A Career Developer's Notes, by Bill Bell, CDP

"Moishe Lettvin - What I Learned Doing 250 Interviews at Google"

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 15:20:00 +0000

Anxious Before Job Interview: Good!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 21:10:00 +0000

Although the evidence discussed in this work isn't directly relevant it does suggest that feeling some anxiety prior to attending a job interview might improve your performance in it. Tell youself, "I'm excited" rather than trying to calm yourself.

Where the Jobs Are for New Economics PhDs

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 15:03:00 +0000

According to Chris Auld (Associate Professor, University of Victoria) the number of vacancies for new PhDs in economics from 2009 to 2013 increased from about 200 to 350. He based his estimates on job listings from the American Economics Association 'Job Openings for Economists' spreadsheets for the months of October for these years. He offers a breakdown indicating which specialities are more in demand; I won't pretend to understand what any of them might be. If you're interested at all in advanced studies in this field you might wish to look here.

Website gets man a job

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 19:26:00 +0000

I would say that this is a bit of a rare occurrence. After all, there are many millions of websites and you need to be very lucky to be noticed. Another factor to bear in mind is that your sense of humour may differ from those of many employers. Still Witty website lands unemployed designer a job, and you never know.

Compassion Fatigue: Even in the Strongest

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:26:00 +0000

I have no idea how work in career development might rank as a potential source of stress that would lead to compassion fatigue. On the other hand, I would expect that some individuals would have rendered themselves almost immune to it as a result of long and successful practice and of learning ways of coping.

Apparently not.

Here's an account of some of the experience of Dr John Bradford a psychiatrist who lived with some of the aftermath of the gruesome activities of Air Force Colonel Russell Williams. It's worth being kept aware that we are all built to feel.

Study Advice from Top Students

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 15:13:00 +0000

Someone on quora.com has asked:

"How do top students study?
"If you went to or are going to a top school like MIT, Harvard, Columbia, IIT, Berkeley, Stanford, Cornell, Caltech, Princeton, Yale, Brown, what is your studying method?"

There are about 41 responses so far. Some of the responses contradict each other, and I would not be able to follow some of the advice that is offered myself. But maybe you're a student and could use at least some of it.

Here. (You might need to join quora, which is easy.)

Doreen Kimura, On Ada Lovelace Day

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 17:22:00 +0000

This is the day in the calendar year when one is supposed to write about a women in a STEM occupation whose contributions one admires—a woman who does or has done something admirable somewhere in Science, Technology, Mathematics, Engineering or Mathematics. The day is named for the first woman to write computer code, Ada Lovelace.

I'm going to write a tiny bit about Doreen Kimura who was a professor and neuroscientist at Simon Fraser University. She died in February at the age of about 80. Some of her research had to do with how cognitive abilities differed between the sexes. When I read about research like that I usually think how little it matters for individuals. Simply put, there's overlap in every ability between the sexes.

However, at least in the articles I've read about her on the 'net, Kimura is resolutely forthright and honest. She opposed affirmative action. In her wikipedia article it says that she thought this demeaning to women. In the article on science.ca I understand her to say that forcing people into unsuitable careers can make them miserable. (And career developers could hardly disagree.)

So, Kimura found differences but didn't think that this meant that society should try to make up the difference—or something like that!

I cannot say that I admire Kimura for the results of her research. I really don't care whether men are better at dealing with mathematics and three-dimensional shapes, or whether women are better at spatial arrangements for that matter. I have enjoyed reading about someone who seems to separate issues clearly and to speak their mind about them. (I would like people to have the freedom and the resources to pursue possibilities of their choosing.)

OECD International Survey of Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 14:42:00 +0000

If Canada is to do more than install machinery made in other OECD countries, drive cars made in other OECD countries or ship petroleum that we dig out of the ground in Alberta then we will need to do better by our own people. Here's a glimpse of how we stand in comparison with the other OECD countries. It includes OECD opinions favouring the provision of counselling and good information about career opportunities. Wouldn't that be nice?

Skilled for Life - Key findings from the survey of adult skills (Andreas Schleicher - Special advisor to the Secretary-General on Education Policy from OECD Education

Selecting a University? (MBA Schools)

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 22:51:00 +0000

This time from The Economist magazine, their opinion of the best 100.

Improving Your Mind Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 18:33:00 +0000

David Kidd and Emanuele Castano of the New School for Social Research have evidence that reading literary fiction (not pop fiction and not nonfiction) can improve our ability to understand others by exercising our intellectual engagement and creative thought. See Reading Literary Fiction Improves 'Mind-Reading' Skills for an introduction.

Selecting a University? (Item II)

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 18:26:00 +0000

This time it's The Times Higher Education Rankings. There are rankings by continent and by subject area as well as of the world's top 100. Definitely of interest.

Selecting a University?

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 16:09:00 +0000

It's almost certainly too late to do so this year. I'm only prompted to mention this topic by the appearance of an item from The Guardian newspaper: The world's top 100 universities 2013 - the full list.

Five universities from Canada appear, with the rankings indicated:
17 University of Toronto
21 McGill University
49 University of British Columbia
92 Université de Montréal
96 University of Alberta

The top rankings went to MIT, Harvard and Cambridge.

Yesterday Mindset, Today This

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:41:00 +0000

I had the distinct feeling that Dweck is right about one source of my difficulties with so-called higher education. But how sure can one be that Dweck's interventions are effective? Here's a credible article that calls much of current psychological research into question.

Placebo Effects: Psychology’s Fundamental Flaw? Why active controls are not enough

Mindset: How Many of Us Defeat Ourselves

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 20:07:00 +0000

This speaker could have been talking about me.

I am one of those many millions of people who somehow grew up thinking that if I had to work hard at university it would prove that I was not intelligent enough to justify my being there. This kind of thinking is not only weird, it's fatal as far as academic success is concerned.

The speaker in this video, Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford, describes the results of some of her numerous studies of this pattern of thinking and what can be done about it—and perhaps more importantly what can be done to prevent inculcating it in our children.

Ending: My 'Jobs for Career Developers' Listing

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 18:14:00 +0000

I have been using the facilities of Scraperwiki to glean job advertisements from various sites and to list them for people in career development and related occupations. Until now these facilities have been free of charge to use. Scraperwiki have just announced service upgrades together with charges for their services; they will also withdraw the free services I have been using at some time in September. Since I have no revenues to cover my costs I will be withdrawing the job listing whenever Scraperwiki withdraws their free services.

I hope it has been of use to some.

Job: Job Developer/Mentorship Specialist, Mississauga, ON

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:32:00 +0000

http://jobs.ncpeel.ca/index.php/career/jobs-at-ncp

Thanks to Patricia Martin at http://quillinmotion.com/

Computing & Big Enterprises

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:47:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the availability of an upcoming, free course, at Doubts About How Exciting Math & Computing Can Be? It's about discrete optimisation. Today, as a bit of a co-incidence I noticed an article about an application of these methods: The astronomical maths behind UPS' new tool to deliver packages faster. It shows how important these applications are.

The Social Context of Mental Health and Illness

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:14:00 +0000

Free and on-line from coursera, by a senior Canadian university instructor and researcher. Thus, likely to be of value to career developers, given that we inevitably work with difficulties relating to mental health.

"Learn how social factors promote mental health, influence the onset and course of mental illness, and affect how mental illnesses are diagnosed and treated."

Led by Professor Charmaine Williams: The Social Context of Mental Health and Wellness.

On Payoff from Career Investment

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:29:00 +0000

Almost all of us could pursue any of a variety of occupations with similar levels of enjoyment and satisfaction. There is no single occupation or job that is exactly 'right' for you or me. Whether we are aware of it or not, we choose from a set of alternatives. In fact, part of a career developer's job is to help clients simply become more conscious of the career choices they are making.

It's natural to ask, "Which alternative will afford the best payoff?" Canadian economist Professor Frances Woolley offers some interesting advice right in the first couple of paragraphs of Men, women, and law school tuition.

Doubts About How Exciting Math & Computing Can Be?

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 17:32:00 +0000

Then you must watch this. This is an introduction to a free course that Professor Pascal Van Hentenryck is offering on Coursera: Discrete Optimization.

Jobs Listing for Career Developers

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:19:00 +0000

I have just made some corrections, so that it's running again. Feel free to tell me when the thing is not working. Here's the link: Jobs for Career Developers.

I'm still unable to scrape entries from the Charity Village site using the method software system I'm using for the other sites.

Women Undervalue Themselves

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:03:00 +0000

Curiously even the lead author of this study was surprised to find that the results apply to her: read Study: women undervalue themselves when working with men. And I know very well that men undervalue the contributions of women too.

Transferrable Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:18:00 +0000

Career developers often work with clients to elicit lists of marketable transferable skills. These are skills that the client has developed in one setting—not necessarily in a job—that would be useful to an employer in a different setting. Many jobs can be done by applying clusters of transferable skills right from 'day one' of the job, without significant initial training.

Here's someone who may have transferred skills as a magician to an occupation that appears quite different.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

To Succeed Remember When You Were Powerful

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:05:00 +0000

Asking people to remember a time when they were powerful enhances their appeal in interviews.

See "Wear a Feeling of Power" in WSJ's Week in Ideas for a little bit more and a pointer to the original research paper.

Emotional Intelligence Important for Dentist Success

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Bell) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:28:00 +0000

Makes sense, doesn't it? See Emotional Intelligence Trumps IQ in Dentist-Patient Relationship in Science News.