Tag: Work

Replied to The Challenge Of Work

ATS systems filter applications based on keywords, skills, former employers, years of experience, schools …. you name it. If you really need ‘3 years of full stack development’ for that job you are looking to fill – then the system weeds out any resume that doesn’t reveal that the candidate has a minimum of three years doing just that.

So, the winning candidate needs to be just as skilled at tuning their resume, cover letters and conversations to maximize the chance that the AI picks them … as they are at actually doing the job they are applying to fill!

John, this was an interesting read, especially in light of Malcolm Gladwell’s call to remove the name of the university from applications in a recent podcast.

From experience, when people bypass the AI or properly filtering the various applications, they fall back on who they know, which sometimes promotes certain types over others.

There has to be a better way, just not sure what it is.

Liked The Struggle to Do Work That Matters Is Real (And Worth It) (A.J. JULIANI)

When you can match your passion with a contribution to the world in some way or form, it becomes purposeful, meaningful, and worth the struggle.

Keep scratching your itch and doing work that matters, even when you find your self in a place of doubt and frustration. It is worth it, not only for you, but for the countless others that will benefit.

Listened How can you prepare for the future of work? The answer is not from Recode

Boston University professor Ellen Shell talks about her new book The Job on the latest episode of Recode Decode with Kara Swisher.

Ellen Shell discusses the state of work in America today. Something Martin Ford also discuses in Rise of the Robots. She argues that educating our way out of the current situation only creates a hopeless situation. Interestingly, Shell pushes back on the ‘end of average’ argument and instead suggests that we need to encourage a broad educational starting point with a focus on analysis.

There are plenty of people with STEM skills. What social scientists have found just in recent years is what kids lack are what they call analytic skills. That is not problem-solving per se, but knowing what problems to solve.

Our focus should not be on job training, but instead training students to be able to learn on the job. This all feels a part of the move ‘back to basics‘.

Listened Ep. 110 Enspiral: “Better Work Together” – Team Human by an author

Playing for Team Human today: Susan Basterfield and Anthony Cabraal. Susan and Anthony share the open secrets of bottom-up collaboration as we celebrate the publication of Enspiral’s book, Better Work Together. It’s a conversation about the power of working together, building on ideas “good enough to try,” and creating a space where it’s “safe to fail.”

Looking for collaborative and participatory ways to create social change? Enspiral has collected and opened up its learnings for all to replicate.

Douglas Rushkoff talks with Susan Basterfield and Anthony Cabraal about the challenge and experience of working cooperatively. The key to such a change is consciously opting in and taking radical responsibility. This is an interesting listen in regards to entrepreneurship. I am reminded of the work at Templestowe College and wonder if their structure is that of a cooperative?
Bookmarked Some values-based career advice (Open Educational Thinkering)

Responding to a request for advice via blog post, instead of email.

Doug Belshaw provides some thinking and practice associated with getting the most out of your career. Although I have a few questions about opportunity and family, it is definitely a post worth reading and reflecting upon.

Marginalia

Your reactions tell people more about your character than your actions

When all is said and done, the person who holds you back the most in your life and career is… you

Once you’ve got that PhD or have worked for Google, people aren’t asking for ‘three years project management experience’, and the like.

Perhaps I’m becoming middle-aged, but it seems that a lot of the problems with today’s society is that people don’t stand for anything other than individualism and whatever late-stage capitalism can offer them.

There’s a reason I travel so much. It’s to meet new people, be exposed to ideas that might not always be shared online, and to experience places that open my mind. These days, we gain a competitive advantage by connecting the dots in new and novel ways. That depends, of course, on knowing where the dots are.

Replied to 10 Productivity Tips For Teachers (And Students) (Primary Tech by Kathleen Morris)

Not all strategies are for everyone. I like hearing tips and workflows from others but it’s up to you to decide what will work for you.

I really like your point Kathleen that not every strategy works for everyone. The thing that I would add to that is that not every strategy that works for you will work every time.

In my new role I really had to think hard about what strategies I use to stay productive. This was working until I changed teams and subsequently work. Being a lot more collaborative and involving a centralised response system, I have tried (and failed) a number of strategies to make it all work for me. One approach was to create a Google Sheet, which was organise into categories and had a status column which allowed me to prioritise.

I liked this setup as it allowed me to easily change the statuses and add links to further information. The issue is that it involves a lot of doubling up between systems.

In the end, I am getting what needs to be done completed at the moment, but I am still looking for something more productive.

Bookmarked Virginia Trioli on being a difficult woman in a difficult world – ABC News (ABC News)

We really only have threads — threads of experience, threads that bind and that connect us. Human history — our hopes, fears and traumas — are just a blink of time on this planet of 4.5 billion years. So to me, this one connection, this one relationship that gave this one person joy and laughter and insight and tears is enough for me. It’s the reason I’m here. It’s what I do.

In a speech at the Women In Media Conference, Virginia Trioli reflects on the challenges of being a women in the media. She shares a number of anecdotes that remind use that even with the #metoo movement, that we still have some way to go in regards to gender equality. Some of the advice she recommends are to learn from your mistakes:

Much like the principles of building muscle mass — the way your body repairs or replaces damaged muscle fibres after a workout by forming strong, new protein strands — your mistakes do not you weaken you, they build you up. They solidify you. They give you emotional and mental muscle. Or at least they should. Because you have to own your mistakes. You have to claim them and allow that destruction/reconstruction process to take place. It’s incredibly empowering.

Own who you are:

At a certain point in this working life, you realise that there really is no place to hide. You either own — completely own who you are, the nature and personality of your journalism and your understanding of what you are here to do — or I think you fade away. When I started on radio in Melbourne in 2001, the legendary Jon Faine gave me two pieces of advice. He told me that daily flow radio “was a marathon, not a sprint”, and he said that on air I had to be myself — not some persona, not some projection, but relentlessly myself. The listeners would find me out in a trice if I was not.

And regularly take stock of where you are at:

If one thing has stood me in good stead over the last 28 years, it has been a deliberate decision to periodically sit down and take inventory of what I’m doing well, what I need to improve, where the gaps in my skillset and knowledge base are and how I need to fill them. I’d urge you to do it too. If it helps, find someone you know, admire and trust and who knows your work well and ask them to do this exercise with you. Never be afraid of self-scrutiny. Don’t wait for someone who doesn’t have your best interests at heart to point out your shortcomings — get there first and do something about them.

This post is a reminder that so often there is more at play than we are often willing to recognise.

Bookmarked Home Work (Audrey Watters)

I think Americans’ homes are designed for that – they’re designed in ways that encourage you to fill up the closets and garages and spare bedrooms with stuff. There are catalogs upon catalogs with products and websites upon websites with ideas of how to buy things and build things that transform rooms to your liking.

This is an insightful look into home spaces and the way we use it.

We have worked at home (and with great frequency, it feels, worked on the road) for about a decade now. And the typical home or apartment – no matter its size or location – isn’t really designed for that.

Bookmarked How faking your feelings at work can be damaging (bbc.com)

Remaining true to your feelings appears to be key – numerous studies show those who report regularly having to display emotions at work that conflict with their own feelings are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion.

Of course, everybody needs to be professional at work and handling difficult clients and colleagues is often just part of the job. But what’s clear is that putting yourself in their shoes and trying to understand their position is ultimately of greater benefit to your own well-being than voicing sentiments that, deep down, you don’t believe.

It is an interesting dilemma balancing between the personal and private. I think that rather than everyone maintaining the ‘party line’ that it is important for people to translate the core message into their own story or explanation.
Replied to Future of Things (FoT): In An Era of Encroachment (DCulberhouse)

The question is no longer as much about whether automation and artificial intelligence will come after my job, but whether or not I am continuously learning the skills, skillsets, and knowledge that will still make me viable and valuable whether automation or artificial intelligence comes after my job or not.

David, I am really intrigued by the comparison between flight and AI. What I feel is missing in the conversation are the consequences associated with such change. For example, we are now grappling with the challenges associated with fuel and pollution. Listen to RN Future Tense for an interesting take on where things are at.

I am not against the ‘future of things’, AI and changes in work, but I think that we need to do more work to understand and appreciate such changes. For me, this involves:

  • Asking questions as a part of critical reflection
  • Learning from and through others (as you touch on elsewhere)
  • Continually engaging in new challenges to disrupt habits
Listened EPISODE 12: Freelancers and Professionals from EPISODE 12: Freelancers and Professionals

The ideas covered in this episode:

  • Get a better boss

  • Entrepreneur ≠ Freelancer

  • Improve your tools and your skills

  • Find an industry that wants you

  • Becoming a category of one

  • Focus on the smallest viable audience

  • The confidence to say ‘yes’ and the strength to say ‘no’

  • The challenge of free

  • The discipline of prospecting

  • Get better clients

This is a thought-provoking episode, which raises many questions.

Liked Work-life balance is actually a circle, according to Jeff Bezos (Doug Belshaw's Thought Shrapnel)

All of the most awesome people I know have nothing like a work-life ‘balance’. Instead, they work hard, play hard, and tie that to a mission bigger than themselves.

Whether that’s true for the staff on targets in Amazon warehouses is a different matter, of course. But for knowledge workers, I think it’s spot-on.

Liked How your workplace is killing you (bbc.com)

The evidence is unequivocal: job-related anxiety is a growing health crisis with repercussions for your mental and physical well-being.

People need to choose their employer not just for salary and promotion opportunities but on the basis of whether the job will be good for their psychological and physical health. Business leaders should measure the health of their workforce, not just profits.

In this presentation, Austin Kleon considers the question of “How to keep going” He answers this with ten points:

  1. Everyday is Groundhog Day
  2. Build a ‘bliss station’
  3. Forget the noun, follow the verb
  4. Make gifts
  5. The ordinary + extra attention = extra-ordinary
  6. Art is FOR life
  7. You’re allow to change your mind
  8. When in doubt, tidy up
  9. Demon’s hate fresh air so take a walk
  10. Spend time on something that will outlast you

I find Kleon one of those writers (and artists) who you can come back to again as a point of reflection.

Image via “Happy Little Trees” by nolnet https://flickr.com/photos/nolnet/5589665399 is licensed under CC BY-NC
Quote via Austin Kleon ‘How to Keep Going’