Technological development marches on at an astonishing pace. Gone are the days in which the future of work could be viewed as some distant point that need not be heeded. Like the tide, it has inevitably washed over us, and the most burning question now is how to best adapt to this brave new world.

In turn, much of the content in the Careers section this week revolved around different ways to adapt to the needs of the evolving workplace.

Craig McCarter from Liberty IT made the case for disciplined engineering, explaining how streamlining customer responses can open up new possibilities in software engineering.

James Magill is HR director at Vodafone Ireland and has worked in the HR industry for more than 20 years. He has witnessed the ways the workplace has transformed and the effect that analytics has, and very concisely explained the key trends in the HR sector right now.

The future of work may shepherd in new approaches to leadership, particularly given that organisational hierarchy is slowly beginning to melt away. There are six different leadership styles, each one with different merits and suited to different kinds of organisations. Do you know which one you emulate, and whether that is the best approach for your organisation?

There was also a raft of new positions announced this week across many important sectors in the Irish economy. Theravance Biopharma added 30 jobs to Ireland’s booming pharmaceuticals industry, Dublin Aerospace revealed more than 100 new roles in the aviation sector and cloud communications firm Twilio announced 100 new positions.

Meanwhile, Facebook also confirmed a hiring push for its Irish operations. An exact number has yet to be confirmed but estimates say there will be “several hundred” roles up for grabs.

As always, for more on any of these stories, follow the links below.

1. Theravance Biopharma announces 30 new positions in Dublin

NASDAQ-listed company Theravance Biopharma hopes to further establish its presence by expanding its Irish employee base.

2. How disciplined engineering can liberate your workforce

In the changing landscape of the software engineering industry, streamlining responses to user queries is crucial. Craig McCarter from Liberty IT tells us how to do it.

3. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirms ‘hundreds’ of new jobs for Ireland next year

Facebook began with 30 people in Ireland and this has mushroomed to more than 2,200 in Dublin, Meath and Cork.

4. Cloud communications firm Twilio announces 100 jobs for Dublin

Twilio, an international cloud communications company, has revealed plans to expand its Dublin EMEA headquarters over three years.

5. Dublin Aerospace announces more than 100 new hires

Aircraft maintenance provider Dublin Aerospace has created more than 100 full-time engineering and support positions in the capital.

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The post The future of work has arrived, but are you prepared? appeared first on Silicon Republic.

In reality, those who fall into the 16-24 age bracket have had a lot of obstacles thrown at their feet.

They grew up during a time of global economic depression and have clear memories of grim roundtable discussions in their family homes about financial hardship.

Kimberly Greenberger, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, even posits that the recession left a “very significant psychological scar” on the minds of the young.

The reality of youth employment

The 2017 edition of the PwC Young Workers Index lays bare the reality of employment and how the future of work will affect the young. It found, among other things, that those aged 16-24 are on average 2.5 times more likely to be unemployed than their counterparts in the 25-54 age bracket.

The unemployment rate, the report explains, remains above pre-crisis levels in most OECD countries.

The report also delves into the risk posed to jobs by automation, noting that while job destruction will be offset by greater productivity, automation will disproportionately affect less-qualified young workers in sectors such as retail.

But the study is not entirely doom and gloom – quite the opposite, actually. Economists at PwC explain that the OECD could gain a staggering $1.2trn in the long term if policymakers put systems in place to make education and training more available to young workers.

Socioeconomic factors

As it stands, socioeconomic background is still a large mitigating factor in determining opportunities and earning potential for young people in OECD member countries.

The consequences for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) can be significant and long-lasting. Citing research completed by the University of Bristol, the report explains that NEET individuals experience 10-15pc lower wages into adulthood compared to non-NEETs.

Research undertaken in 2001 also found that NEETS are 2.8 times more likely to be “unemployed or economically inactive” 10 years later. In addition, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are three times more likely not to achieve a baseline level of proficiency in science.

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, is quoted in the report extolling how youth employment leads to productivity growth and, conversely, disrupts this “virtuous cycle”.

“When firms become more productive, they are more likely to employ young people. And when young people have such opportunities, they can capitalise on their skills, adding to productivity growth, which – among other benefits for society – will lead to higher wages.”

“Youth unemployment breaks this virtuous circle; it is a drag on innovation and impedes knowledge diffusion by decreasing mobility.”

NEETs across the OECD

Taking a holistic view of the labour market, PwC endeavoured to create its Young Workers Index across the OECD by combining eight key indicators into one comparable metric.

It looked at things such employment and unemployment rates of 15-24-year-olds, number of school dropouts aged 20-24, incidences of long-term unemployment in those aged 15-24, enrolment rate of 15-19-year-olds, and the aforementioned relative unemployment of those aged 15-24 compared to their counterparts in the 25-54 bracket. All figures were sourced from the OECD.

Infographic: PwC Young Workers Index/OECD

Switzerland, regarded as one of the world’s most stable economies, ranked No 1 on the index, followed by Iceland at No 2 and Germany in third.

Countries in southern Europe, such as Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, fared worst in the index. Italy took the lowest spot, and has done so consistently over the last decade.

It is easy to assume that the global financial crisis of the last decade impeded growth and therefore universally affected NEET rates negatively.

However, countries such as Israel and Turkey (though the latter still performs badly on the index) have made gains.

Infographic: PwC Young Workers Index/OECD

Germany as the standard to which countries are held

Though Germany was beaten out for the top spot on the index, the report concludes that the country is a more relevant benchmark due to it being a larger economy.

If other countries in the OECD could lower their NEET rates to that of Germany, the gains could be massive across the board.

Of course, the potential gains are relative to the necessary improvement. While Italy’s GDP could shoot up 8.4pc if the rate of NEETs is lowered, Luxembourg (which already performs well on the Young Workers Index) would experience a gain of just 0.1pc.

Infographic: PwC Young Workers Index/OECD

Vocational training is the key

The report is unequivocal in its endorsement of vocational subjects.

Offering these, it states, is essential to lowering NEET rates, and the countries that perform best are those that offer dual education systems, such as Switzerland and Germany.

“These systems create better opportunities for apprenticeships and alternative career pathways to university, opening up more doors to successful and gainful careers,” the report explained.

Germany’s dual education system puts more than 50pc of school students in one of more than 300 training opportunities. The Vocational Training Act, first enacted in the country in 1969 and amended in 2005, provides more than 500,000 company-based training contracts a year.

In Switzerland, more than 70pc of young people participate in the Vocational Education and Training System (VET), which offers apprenticeships and qualifications in more than 200 different occupations. Around one-third of Swiss companies engage in apprenticeship training programmes, which allow young people to forge connections with employers at a young age.

PwC’s report also indicates that this early engagement is essential to lowering NEET rates.

Risks to jobs in the age of automation

While industries in which young workers are employed are “only marginally more likely” to be at risk of automation than “core adult workers”, and while younger people may be in a better position to take advantage of new opportunities due to their status as “digital natives”, education levels are still a large determining factor in whether young people can avail of positions created in new areas such as AI.

“The disparity in automation risk for those less educated (GCSE or lower in the UK and equivalents elsewhere in the OECD) is especially pronounced for young men, who could be at 50pc risk of automation, compared to 10pc for higher-educated (graduates) men,” the report finds.

Reducing attainment gaps and promoting social mobility

The Young Workers Index report concludes that governments must invest in education systems in disadvantaged areas to “reduce attainment gaps and promote social mobility”.

The provision of vocational schemes will “provide better opportunities for those less suited to academic learning”.

“Policymakers should also make sure that appropriate careers advice is provided to disadvantaged youths so that they can make a well-informed decision about their future career path.”

The post How to access the $1.2trn prize for better equipping young workers appeared first on Silicon Republic.

While some of it is starting to sound familiar – such as whether or not robots will take our jobs, or the soft skills we might need to adapt – the future is and always will be largely unknown.

This element of the unknown will always be a hot topic and, for those that deal heavily in the world of work, such as HR professionals, knowing what to expect in the future is essential.

So, it’s no surprise that the future of work was strongly discussed and debated at HR Tech World, now known as Unleash, in Amsterdam in October.

Siliconrepublic.com sat down with one of its headline speakers, HR expert and global thought leader Josh Bersin, to discuss not only the well-known trends of the future of work, but also the ones to which we haven’t given enough thought.

“We’re living longer, so we’re going to have a workforce that’s going to span in ages from 18 to 80 within the next decade,” he said.

“That will, to some degree, alleviate the problem of a reduced birth rate in some countries, but it also means that organisations are going to have to figure out how to build jobs and career models that allow people to transition through different phases of their career.”

Bersin is the principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, a leading provider of research-based membership programmes in human resources. He said that while most of us are aware of the automation trend, many don’t think about the implications of an older workforce.

“Let’s say you work for 70 years. Most companies don’t survive on the S&P 500 for more than 15 years. So, there’s a very high probability that the company you’re in is going to change, the career you’re in is going to change and the job you’re in is going to change,” he said.

How automation will change jobs

Bersin addressed one of the most common topics around the future of work: will automation put me out of work? “Automation is, in most cases, not doing away with job; it is changing jobs, and I think most people know that now.”

He said automation will reduce the value of certain jobs and raise the value of others. “The jobs that are being reduced in value are the jobs that are more routine,” he said. “Jobs that can be automated on a routine basis are getting automated so they’re being replaced with what we call hybrid jobs: jobs where your role is more complex.”

Giving recruiters as an example, Bersin said that the work that goes into contacting candidates, screening people and talking to them on the phone can be done by a chatbot.

“What the recruiter does now is get candidates that are much more qualified and then sells them on the company. So now, you’ve gone from a relatively routine screening job to a sales job,” he said. “A sales job is a different set of skills, it pays more, but you have to be trained to be in a different role.”

Future jobs will not only be in tech

“If you look at the economy globally, only eight to 10pc of jobs are actually programming software, building machines and engineering,” said Bersin.

“Everybody thinks that all the jobs of the future are going to be software engineering. That’s only eight to 10pc of the workforce. The rest of the workforce uses the stuff that all those guys built.”

He said preparing for the future of work and for tomorrow’s jobs is about learning to adapt, not simply going back to retrain in a technology discipline.

‘There’s research that shows that women are going to be more successful in the jobs of the future than men’
^{– JOSH BERSIN}

“Most of the trends show that the jobs of the future are more human and less routine,” he said. “All of the jobs that are going up in value are jobs where you’re relating to people as human beings.”

Bersin also indicated that, despite current gender inequality, the skills and roles that will go up in value will be the ones that play to the strengths of women.

“There’s research that shows that women are going to be more successful in the jobs of the future than men because a lot of these jobs are traditionally roles where women outperform men,” he explained.

Another major trend in the future of work is the rise of the freelance workforce. “Most companies are going to have to let go of their traditional thinking that everybody has to be a full-time employee,” said Bersin.

He also said that while companies are starting to realise the importance of the gig economy, he doesn’t believe they have successfully come up with a model. “Even for a company like Deloitte, we don’t really outsource consulting, which is a problem,” he said. “We can’t take five years to train people all the time.”

The battle for work-life balance

During his presentation in Amsterdam, Bersin revealed a worrying statistic: 40pc of Americans have accepted that they can’t have both a successful career and a good work-life balance.

That means that almost half of the workforce believe that they must sacrifice a healthy work-life balance to be successful at work and, unfortunately, trends thus far have yet to prove them wrong.

“One of the unfortunate things is that work has not gotten easier,” said Bersin. “You would have hoped that with all these tools, things would have been easier. Actually, the opposite is true: people are spending more time working, they’re distracted, they’re getting more messages in more places.”

 ‘I think people in their 20s and 30s are basically saying, “I’m not putting up with this”’
^{– JOSH BERSIN}

However, Bersin was optimistic about the future of work, saying that the younger generations are rebelling against this notion and putting more focus on their own wellbeing.

“I think there’s a pushback; I think people in their 20s and 30s are basically saying, ‘I’m not putting up with this.’”

Another somewhat grim statistic was from a Deloitte study that surveyed 70,000 millennials, which revealed that 65-70pc of respondents believe their economic life will be less fortunate than their parents.

“[Millennials] grew up in an environment where their parents went through the 2008 recession; they grew up in an environment where income inequality and global warming and energy were topics. They grew up with social media, so they expect transparency. They’re not being selfish, they just expect it because that’s the life they lived.”

He mentioned that one of the companies he spoke to at the conference said it was giving its employees half-promotions twice as often. “At least then they feel like they’re getting ahead instead of waiting a year or two years. Most millennials aren’t going to wait that long.”

The future of work salaries

When it comes to those promotions and salary increases, be it in annual reviews or otherwise, there are plenty of different models out there at the moment.

Some operate on scales, while others are based on years at the company combined with experience. One model that I found particularly interesting belongs to Reddit, which has set salaries and a no-negotiation policy.

“I don’t think that’s going to work over the long run,” said Bersin when I asked him about it. “If I’m delivering twice as much value as the person sitting next to me, I’m not going to stick around if we’re both making the same amount of money.”

When asked which way he thinks salary models will go, Bersin said it will lean away from the idea of set salary scales and more towards specific, individual salaries.

“I think we’re going to reach a world where everybody’s compensation is exclusive to them and you’re going to get paid what you’re worth.”

‘If you’re in a role that has a declining value, deal with it’
^{– JOSH BERSIN}

In a world where negotiating your own salary is the key to a bigger bonus and everyone’s salary is exclusive and perhaps private to them, will this worsen the gender pay gap? Bersin doesn’t think so, due to the volume of data that will be out there.

“If you’re a woman in a job where a man is making more than you are, you’re going to have the data to go to your boss and say, ‘I don’t accept this. And if you don’t fix it, I’m going to write an article and put it on my blog.’”

He also said that compensation will become less about the pay cheque alone and more about other benefits that complement a strong work-life balance.

“Some people don’t want as much money, they want more time off. Some people want less time off and more money,” he said. “Those are going to become more configurable benefits than just the standard salary that everyone gets.”

The key takeaway Bersin wants everyone to know is to be aware of the value of their skills, and to upskill if necessary. “If you’re in a role that has a declining value, deal with it.”

The post Josh Bersin: Are you able to adapt for the future of work? appeared first on Silicon Republic.

HR and recruitment is a vital part of the working world. So, it’s no surprise that there are major changes and emerging trends afoot within the HR sector as well.

James Magill is the HR director at Vodafone Ireland. With more than 20 years of experience in the HR industry, Magill knows a thing or two about the trends in this sector.

“I’ve seen quite a lot of change to the function, not least I think in an increase in professionalism of HR.”

Magill believes this is particularly evident when it comes to a seat at the boardroom table for HR professionals.

“Organisations more and more are starting to understand the important role that HR can play in the success of their organisation.”

Key HR trends

Some of the key trends that are coming to the sector more often, according to Magill, are the different functions his team is working with, the use of data and analytics, and how they package their employer brand.

“How do we package up our employer brand, how do we package up our messages around our unique employment offering and how do we articulate that to the talent market in a digital way?”

Magill also said one of the biggest challenges faced by HR and recruitment professionals is retaining talent.

“Here in Ireland, we have the lowest levels of unemployment we’ve seen in nine years. Those unemployment levels are actually higher for youths,” he said. “We have an opportunity and a need to continue to invest in the young talent in the Irish market.”

Graduate programmes, apprenticeships and internships are a great way to bring young talent into the workforce.

Know your talent

Magill said knowing your talent is the most important thing when it comes to recruitment.

“Know what makes them tick, know what is important to them and know where you can find them,” he said.

“I think if you do really understand what makes a difference for them, you can understand how you will position and articulate your employment offering.”

The post What are the key trends within the HR sector right now? appeared first on Silicon Republic.

Only in recent days, I have met men and women in their 50s, for example, who have shown as much potency and passion to rip apart the worlds of fintech and IoT as people decades younger who occupy the same stage at tech events. And no one bats an eyelid – they listen carefully, even respectfully.

‘If we think of Ireland competing internationally and having a wide workforce that is digitally and entrepreneurially capable, stepping out of the cosy job situation and trying something different is a good thing to do’
^{– BEN HURLEY}

But yet, when we talk about diversity, it is 90pc of the time portrayed purely as a battle of the sexes that leaves out the other areas where blindsides occur, most notably the treatment of minorities and ageism, which no one seems especially keen to talk about – at least, not yet.

To truly champion diversity, you must champion diversity in all its forms, not just one or two aspects.

Silicon Valley and now Hollywood are being rightly called out for abuses of power as victims say enough is enough.

Across the US, an understanding of what ‘white male privilege’ has meant for so long is gaining slow but painful acceptance.

But we all know this will be a long and difficult road with possibly no end.

The tech world’s many blindsides, hidden for so long by industry dogma and hubris, can be easily summed up by white male privilege, but it actually runs a lot deeper than that.

Cruelty of the times

This 1961 cover image from The New Yorker by Charles Addams recalls a world where computing was women’s work. In fact, women were the computers. Image: The New Yorker

Before the industry took the shape of an industry, what passed for tech occurred in backyard sheds or in secure military vaults or quaint country houses such as Bletchley Park, where men and women codebreakers helped to win wars but went mostly unacknowledged. The cruelty of those times could also be summed up by what happened to another unacknowledged hero, Alan Turing, for being homosexual.

To me, an image that sums up how tech’s sexist and ageist blindside has run deep for decades would be the poignant 1961 Valentine’s Day cover image from The New Yorker by Charles Addams – creator of The Addams Family – which showed an image of a lone, middle-aged woman working at a computer workstation. It conjured up an age where computing was seen as women’s work. In fact, women were the computers.

I made a nod to this in a previous article where I also referred to the work of Kathy Kleiman, co-producer of The Computers and founder of the ENIAC Programmers Project, who recounted how the role of women in the history of technology has been shamefully overlooked; from Ada Lovelace to major breakthroughs during the World Wars.

Somewhere along the way, however, tech went from being seen as purely women’s work to taking on clichéd forms that were increasingly male dominated. And younger, too.

For example, in the 1960s and 1970s, the industry wore a business mantle typified by slick IBM salesmen in blue suits. That was disrupted by the arrival of the Zen-like, young, hippy Steve Jobs at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977 where he demonstrated the Apple II for the first time.

During Microsoft’s ascent throughout the PC era of the 1980s and 1990s, khaki chinos and polo shirts were the uniform of the affluent, male tech business lead, while the programmers (mostly portrayed as socially awkward men in death-metal T-shirts) hid in murky server rooms playing Doom.

Today, the image of success in tech is the cliché of a bro: a twentysomething Mark Zuckerberg wannabe. You’ll see loads of these at any one of countless tech conferences anywhere in the world.

The notion of tech as being a young man’s game is not only a blindside as vile as sexism, but it is doing a disservice to countless numbers of men and women who still have plenty to offer.

Missing out on this experience economy because of ageism is as heinous as the tech world missing out on 50pc of its potential by not properly including women.

The experience economy

In most cultures, elders are respected and regarded as a source of wisdom. However, in tech, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

A survey of 1,011 US employees by Indeed found that half of workers at tech firms were millennials while 26pc were over the age of 40. Not only do employees witness an imbalance in age representation, it is also causing anxiety, with close to half (43pc) worrying about losing their job because of their age. Nearly one-fifth (18pc) worry about it all the time.

It is a strange anomaly when you consider that one of the most hotly anticipated tech events of the year – the unveiling of the latest iOS devices by Apple – is generally presided over by a leadership team mostly in their 50s.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is in his 50s while the CEO of Slack, one of the fastest-growing software companies in the world, is 43-year-old Stewart Butterfield. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – considered the ultimate bro that the bros aspire to – is no spring chicken at 33, while his COO and c0-leader Sheryl Sandberg is 48. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is 53.

During the week, I spoke with Ben Hurley, CEO of NDRC in Dublin – one of Europe’s most successful accelerators – who revealed that the average age of a founder at NDRC was 36. At the accelerator’s most recent Investor Day, the judges all remarked on the age and gender diversity of the 11 companies that took part.

What was remarkable was that all of the founders – ranging from young people in their early 20s to those in their 30s, 40s and 50s – had all applied real-world experience and insight to deliver real solutions to actual problems with actual markets identified. None of these were ideas in search of a market.

“I think what is happening here is that digital entrepreneurship is much wider than a cool twentysomething,” Hurley said. “This [NDRC] is not a place for cool twentysomethings to hang out; the diversity we have in our cohorts and age is a big part of that. The average age is 36 or so. It is really important and it shows the kind of experiences being brought in by these enterprises, and the depth of that experience is really useful.”

Hurley hit on another reality that often stymies would-be entrepreneurs as they get older: in their 20s, people have less risk but, as mortgages and babies come along, people in their 30s and 40s become more risk averse, and with good reason.

While Ireland still has some work to do on the tax front – the removal of income tax from the reward of share options is a right step – initiatives such as the 2015 SURE scheme, which lets founders claim 41pc of their tax back on earnings over the last six years, could help entrepreneurs in their 40s and 50s to gain the confidence to get started.

“If we think of Ireland competing internationally and having a wide workforce that is digitally and entrepreneurially capable, stepping out of the cosy job situation and trying something different is a good thing to do.

“Working in diverse groups is going to be really attractive for not just forming start-up businesses, but tapping into that experience for other companies considering coming to Ireland.”

And that’s just it. The digital economy is becoming the economy. Every industry is being digitally transformed. Every company is in some way becoming a tech company.

But the fundamentals of doing business – the customer being always right, or the handling of sensitive situations – these all require wisdom and experience.

Do not be blind to tapping into that experience economy, and do not allow your age to hold back your potential.

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The post Do not be blind to the experience economy appeared first on Silicon Republic.

With every passing year, technological progress marches on and opens up previously unthinkable possibilities in the process.

This is crystallised in the articles featured this week in the Careers section for Data Science Week. Data science is, as many are well aware, still one of the hottest industries in tech.

The jobs available in data science are stimulating, sought after and present many opportunities for advancement.

This is because the world at large is realising the potential data has to revolutionise how we behave as a society.

Adam Shapley, a senior regional director of Hays in Australia and New Zealand, outlined the hottest trends in data science to be aware of if you aspire to get into the industry.

We had a guest post from PTC explaining how data-driven design can make products smarter and more efficient.

We also had the opportunity to chat to Sheeka Patak, a back-end engineer at Zendesk, about her experience getting into coding and the things that need to change in STEM.

There was a welcome slew of jobs announcements alongside our data science content this week.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced an amazing 300 jobs newly created at their Limerick bioprocessing facility.

The jobs wealth was evenly spread, with another 50 new positions in medtech firm Vitalograph made available in Ennis.

Australian travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group also announced 30 new roles in its Dublin office.

For more on any of these stories, follow the links below.

1. How to use data-driven design to make your products smarter 

Leveraging real-world data from the field can help you make better decisions about your products.

2. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announces 300 new hires in Limerick 

New positions have been announced alongside news that Regeneron’s Irish bioprocessing campus will receive an additional $100m in funding.

3. Ennis-based medtech company Vitalograph announces 50 new jobs 

Vitalograph, a manufacturer of respiratory devices, is on the hunt for data analysts, software designers and engineers.

4. ‘When it comes to programming, I’m almost completely self-taught’ 

Sheeka Patak, a back-end engineer at Zendesk, discusses her unusual entry into coding and what she believes needs to change in the world of STEM.

5. If you want to be a data scientist, you need to know about these 6 trends 

Data scientists are in demand, and candidates with the right mix of skills will be rewarded with a future-proofed and lucrative career. Here are some things to keep in mind when pursuing a career in data science.

6. Australian agency Flight Centre Travel Group announces 30 jobs in Dublin 

Flight Centre Travel Group hopes to hire travel agents and staff with skills in IT, finance, admin, and sales and marketing.

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The post This week in Careers, the wonderful world of data science appeared first on Silicon Republic.

As the world becomes increasingly digital and companies adopt more data-driven approaches to marketing, product design and even health, the market demand for skills in data analytics is extremely high.

Top companies are eagerly looking to hire data scientists across various roles, promising high salaries and ample opportunity for advancement. Understandably, increasing numbers of jobseekers in turn are interested in getting into the industry to reap these benefits.

Though there are a bevy of positions available, the process of applying for data science jobs can still be dizzying, frustrating even.

Despite the fact that there still isn’t a consensus on the definition of data science itself, the industry has already spawned numerous distinct job titles, each with its own set of required skills, talents and programming languages.

Luckily, the people at DataCamp have set out to clarify things with a handy infographic.

The infographic below outlines the key roles in data science and gives a comprehensive breakdown of what each one entails. DataCamp gathered data by looking at the numerous jobs listings for data science and using this to differentiate one from the other.

It explains the kind of mindset best-suited to each position, which skills and talents are necessary, and which programming languages one needs to know to succeed in each job as well as some of the exciting companies hiring in data science.

The average salary those in data science can expect, according to DataCamp, can fall between $60,000 and $120,000, with data analysts pulling in at the lower end, and data and analytics managers enjoying the highest salary.

Companies such as Google, Microsoft and Adobe often hire data scientists while Slack, Motorola and Coursera tend to seek out data and analytics managers.

To find out the difference between a data architect and a database administrator, check out the infographic below.

Image: DataCamp

The post Who does what in the data science industry? appeared first on Silicon Republic.

That’s the dire warning from the Industry Research and Development Group (IRDG), a non-profit organisation of businesses and colleges focused on driving innovation to foster job creation and prosperity.

‘The world is digitising quickly and, despite great teachers, our education system is not keeping up, meaning our future workforce is at risk of falling behind the curve’
^{– MARTIN CURLEY}

“Our skilled labour force must continue to be viewed as a reason for companies to locate here,” said Martin Curley, chair of the Open Innovation and Strategy Policy Group, who was speaking at the IRDG’s annual conference in Croke Park this morning (24 October).

Why companies invest in Ireland

The IRDG conference is Ireland’s largest cross-sectoral meeting on innovation, bringing together 300 businesses across the sectors of life sciences, tech, food, engineering, construction and financial services to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by today’s business leaders.

Curley is professor of innovation at Maynooth University and senior vice-president at Mastercard’s global digital practice. He is also the founder of Intel Labs Europe.

He warned that Ireland needs an education system that reflects the skills needed to succeed in a knowledge-based economy.

“The lack of an information technology subject in secondary education continues to be a big gap.

“The world is digitising quickly and, despite great teachers, our education system is not keeping up, meaning our future workforce is at risk of falling behind the curve.”

Education policymakers have yet to make coding part of the secondary school curriculum, despite Education Minister Richard Bruton, TD, saying that it was a State priority.

That said, Curley believes that Ireland is still managing to punch above its weight in certain areas. But for how long?

“Compared to other European countries, Ireland has a larger share of high and medium high-tech manufacturing, a higher number of top R&D spending companies, and a higher average R&D spend by these companies,” he said.

Recently, Ireland was reclassified from an innovation follower to a strong innovator in the European Innovation Scoreboard.

“We must equip our young people with the skills they will need if they are to keep up with these disruptive technologies,” said Curley.

The post Big gap in IT skills in schools could hamstring Ireland’s future workforce appeared first on Silicon Republic.

For most of this week, things were quiet on the employment front.

There is always something interesting to find in this section (and on the site in general, of course), but truth be told we were a little disappointed that we couldn’t gleefully reveal jobs-related news.

Then Thursday brought with it a slew of jobs announcements, with a total of 110 positions being created this week.

October seems to be doing especially well by way of jobs creation. A fortnight ago, we announed that an astonishing 1,600 jobs were created.

What was particularly great to see was that these jobs weren’t concentrated in the capital – there are jobs available in Belfast, Dublin, Athlone and Roscommon.

Health tech company Neurovalens, notable for developing a headband which stimulates the vestibular nerve in order to promote fat loss, has 10 jobs in engineering and marketing on offer in Belfast.

RBK, an accounting firm which has offices in Dublin, Athlone and Roscommon, has 80 jobs available across its branches, and has opened up a new office in Dublin 4.

A firm named Fragomen announced plans to open a new office in Dublin to help tech companies streamline the immigration process for staff coming to Ireland to work – and, with that, announced 20 positions available.

Not only did we feature newly created jobs, we also got to sit down and talk to individuals employed in STEM and discuss their current employers.

We spoke to a pre-sales engineer in Kemp Technologies and a scientist at Bristol Myers-Squibb.

For more on any of these stories, follow the links below.

1. ‘I’m delighted that Kemp has given me this opportunity’ 

Pre-sales engineer Michael O’Brien details his experience working in Kemp Technologies as a support engineer during his studies.

2. Biological processes and their endless potential at BMS 

For Gearóid Dunne, keeping pace with the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry is a rewarding challenge.

3. Fragomen to hire 20 in Dublin to streamline tech staff immigration 

Fragomen aims to speed up the immigration process for tech staff to Ireland with the opening of a new office in Dublin.

4. Accounting firm RBK announces 80 new jobs in Dublin and the midlands 

New positions in finance and HR were announced at the official opening of RBK’s new Dublin 4 office.

5. Neurovalens hiring for 10 roles in Belfast after raising £1.2m on Indiegogo 

Neurovalens is offering positions in engineering and marketing.

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Some people are not blessed with praiseworthy bosses, however, such as our favourite characters in TV land. If anything, some of the workplaces portrayed on the small screen are headed up by the worst managers, supervisors and executives imaginable.

In some cases, our favourite characters are even the ones guilty of committing managerial faux pas. Here are the top 10 worst bosses on television that are guaranteed to make you feel better about your own boss. Be warned, though: there are some mild spoilers ahead.

Natalie ‘Fig’ Figueroa, Orange is the New Black

Though she was later vindicated when a private corporation took over Litchfield prison and did a horrendous job of running the place all together, Natalie Figueroa wasn’t exactly the ideal candidate for executive assistant to the warden.

Any of the capability she displays is negated by the fact that she embezzles tens of thousands of dollars from the prison to fund her husband’s political campaign, at the expense of its inmates and already dilapidated facilities.

She is more concerned about the public image of the prison, and how that reflects on her, than on the welfare of the prisoners under her charge.

Don Draper, Mad Men

Don Draper is most often remembered as the sparkling advertising director who knows how to perfectly craft ads to tap into the psychology of a buyer (“It’s toasted”).

It’s easy to forget that he has a team of employees to oversee because he’s too narcissistic and self-absorbed to ever fulfil his role as a leader. When he hasn’t got a vice grip on a glass of whiskey, Draper is either deriding his copywriters or vacillating between being excessively rude and sexually harassing his assistant.

His employees get some respite when he leaves the office to: a) cheat on his wife, b) moodily reflect on his past, or c) both. Don’t let Draper’s perfect hair blind you to his ineptitude.

Michael Scott, The Office (US)

Michael Scott is the perfect example of a great employee erroneously being assumed to be fit to manage others, neglecting the fact that being a manager involves a level of skill beyond what is demanded of an employee.

Scott was one of the best paper salesmen Dunder Mifflin ever had but, as a manager, he was quickly revealed to be petty, a terrible judge of character, too concerned with being his employees’ best friend, wildly inappropriate and ignorant. To make matters worse, he starts an on-again, off-again affair with his supervisor Jan, negative developments of which spill into his work and distract him.

Though entertaining, no one should ever attempt to emulate Scott’s behaviour in the workplace, or anywhere for that matter.

Wilhelmina Slater, Ugly Betty

In many ways, Wilhelmina Slater undeservedly gets a hard time. Ultimately, she was just angry that she was passed over as editor of Mode in favour of Bradford Meade’s son, who had no relevant experience. However, she did some unforgivable things as creative director of the magazine.

So determined was she to gain control of Mode, Slater attempted to sabotage her peers and even the magazine itself on many occasions. She roped her assistant Marc into these schemes, leaving one to wonder when exactly she had the time to creatively direct.

Mr Burns, The Simpsons

As well as embodying almost every archetype of evil, Mr Burns is greedy, corrupt and generally odious. Though he has done well for himself, as evinced by his opulence, the owner of Springfield’s nuclear power plant is a terrible leader.

He knows very little about his employees, demands a disturbing amount from his assistant Smithers, and somehow possesses such terrible judgement that he thought Homer Simpson would be a suitable candidate to inspect and oversee the safety of the plant.

Did we mention he sends his frothing, teeth-bearing guard dogs after people? That too.

Frank Underwood, House of Cards

The president of the United States counts as a boss, right? As far as bosses go, Frank Underwood is pretty awful.

Similar to many listed here, Underwood’s cutthroat ambition and selfishness leads him to sabotage his own country in a way that could be described as treasonous for the sake of his own agenda.

Worse yet, his recent bid to strike fear into the hearts of American people so they submit more to his will, and attempts to manipulate the news cycle with ‘fake news’, makes it clear that Underwood will transform into an outright autocrat if allowed.

Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock

Though Donaghy, a self-made man who worked his way up the corporate ladder despite humble beginnings, is undoubtedly impressive (received a scholarship to Princeton, served as intern to senator Ted Kennedy, overall proven to be a great product developer), the NBC head is definitely not the ideal boss.

Somewhere along the way, Donaghy became enamoured with corporate greed and began to personify most of the worst traits of so-called ‘elites’. He’s often guilty of deflecting blame, taking credit for the work of others, treating his assistant terribly and acting obsequious around the CEO.

Like many terrible TV bosses, Donaghy places his own success ahead of the wellbeing of the company and its employees. He also once said: “Sometimes, you have to change things that are perfectly good just to make them your own.”

Bob Kelso, Scrubs

While it is important to consider the ‘bottom line’, Dr Kelso is so fixated on running his hospital as a business, that he’s totally unconcerned about his employees as well as his patients.

Kelso often coldly ejects patients without insurance plans, seemingly unbothered by the fact that they are in desperate need of medical help, which calls into question how good of a medical practitioner he could have possibly been when he seems to totally lack empathy.

He’s also incredibly lazy, constantly finding ways to fall asleep at work and coming up with workarounds so he doesn’t have to do his job. You’d think he’d channel the energy required for planning naps into his work, but no.

Tony Soprano, The Sopranos

Continuing the trend of using the term ‘boss’ loosely, Tony Soprano is arguably a boss, as he leads a crime family.

Soprano is pretty much the antithesis of the level-headed individual you would want at the head of your organisation. He’s impulsive, hypocritical, arrogant and does little to foster relationships within the family and his crew. He struggles to make any decision that would come at his own expense, even if it would be in the best interests of the family.

Though there weren’t people lining up to fill his position – and, in a way, Soprano was the only person truly suited to the role – he doesn’t execute it very well.

Mr Krabs, SpongeBob SquarePants

One of the original terrible TV bosses who moulded our minds in childhood and taught us the classic managerial red flags, Krabs was too driven by greed to be an effective organiser.

He often neglects and abuses his devoted employee SpongeBob, despite the fact that the latter is not only the ideal worker but frequently espouses the ‘brand speak’ of the company.

Not to mention, as the only cook in Krabs’ employ, SpongeBob is pretty essential to the running of the operation and yet is constantly undervalued.

It is Krabs’ obsession with money that often blinds him to various attempts by his competitor, Plankton, at using corporate espionage to obtain the secret Krabby Patty recipe. Pretty remiss of him as a small business owner, to be honest.

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