š¤ Whatāll be a better new normal you want to build? What is the input metric you can control now?
Whatās new this week for you? For me, Iām lucky to have a choice to work from my office for the 1st time after 1+ year COVID lockdown. To be honest, it took me a half-day to get my desk in a new order & find my way back into the working mode š . But, very worth it. For example, itās much more fun & even productive to catch up with colleagues face-to-face. And of course, the āfree lunchā. For employers who donāt see why yet, providing āfree lunchā is a win-win. At least, it spares me some time to hunt for lunch & allows me to catch up with colleagues. Sure, they are not the āproductiveā time, at least not directly in a sense of the common wisdom. But, think longer if you are in a talent-intensive business. They are opportunity costs, chances of casual ideation, or āteam-buildingā at least. So if you are not making the most out of the office time, why bothers to cost your valuable assets to spend the time to commute.
A better talent pipeline
āIf education is the transmission of civilization, we are unquestionable progressing. Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by eachā¦ā ā Will Durant & Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History
On July 5th, Jeff Bezos officially handed over the torch of Amazon CEO to Andy Jassy. So that, he can go to space on 20th. When he is back on earth š, he may not only focus more to make Amazon the Earthās Best Employee but also create a few more better employees. Even far below Jeffās level, Iāve been thinking about what legacy, that our generation may leave to the next. COVID just supplies me too much time & stimulus to rethink them deeper. Today, letās scrape a surface: how to build a better talent pipeline.
Diversity
There is no doubt: diversity is not only the right thing to do but also outperforms financially & drives more innovations. So, what are the āinput metricsā for a better diverse workforce? For me, I would like to level the playing field by making CS education more accessible & better future-proof for more communities. Because, even if we somehow can recruit all the right talents, weāre still limited by the talent available out there.
You will be surprised how hard even for top companies to recruit the right talents. McKinsey has been reporting āthe war for talentā since 1997. I also know so from my personal 10+ years experience to recruit for small companies to big ones. Therefore, for a civilization to solve a diversity problem today, someone better expends the entry of talent funnel yesterday.
Future-proofing
Recently, 2 new trends are popularized by the news: Great Resignation & Baby Boomer Earlier Retirement. While people dropping out of the workforce pushed down unemployment to 5.8% in May, from 6.1% in April, the US economy still -7.6 million jobs since the beginning of COVID. If the trends will continue or regress to the mean is to be told. But itās pretty clear, people are more mindful of what kind of work is worth doing now.
For me, Iāve no problem with machines doing boring tasks, so I can focus on more interesting challenges to fill the gap. And to scale, Iāll be happier to leverage more machine power. But if itās up to us to decide the next & how it should be, we have to re-invent the work to our advantage. Even it wonāt be easy, Iām in, arenāt you?
Education is the easy āstoneā to kill 2 birds: 1) re-skill the workforce for the new demand & 2) up-skill for productivity. Itās a great time to pick up a few new CS tricks for whatever problems you care about because the new data-driven paradigm shift has just begun. While it still a very long way to get to magical collaborations between Iron Man & JARVIS. We may get closer by taking āOne Small Stepā, right?
One small step for high schoolers
If you are or know US high schoolers, here is a treat. Google runs a free, virtual, and immersive computer science education program for Black, Latinx, and Native+ high school students that provides the skills and tech social capital needed to pursue long and high achieving careers in technology ā and itās available to students across the U.S! Apply by July 28th: codenext.withgoogle.com
Full Disclosure
The opinions stated here are my own, not those of my company. They are mostly extrapolations from public information. I donāt have insider knowledge of those companies, nor a whatever expert.
