Tag Archives: Jobs

Going Solo – Gig to Gig

Having the Stamina to Last…

Going the consulting path, on your own, is no small feat. Do you have what it takes to persist, survive, and thrive?

  • Army of One – Not only do you need to perform your CONSULTANCY role, but you also have to be bookkeeper, sales and marketing, looking for new opportunities.
  • The Gap Between Gigs – To all recruiters and hiring managers – it’s not a bad thing to have gaps in a candidate’s resume. Its the way of life in our gig economy. We are constantly hunting for just the right opportunity in a sea of hundreds or thousands of candidates per role.
  • Keeping Up With Market Trends – Online learning platforms such as Pluralsight, keep their content fresh, relevant, and in line with your career path.
  • Networking, Networking, Networking – at every opportunity, build your network of contacts and keep them in the know

Uncommon Opportunity? R&D Conversational AI Engineer

I had to share this opportunity.  The Conversational AI Engineer role will continue to be in demand for some time.


Title: R&D Conversational AI Engineer
Location: Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Duration: 6+ months Contract(with Possible extension)

Responsibilities:

  • Create Alexa Skills, Google Home Actions, and chatbots for various direct Client’s brands and initiatives.
  • Work with the Digital Enterprises group to create production-ready conversational agents to help Client emerge in the connected life space.
  • Create additional add-ons to the conversational agents
  • Work with new technologies not be fully documented yet
  • Work with startups and their technology emerging in the connected life space.

Quals–
Client is looking for a developer in conversational AI and bot development.

What is Media Labs?   Media Labs is dedicated to driving a collaborative culture of innovation across all of Clients . We serve as an internal incubator and accelerator for emerging technology and are leading the way with fresh ideas to ignite the future of media and storytelling. We are committed to partnering with another telecom giant, startups, research and academic groups, content creators and brands to further innovation at client. One of our main themes is connected life and we are looking for an engineer to lead this development.

Requirements for R&D Engineer: –

  • Bachelor in Computer Science, Engineering, or other related field
  • Experience working with new technologies that may not be fully documented yet
  • Experience communicating technology to non-technical people
  • Experience with AWS (Lambda, CloudWatch, S3, API Gateway, etc)
  • Experience with JavaScript, Node.js
  • Some experience creating Alexa Skills, Google Home Actions, or chatbots

Optional Requirements:

  • Experience creating iOS or Android applications (native or non-native)
  •  Experience with API.AI or another NLP engine (Lex, Watson Conversation)

LinkedIn Expansion: Live Video Chat for Screening \ Interview Process

A natural progression of the LinkedIn platform enables companies to screen / interview candidates using live, video chat sessions available within the expanded LinkedIn platform.  Companies may be able to more accurately filter candidates with this screening process.   Live video chat / interview sessions with the candidate  and the employer may be recorded, and linked as an ‘artifact’ of the posted role.

For each video chat session, the employer may ‘bookmark’, in real time, their HR question, and ‘bookmark’ the candidate’s answer.   Video interviews may be automatically parsed for the bookmarked Q&A, and record the conversation to text.

HR may perform the initial interview screening, and then forward on the video session, and transcribed Q&A text to the hiring manager.   The hiring manager may toggle through each Q&A, read and/or play the interview of that section.  Based on the review of the candidate Q&A, the hiring manager may select to move forward with the candidate to next steps (e.g. face to face), or reject the candidate.

The live, video chat interview session may be indexed for key words, and if both the prospective employer and the candidate allow, the indexed text may be searchable by other prospective employers or recruiters.  The conversation’s full transcript, and/or the Q&A text are also available for search and review.  Optionally, if the candidate has been rejected, they may choose to share their interview Q&A session with other potential candidates.  This may be an issue for the employer, so both the candidate and employer must agree to have this available to either your connections or the public.

Greece, Prosperity, and Taxes: The World Will Come See You in AR

High Unemployment,  Influx of Foreigners, and Tourism

I am on vacation in Athens, Greece.  Every food bill I received, and gifts from shops had a 25% tax rate which, the people explained to me ‘nicely’, goes to the government.  It seems that people are very odds with the huge unemployment, high taxes, and forcing illegal immigrants out of the country.  I got all of this from the nice people.  There were others who seemed bitter and standoffish, visible disdain of anyone not from Greece, from the Turks, Pakistanis, all the way to the Jews. Extremely xenophobic, and this is the birthplace and cradle of logic, and helped with the maturation of the Western civilization?!  From their perspective, I surmise, the local Greeks have to yield to the ‘foreigners’ because they do, in fact, gather a large sum from tourism, and the other aspect, or perspective, they must also loathe having to yield jobs, even their own profession, to foreigners.  I spoke to a Greek man, taxi driver, by trade, was a bartender and had a degree in hotel, restaurant, and management.  In the states, he worked as a bartender, but his home was Greece, his parents Greek, but he said it was a tough market to get a job for hotels.  Now this man had been out of Greece for a while, worked in the U.S., and had a US foreigner accent.  Bartending to a Cab Driver was a natural transition, and truth be told, he could probably go to the United States and make more money verse the cost of living than he had in Greece, and as well, perform his occupation of choice.   I asked him why he stayed, and he said Greece was his home, and he loved it there.

Is it live, or is it Memorex?  AR and Actors

So, while perusing through all of the ruins, looking at the sites, watching the tour groups, and the tour guides explaining these empty ruins, I pondered, wouldn’t it be amazing to see the people of ancient times dressed in their clothing of the times, interacting with each other through the ruins as though the tourists were not even there.  In effect, acting out scenes that perhaps took place thousands of years ago, echoes of the past.  I thought why wouldn’t for starters, the government pay the people of the Arts and Sciences to go through scenes, such as basic interactions with a Librarian, studying in one corner, ignoring the world, and just reading and thinking, and in another corner of this library, there might be a quiet debate going on, in Greek of course, and through a translation application, any foreigner could hear their native language the interactions.  It could be ancient commoners, to known ancient people of the past acting out scenes like echoes of the past, while tours just come up close and personal, pass by, even wave their hand in front of an actors hand, and he continues to act as if the tourists were not even there.

These narratives/scenes could be recorded, and played out through Augmented Reality glasses, and/or live actors.

As this plan develops, I thought it would inspire not only the locals in their own rich culture, but, tourists to bathe in this once, pinnacle of civilization.  I went to Greece in the “off-season”, but the streets were still not empty. The shops and restaurants had guests, but as one local restaurant family business owner said, and I am paraphrasing, it’s a tough job in the off season trying to attract people into his restaurant, which had excellent food, by the way.

Government Representation Partakes as a Sign of Solidarity

The plan develops further in my mind as I sit in the runes of an ancient Greek library, it would be inspiring for the people of the nation to see guest appearances of their local representatives of government to see the government officials also taking part in these acting events.  The founding fathers of the United States of America weren’t career politicians, they were agriculture, farmers, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, his father Spence Monroe was a moderately prosperous planter who also practiced carpentry.  People of Greece suspect their governments of terrible things, such as corruption, especially when they aren’t visible to the people constantly.  Appearing along side the people of their country as commoners of a great society with a world of fascination and myths surrounding it, is like fodder for actors and play writes.

Greek people in universities,  the Arts and Sciences, may debate some elementary topics in the sciences in public forum, and if the professors and students of universities dressed in ancient traditional Greek garb, I think it would be amazing to add them into the ‘scene’ so to speak.

Tourism for Greece

Tourism in Greece has been a key element of the economic activity in the country and is one of the country’s most important sectors. Greece has been a major tourist destination and attraction in Europe since antiquity, for its rich culture and history.  Greece attracted 26.5 million visitors in 2015 and 30 million visitors in 2016, making Greece one of the most visited countries in Europe and the world, and contributing 18% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

The Final Act – Broadway and Universities

These live productions can go on year-round in cooperation with global exchange student university programs, of the finest caliber.  This forum may attract global play writes of note, not just of University, but of the major, well-respected avenues of theater, such as Broadway, and the motion picture actors turning to the theater might want to give ‘this avenue’ a try first, as a sampling.

Revenues from the University exchange programs, revenues from play writes actually paying royalties to use the archaeological sites, as well as more jobs, for cultural supervisors to oversee these programs, as well, as jobs for my taxi driver, because the once birth of logic will again become the maturation place of Education, the Arts, and Culture, as well as all the other good stuff that comes with it, such as revenue and jobs to help support this boom people going to Greece.  Oh, sorry, my taxi driver might want to go back to bartending and serve drinks to those university professors, students, and still, have to deal with those pesky tourists. 🙂   To those students around the world, don’t be surprised if your waitlisted here too!

 

Higher Education Falters: College and University Structure Radically Altered

I was reading an article from the New York Times this morning, thinking about a news piece I heard on the radio regarding Education innovation, in combination with dropping my little brother off at his college campus dorm the other night, and instantly a quote from Moneyball appeared in my mind regarding the way Universities are implemented:

“This is threatening, not just a way of doing business, but its … in their minds it’s threatening the game … really what it’s threatening is their livelihood. It’s threatening their jobs. It’s threatening the way that they do things. And every time that happens, whether it’s a government or a way of doing business or whatever it is … the people who are holding the reins … who have their hands on the switch, they go bat-shit crazy. I mean, anybody who’s not tearing their team down right now, using your model, they’re dinosaurs…

I am not privy to the exact implementation of the Cornell-Google model, but that last line from the quote is so true, and it applies to all business colleges and universities across the globe.

The article in the New York Times, When Job-Creation Engines Stop at Just One, had me take pause, and painted a gloomy picture in my mind about the job markets if your looking for a job.  A decade ago, a Bachelors or Masters degree were prerequisites to filtering out candidates for jobs, and now the role specifications are referencing specific skills with experience, a lot of contract work, as the New York Times article describes, and has a solid rationale.  For the innovation, I found an article regarding the Cornell-Google implementation and at first thinking a) this implementation is years away and b) I think it’s genius.  I must admit, I am not privy to the exact administration of their education implementation model, but wow, anyone not tearing down their colleges and universities to follow a similar model will be an artifact of higher education, and their national economies will suffer as a result.  Another article I read, again, The New York Times, Japan’s New Tech Generation, shows how people are taking it upon themselves, in it’s infancy, yes, however, they are meeting up to collaborate.  There is a huge chasm in education which has not adapted to our economies.  It is probably because our economies are evolving so fast, the education system has not had a chance to catch up.

Let’s paint a picture of the new university, where we have “transformation centers”, where we take a person like Mike Farmer from KANSAS CITY, Kan. in his single apartment room, a shared dorm room, or in his case, shared office space, in his third start-up, he is one employee, himself, and utilizes seven contractors who are also juggling multiple projects.  Now envision, college with a board of skill sets, which are required for real-time business projects, and you have professors guiding the resources to complete their assignments, then you have the visionaries which are driving and collaborating on projects leveraging national industry professionals discussing today’s challenges, and these juniors and seniors form teams from the pools of skill set resources, the freshman, and sophomores.  Skills ranging from technology to usability and design, marketing, arts and sciences, with the applications all practical and implementing them in real-time.  Perhaps alumni are the industry professionals, which speak at these sessions, and collaborate on projects in between their own projects, forming mentor relationships with the juniors and seniors.  Finally, transitioning from the colleges and universities, venture capitalists, and other financiers may choose to fund, or even acquire these small teams, which already have sustainable business models, proven ROI, or the business models show potential, sustainable models.  Those who already have had classes have participated in business implementations, have a portfolio of work for employers, and potentially networked with professionals within various fields, and have recommendations on their work.  Those graduates may even stay on their projects full time, which transition to full time opportunities.  Another possibility are the colleges and universities stay as incubators, the graduates remain on campus after graduation, just like we see in outsourcing / off-shore models, teach classes, and become members of new teams, as needed.  What were once ‘internships’ coveted by the few, are a necessity to become part of the college way of life.  Those without projects, curriculum is completely transformed based on statistical data derived from job wanted advertisements, e.g. skills in high demand. Alumni, in between projects, and lacking innovation, sign up for ADHOC think tanks, and attempt to transform them into working resources.

Contractors, Healthcare, and Organized Labor

As I approach a gap in society, I take pause, and say, is that an opportunity, and why does that exist?  If people seize that opportunity who will it benefit, and who will it detract? In this case, I see a number of Information Technology contract positions as right to hire, or just 3 to 6 month or more contract roles, sometimes hourly, sometimes, rarely daily. So I ask myself, as I look at my 1930 AFL-CIO cane, I collect canes as a hobby, why isn’t there a very good health care / organized labor system for the IT industry. You too may have also been excluded as an independent contractor in IT, or your own field. In IT, you either work for a company as a full time employee with benefits, or work for a small to mid sized consultancy firm with no or some mediocre medical benefits. If you work for a large consultancy firm, and are able to transition to a firm, fantastic. You also have the ability to collect good benefits in a large consultancy firm. However, if you are an independent contractor in the United States of America, you may financial barriers securing premium health care insurance, such as a PPO with a small co-pay and without a referral. I am on my 18th month of COBRA and my current small company plan, if I got sick, I would be in serious financial trouble. This ‘Pains’ me to say, but why don’t we have good collective bargaining for Information Technology Independent Consultants? That is a rhetorical question. It would directly compete with large consultancy companies, their ability to deliver good benefits, and transition someone to an organization. If I took a count of how many people were on COBRA, or without healthcare, may be contractors, and would be more than willing to use collective bargaining to strong arm health insurance companies for a great health care plan through organized labor, I suspect we could do more than the United States Government has not been able to do for the American public.

Sign up to express your interest in contractor labor benefits.

Update: Since I originally posted this message, with a small budget, I’ve been able to reach thousands of people to read this post.  If you don’t sign up here, I urge you to try to do the same thing, and reach out to form local labor unions of your own.  Other fields are, and have done this for a long time.  Isn’t it time you’re field of labor collectively worked together in the hopes not just to network for jobs, but for [health] benefits?