time. I want you to be curious and want to learn’’.

    IBM has invested heavily in training and education, and Rometty says 8 out of 10 employees are equipped with the skills needed for the future. ‘’It starts with telling people – be transparent. Will your skill be in demand in the future? Is it abundant or scarce?’’

    http://hrmasia.com/willingness-to-learn-is-number-one-skill-when-hiring-says-ibm-chief/

  • Can Bullet Journaling Save You?

    Basically, you take a journal, number the pages, and create an index so you can find everything. From there, you can list tasks, write diary entries, and build out a minimalist calendar. Like CrossFit, Paleo, and other hyper-efficient communities, Bullet Journaling—or BuJo, as it is known online—has developed its own vocabulary. Participants identify as Bullet Journalists. There’s a daily log, a monthly log, and something called a future log. There are symbols for notes, events, and tasks, and additional symbols to indicate when a task has been completed, scheduled, moved to another section, or deemed irrelevant. (The method takes its name from the bullet point, as well as the word’s suggestion of speed.) There are collections of related material, like languages you’ve failed to learn or miles you haven’t run. There are trackers for anything you feel compelled to track: sleep, workouts, mood, alcohol. Each day, you practice “rapid logging.” Each month, you review everything you wrote down and move only what is meaningful to the next monthly spread, in a spine-straightening process called migration.

    https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/can-bullet-journaling-save-you

Posted on

News You Can Use: 10/2/2019


Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

  • Team Productivity: Striking a Balance Between Being a Boss and Friend

    “All strong relationships are built on honesty,” writes Tamara Luzajic for Humanity. “And just like a good friend would tell you when you are doing something wrong no matter how much it hurts, a good manager will use open communication to help employees become better at what they do.”

    “Honesty is one of the best principles you can use to establish a healthy balance between caring your employees and leading them professionally,” adds Luzajic. “The closer you get to someone on a personal level, the harder it becomes to give them honest feedback as employees.”

    Additionally, build trust with each of your employees. For example, grant them autonomy and flexible schedules. Trust in your employee builds resilience — shows you rely on them enough to work where, when, and however they prefer. As a result, this will create a more positive and productive culture.

    And, if someone needs to take a day off because they’re attending to a sick family member, don’t freak out on them. Give them the day off without penalizing them.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/338651

  • The hackable technology that worries even a legendary con man
  • How is Meritocracy Damaging Our Economy?

    Interesting podcast about how high-achieving workers are stuck on a treadmill that they can’t get off of. If you are reading this blog, this probably hits home. Not a bad way to spend 30 minutes.

    https://beta.prx.org/stories/291960
    Thanks LJP!

  • For millennials, unlimited vacation isn’t always a perk

    But unlimited vacation policies can be a Trojan horse, particularly for young people who are newer to the workforce and less likely to take time off in the first place. On the surface, the offer seems generous, even altruistic; it implies employers trust their employees and encourage work-life balance. In practice, however, “unlimited vacation” is a misnomer. Employees often take fewer vacation days if their company has an unlimited policy, since there’s no framework for how many days they can—or should—take off.

    Managers can decline to approve time off, especially if there’s an implicit assumption that nobody can take more than two to three weeks of vacation per year. And when they leave the company, employees can’t cash out on the paid time off that they have accrued (which is required by law in a number of states). For workers in their twenties who are more likely to job hop and let vacation time go unused, that can mean foregoing a sizable chunk of cash.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90398810/for-millennials-unlimited-vacation-isnt-always-a-perk

Posted on

News You Can Use: 9/4/2019


Photo by BENCE BOROS on Unsplash

  • Why Google employees are donating to Warren and Sanders — presidential candidates who want to break up Google

    In interviews with Recode, Google employees (mostly engineers who work on everything from Android to virtual reality) who donated to Sanders and Warren said that breaking up Google could help consumers and spur more tech innovation by allowing for more competition from upstarts. Some even said they thought regulation could force Google itself to return to its startup roots, recreating the bootstrapped work culture that they say enabled the company’s initial success. (Google executives don’t exactly agree.)

    Their support for candidates who are critical of Big Tech seems to reflect a broader movement among corporate tech employees who have begun demanding more ethical behavior and policies from their companies. In the past year, many tech employees, particularly at Google, have organized and protested against their own employers over concerns related to sexual harassment policies and controversial defense contracts with the US and foreign governments. In candidates like Warren and Sanders, these employees find an outside voice who similarly views major technology companies’ growing and unprecedented power with a critical lens. And for the first time, companies like Google have become major talking points in the presidential campaign.

    https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/7/30/20694619/google-employees-warren-sanders-presidential-election-donations-break-up-tech

  • Don’t stop creating for yourself – #LevelUp

    I really enjoy Peter and I thought this video is a great cross over between career and creative. I am certainly looking for a creative spark (I don’t want to come off like a talking head).
  • Having trouble delegating? These 3 questions can help

    “You can say something, but it’s not always what the other person hears,” she says. “Asking this question ensures that what you intend for someone to do is what they understand they need to do.”

    Repeating information is standard operating procedure in mission critical jobs. “An air traffic controller gives a pilot instructions, and the pilot has to repeat it back to ensure they got it correctly,” she says. “You can use the same thing in the workplace.”

    To avoid feeling robotic or untrusting, Brownlee suggests putting it this way: “I know I threw a lot at you, and I know this has a lot of moving parts. To ensure I didn’t confuse you, would you mind repeating back what you heard?”

    “If they tell you something that is not quite right, you’ll be so glad you can course correct,” she says.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90386012/having-trouble-delegating-these-3-questions-can-help

  • As tech changes homelessness, libraries roll with the punches

    Libraries were always sources of education, but that has become more pronounced recently as they’ve shifted from being the ones that store information to those that provide free and open access to it. With the combination of how that information is used and who needs these services, this involves a transformation not just of purpose but of architecture: Becoming a place where people come and stay rather than a place people visit.

    That transformation doesn’t come equally easily to all libraries or branches. It may be that a small, underfunded library happens to be near a shelter or bus station and attracts more of the homeless than it can serve, and indeed more than intend to use the library for its “intended” purpose. Though these facilities were designed to provide short-term refuge for any and all, they’re generally not equipped or staffed to handle the volume or types of people who find their way in and stay sometimes from open to close.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/31/as-tech-changes-homelessness-libraries-roll-with-the-punches/