Career Path: How Big Data Insights Can Steer Decisions

Not long ago, before the time of the internet, Big Data, and apps for everything, it was more common for parents to pass down their careers to their children. Now, autonomy, passion and drive are the keywords for choosing a career. Its not that family businesses dont exist. Its that the new normal is for parents to (hopefully) empower their kids to make a choice based on what they want to do. If this coincides with the family line of work, so much the better.

This new level of individualism opens up a mind-boggling number of choices. It can be overwhelming. But what if you were to use the power of big data to help inform your career path? All of a sudden the guesswork of which way to go is gone. Whats in front of you is a clear picture. With this picture in hand, youre empowered to make a smart decision.

Where data can take you 

Earnest is a startup dedicated to combining tech and data to help people with their career paths. The data section of Earnests blog illuminates some fascinating findings:

Title can determine pay

People with the term lead in their title earn an average of $23,000 more than people who have the same job function but a different title

Moving can mean more money

College graduates from top schools who move to a new region earn about $23,000 more than those who stay put

Its about your network

74% of people who use their personal connections are happy with their job; networking is the highest determining factor for job happiness overall

This collection of statistics is just a smattering of whats available, but already you have info that can help you make a choice. Do you want to be happy with your job? Examine your social network. What types of jobs do the majority of the people you know have? Out of your pool of connections, with their respective careers, which type of job could you see yourself taking enthusiastically?

The above stats could also help you determine which types of jobs to look for based on income. If you want to make good money, narrow the job search down to ones that have lead in the title. If youre not qualified for these jobs, seek the experience to get you there. And be open to relocating; youll be able to find the highest paying jobs.

Determining demand  

Particularly in todays incredibly competitive marketplace, figuring out where the jobs are is a huge part of choosing a smart career path. Oftentimes, looking at salary data is a good indicator of demand.

Lets take the ever-expanding category of green energy as an example. Finding viable, sustainable energy solutions is so important, Bill Gates established a $1 billion dollar fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures expressly for the purpose of investing in green energy startups. The startup cash is there, the purpose is admirable, so lets look at what salary figures say about green energy careers.

You might think that engineers are in high demand, and they are. But in green energy, Chief Sustainability Officers earn a great deal more than engineers. Whereas Energy Engineers earn nearly $70K and Wind Engineers earn nearly $83K, Chief Sustainability Officers earn a median salary of nearly $184K. These Officers help businesses across the board make sustainability decisions. There are a ton of industries to which this is applicable. You want a big-ticket career, become a Chief Sustainability Officer for a startup that aims at a big breakthrough in green energy. 

Data and the resume reality

You might be aiming at a certain career, but whether you get a job in that field could depend a great deal on your resume. Big data helps executives sort and rank resumes. Data-based resume ranking is particularly helpful for enterprises with thousands of resumes to sort through. The keywords you use in your resume, including past job titles and descriptions, can greatly influence whether you get an interview.

In turn, data obtained from the interview says more about you than your resume does–about 100,000 times more, according to Mark Newman, CEO of HireVue. HireVue is an analytics firm with an engine called HireVue Insights. The software analyzes data it gleans from video interviews of candidates, comparing some 15,000 personality traits to those of a companys top performers. It adapts over time, honing in on what works best. It bases insights on previous successes or failures in choosing the right candidates.

The good news is, if youre the right person for the job, big data could help you get it. Hiring managers can take away the guesswork of acquisition through the use of analytics to sort and rank resumes, as well as to analyze interviews.

Of course theres an app for that

LinkedIn, Hired, and 500 Miles are just a few of the data-based solutions you can use to help find the right career. 500 Miles is a new app that searches all over the web to personalize job suggestions for you. It uses your desired job type, work authorization status, preferred locations, roles, schools you attended, and past employers to help you search for a firm that fits.

500 Miles can also tell you if past colleagues or people you went to school with are employed at firms of interest. Overall, the app builds unbiased profiles of prospective firms based on all the publicly-available data out there. In that respect, it differs from sites like Glassdoor that rely on reviews. It uses your profile and profiles of employers to find the best match.

Who wouldve thought data would be a keyword for career choice? Weve come a long way from the good old-fashioned family business. But were getting ever-closer to personalizing careers down to the level of each individual.