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The Doctor, The Lawyer, The Teacher – pick one!

There’s a lot of talk about what harm youngsters are exposed to in this day and age due to kids as young as 6 having iPads/smart phones making harmful content highly accessible. Early last year the ‘momo challenge’ also known as the suicide game featured a zombie character, telling naïve kids if they don’t follow the zombie’s instructions then they will be killed or they will release their private information. Black mirror episodes really are becoming real life! How times have changed since having a pink flip up Motorola phone with one contact in it – that one contact being the Motorola support team.

Stereotypes contribute to what roles kids feel is the most achievable. When I was younger the main ‘job’ that me and a lot of my fellow female classmates wanted to do was hairdressing or even a ballerina- why not a fire fighter? Because this is marketed as a man’s job. Funny enough, I did public services whilst I was at college and in a room full of men that wanted to be a fire fighter to ‘look good’- I was made to feel odd for choosing a ‘mans subject’. But was it in in bedded in my persona that I was meant to become a hairdresser? Not to get too deep into the nature vs nature debate, undeniably we all have innate features to our personality, but we are also a product of our environment and the reality is what we are exposed to moulds our values, beliefs and aspirations. Talent is being wasted because of gender, race and social background stereotyping.

You can’t be what you can’t see
Research from the careers report, shows that young people often have very narrow ideas about potential job options due to lack of exposure. Family, jobs they see in the media and the most perceived achievable type of work for their gender and background have a massive influence.
Research shows that in primary school, boys from wealthier homes are more likely to expect to become lawyers or managers while girls from deprived backgrounds are expecting to go into hairdressing or shop work. Boys from deprived backgrounds were particularly likely to want to go into careers such as sport or entertainment. There is no evidence that background, gender or race has any effects on the performance in a job that you love, it’s about the mindset behind it.

Make the dream realistic
According to ONS (office of national statistics) there was a huge gap between the career dream and the reality for most, when this age group had reached their early to late-20s, in 2017.
The report shows how few got the top choices they had hoped for.
• Only 1.4% had got jobs in the media or arts, such as a producer, actor or writer.
• Only 1.7% were in jobs such as the police or emergency services.
• Only about 1.7% became health professionals, such as dentists or pharmacists.
The most typical jobs for this demographic in their twenties included:
• sales assistants and cashiers
• caring and personal services
• teaching and education-related
• sales and marketing
• administration
• childcare
• financial services

For me personally, and I’m sure this is the case for most people reading this- I have to be passionate about something to be able to excel in it. So, what one of the numerous reasons this wasn’t the outcome was because society provided limited options.

Mummy when I grow up, I want to be a social influencer
New research carried out by www.awin.com revealed that as many as 17 per cent of 11-16 year olds want to be a social media influencer when they are older, outranking teacher and veterinarian; whilst one in eleven are aiming to become a YouTuber.

The top 5 aspiring job roles are as follows:
1. Doctor: 18%
2. Social Media Influencer: 17%
3. YouTuber: 14%
4. Veterinarian: 13%
5. Teacher: 9%

These results didn’t come shocking to me as I found during my time at University there was a huge influx of boys and girls wanting to be a social influencer and openly saying that’s what they want to be- whilst being in £52,000 worth of debt from choosing education back in 2016. Arguably following a trend rather than making an educated decision.

There are so many roles out there for people that steer away from your typical ‘dream’ job that gets advertised to us from before we can even talk. What about market researchers, data administrators or ethical hackers who can earn £80,000 a year? Just because you do a degree in psychology- doesn’t mean the only job you need to look for is a psychologist. Steer away from the norm and see what other jobs are on offer- you might surprise yourself!

 

Written By Sophia Ghahramani

Living the Australian Dream….. Bro!

The Australia day long weekend means different things to different people. For some, a little bit of time off to enjoy the company of family, friends and maybe a BBQ. For others it brings undertones of past injustices (no political statements being made here…. I can’t even vote!).

For me it’s a time to reflect and be thankful for the opportunities this country has provided for me. Now granted, I’ve only migrated 4 hours west from across the dutch brewwww, but this whole moving countries thing and starting again isn’t a walk in the park, especially if you don’t have the privileges that us Kiwis get here in Straya.

It seems to me that for every success story, there are 3 without a happy ending. In the various roles I’ve played in and around the recruitment game, I’ve seen many an immigrant struggle to find their feet and gain an opportunity to showcase their skills. Often these people come in way overqualified for the roles they are applying for but are willing to take a step back in order to gain some local experience.

theconversation.com conducted a survey of skilled migrants in South Australia and found that 53% of immigrants who fall under the skilled migration program, felt they were not utilising their skills and abilities, with 44% working in a job different to what they nominated in their visa application. About 15% reported being unemployed at the time of the survey or for most of their time in Australia – double the South Australian jobless rate. This was despite having skills deemed by government planners to be in short supply.

So, what’s the deal? Is the widely held view of immigrants that Australian employers discriminate against hiring anyone who doesn’t have local experience accurate, or do these jobs simply not exist? In my experience I’ve been unfortunate to witness on far too many occasions where the perfect candidate is turned down based on experience in Australia.

So, I ask you this – Is the skilled migration program working, or does the whole methodology that underpins the program, with state and territory sponsorships that implicitly encourage aspiring migrants, need to be revisited?

Enough of this serious stuff! This Kiwi lad is off to watch a fair dinkum Aussie hero beat up the world tennis number 1!!
** That didn’t go well did it.

JD

GoLang Developer- Melbourne

We are working alongside an ASX IT Consultancy who have partnered up with a Top tier Financial Institution in Australia.

The IT Consultancy specialise in Cloud, Data & Analytics and Digital (Mobile & Web) who have close to 90% long term customers and 50% of their business is with ASX Top 20 customers. Our client partners with businesses in the Banking & Finance, Energy, Health, Insurance & Travel industries.

The role is a Golang Developer in which the candidate will be involved in a Business transformation project with the intention to be one of the most user friendly applications out of all the financial institutions as well as building new platforms and applications for all users. Ideally experience with Golang would be preferential, although experience with Python, Linux, Middleware or SSH would be suitable. Basic knowledge of Golang is essential. The ideal candidate will be proactive, a quick thinker,
passionate,  and to have worked for a Distributor.

Our client is flexible in terms of the role being a contract or permanent opportunity. If you’d like to get a greater understanding of the role, team culture and discuss your profile please contact Frankie on frankiem@logicalresources.com.au or 0434 627 088.

Love is in the Air

We spend a lot of time at work and as a consequence, a lot of time with colleagues. With that in mind, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a survey produced by job site Vault.com found that 58% of employees have engaged in a romantic relationship with a colleague.

Full disclosure here. I am NOT part of the 58% and have always lived by the rule that we shouldn’t fish off the company pier, dip your pen in the company ink, or however you want to describe it. But I have seen instances where love, or some form of, has blossomed in a workplace and had both positive and negative effects on the culture.

The endless gossip, resentment along with the ugly breakups (granted, not in all cases) translate into an absolute HR disaster. Think about how easily workplace romances gone south, can become sexual harassment cases. It takes but a single foolish action from a scorned lover for a seemingly innocent situation to turn into a visit from Fairwork. Or consider that one in six workplace relationships involves an affair where at least one of the people involved is married or in a relationship, adding a whole new layer of negative effects and hurt feelings.

However, it would be naive to imagine that bunging red blooded humans together for 40 hours per week (and the rest) wouldn’t result in people forming romantic bonds. So, if Cupid strikes and you find your team in the throws of a Mills & Boone novel, the best way forward could be a combination of the following:

  • The more senior an employee is, the greater the expectation to report all sexual, romantic or other close relationships with other employees. This is because generally the more senior the employee, the more likely they are likely to be involved in decisions that affect the other employee in the relationship.
  • Have a disclosure policy in place requiring employees to outline any conflict of interest (or perceived conflict of interest) that a possible relationship between the two employees may cause and their plan for mitigating the conflict.

As leaders we cannot afford to be naive to the consequences. We must be proactive when it comes to workplace romances; make sure your people know what they are in for before they start getting jiggy with their colleagues.

JD

The Social Techfluencer

The power of the social Influencer
Who do millennial’s aspire to be? celebrities? Michelle Obama? Well, 70% of teens not surprisingly trust Instagram influencers more than traditional celebrities and depressingly 4 in 10 millennial Instagram users believe their favourite influencer understands them better than their own friends…bad friends? Building trust with the consumers can come with great difficulty from a brands perspective, so attaching their virtual best friend to it has been at the heart of many marketing strategies for the past 5 years.


Tried, tested and died
Women social influencers general main focal point for content is clothes, makeup etc. linked to that they advertise ‘diet’ supplements from tea detox’s to pills that make your hair and nails grow at the speed of light! A recent BBC three documentary that aired at the end of 2019 called ‘Blind boy undestroy’s the World’ secretly filmed some of our nations egotistical z list celebrities/ social influencers, who were asked to promote a fake diet drink which included a deadly chemical-hydrogen cyanide. When shown a video of the drink which mentioned the ingredient, they still all proceeded to the audition to promote the drink and TOWIE star Lauren Goodger admitted to never using any of the products she advertises on her Instagram…said too much? This fatal chemical was also used in concentration camps during the second world war by the living breathing Satan himself, Adolf Hitler. The alarming fact is this is three out of the millions of influencers that grace our Instagram feeds, so what percentage of these are falsely advertising?


Influence a Future of Female CEO’s
Imagine using the platform to positively influence their fans to strive for the best career possible and not motivate them be two stone lighter in 6 weeks. That’s exactly what ex made in Chelsea star Amber Atherton did. Amber Atherton the posh totty with a blue tick next to her name, has a history in the tech industry as she used to be a coder. Amber didn’t do the usual brand deals with pretty little thing or ASOS, she created a marketing platform called Zyper with the aim of diminishing the ‘influencer’ culture. The platform uses a secret Algorithm to connect brands to their ‘true fans’ instead of gearing them towards paid-for influencers.

California-based Zyper recently completed Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator programme, but what’s it like being a woman founder in the tech industry? Amber was made very aware of the male dominance in the tech industry, so she invests in several female led companies and also uses her Instagram as more of a LinkedIn profile and often hashtags #notaninfluencer. With 14,000 followers, when messaged by fans she makes it her duty to reply to messages outlining that you don’t have to be ‘technical’ to be a tech founder in Silicon Valley.

Influence a pathway to Tech

If tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook who have a few pennies to spare after making $800 billion in 2018, invested in partnering up with appropriate female tech influencers such as Whitney Wolf, who has 124,000 followers on Instagram (founder and CEO of Bumble the dating app). It would promote executive jobs in tech to be more achievable than it previously has been.
Social influencers have the engagement, followers and reach- alter the content to be tech related and the gender gap may start to see more improvements by 2030! Instead of use my code ‘SKINNY10’ for 10% off ‘Skinny Tea’ a more appropriate caption would be “Use my code CODING10 for 10% off a coding course.” This sounds a lot less fatal than bombarding aspiring young women’s Instagram feeds with deadly diet drinks.

By Sophia Ghahramani

Account Manager

£50,000-£60,000+ Double OTE

Location- North of UK

Want an exciting new prospect with a significant managed service provider?

We are on the hunt for a technology sales professional looking to make a step into reputable technology company, who are listed in CRN’s top 100 VAR’s.

We have a role to offer in the Commercial/Public sector which involves working some of the worlds most recognised tech brands such as; Dell, Mitel, HPE, Mimecast, Veeam, Citrix, Vmware, and Microsoft (Azure).With a new-found geared focus for the company in place, we are looking for a number of account directors to join the organisation.

What’s the role?

A Hybrid position, where you will be operating with the marketing function and internal sales team to strategically secure new logos as well as managing an existing portfolio of clients to increase wallet share.

This company has evolving business requirements, which means you will be looking to and provide and expand a range of solutions to meet their constantly. You will be operating at Mid to Enterprise level within a heavily solution driven environment. Technologies include Cloud & Managed services to Security, UC and connectivity.

We have several opportunities in Retail, Finance, Legal, Public sector and the wider commercial business units. There is a well-established technical arm to the business meaning you will have brilliant pre-sales, bid management and integration support for new deals.

Your Responsibilities

Covering full-stack solutions alongside effective account mapping to maximise opportunities
Execution of an agreed Target list and account development strategy
Proposal and tender preparation (RFP, PQQ)
Regular on-site client meetings with key stakeholders
Growing profitability vs agreed margin targets
Pipeline Management-Accurate quarterly and annual forecasting
Liaising with internal technical, marketing and operational teams to ensure accurate delivery.

What experience do we need from you?

Experience within IT services and Infrastructure is essential, including Datacentre, IT Security, Cloud Services, Managed Networks and UC.
Using your resources is essential to successfully fulfil the client’s needs, in this client facing driven role.
Backgrounds from either a Vendor, re-seller or managed service provider would be well suited as you will have exposure to selling across a breadth of solutions and services.

Interested? Don’t hesitate! Email over your CV to jonathan.murray@logicalresources.com and we will be in touch shortly.

 

Opportunity Knocks

We’ve all been approached before to leave our jobs and jump the fence for greener pastures. Now I could write a blog about how the grass isn’t always greener blah blah blah, but this piece is about being respectful when being approached to move and banking those relationships for a rainy day.

Here at Logical we are very active at the moment, busily searching for great people to join our team. During my search I’ve made some great contacts and met some high-quality candidates, but this particular induvial stood out for their response to my approach. I’ll paraphrase:

Thanks for reaching out, I am happy, but I’ll take a date at *insert expensive restaurant name* 😉.

Now as flattering as the response was, it didn’t do any favours for said approached consultant and put the #metoo movement back about 20 years. Imagine if, as a male, I responded to someone in that fashion.It’s a cliché but this is a very small world and you never quite know who you’re responding too and where that response will end up! It may end up the subject of a blog that goes viral (if 5 readers constitute going viral)! And as much as the response was light-hearted, I’d now be unlikely to re-engage this person should their circumstances change.

Here are my tips for respectfully responding to head-hunters:

  1. Be professional! Yes, it might not be the right time now, but the way you respond to these messages could be the difference between door open and door closed in the future both with that organisation as well as with that individual.
  2. Thank them for reaching out. It’s a huge compliment to be asked if you’d like to join someone’s business. Take it as such.
  3. Help if you can. You might not be the right person for them, but you may know someone who is. Adding value will help you create a lasting network contact.
  4. Ask if you can stay in touch. Keep doors open! You just never know what you might encounter down the road.

Even if you’re not on the market, being approached can create more than just job offers. It’s an opportunity to build your brand even if you end up staying put.

I’m always keen to hear your feedback and experiences, and we’re obviously looking for good people if you’re after a job and not a dinner.

JD

Looking back on the Techade

As we’ve just said bye to the 10’s let’s say hello to the 20’s! With the tech industry set to be worth 5.2 Trillion in 2020 and AI expected to be worth 146 billion by 2024, how will the tech industry evolve even further by 2030. A famous quote by American Businessman, Robert Kiyosaki states “The best way to predict the future is to study the past”, so let’s add a tone of nostalgia to this article!
The decade of Artificial Intelligence
The 2010’s have witnessed the boundless upsurge of Artificial Intelligence. The technology has made an impact in almost every field there is. It has become a great global influence which has shifted the way we interact, and in the future, it may change the way we live our lives. Andrew Ng a Chinese American computer scientist and investor in Silicon Valley described AI as the new electricity.

2010

Siri
Apple, the brand that’s managed to bring out not just one but sometimes two new iPhones every year for the past decade, whilst making the world reach into their pockets through the persuasive wealthy status that comes with having the newest iPhone. The market leader Apple acquired Siri for reportedly around $200 million. The company immediately started working out how to incorporate it into iPhone 4S. The late Steve Jobs got hands-on about making the AI assistant user-friendly, which was the pioneer of virtual assistants that we have today.

Microsoft launched Kinect for Xbox 360
The first gaming device that tracked the human body movement using a 3D camera and infrared detection. Kinect can perform full-motion tracking of the human body at 30 frames per second. It was a great breakthrough in gaming, computer vision and for people that can’t be bothered to go to the gym.

2014

“Alexa- stop spying on me!”
Alexa, the perfect Christmas gift and the rumoured government tracked spy. This is Amazons virtual assistant, which was first released in echo and echo dot. Alex’s capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks etc. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. And for some of us, creating the only social interaction that you need.

Tesla Autopilot
Tesla Motors announced its first version of Autopilot aka the self-driving car.
Unfortunately, since then there has been many fatal deaths, in fact less than two weeks ago, a Tesla Model S sedan, ran a red light in California and hit a Honda Civic, killing two people inside. On the same day, a Tesla Model 3 hit a parked fire truck, killing the passenger. On Dec. 7, yet another Model 3 struck a police cruiser, thankfully no one was hurt. On top of this there has been at least 5 fatalities due to the auto pilot Tesla’s. Controversially CEO Elon Musk a few months prior to this have planned to put mass numbers of self-driving cars on the streets. So, the question lies, will this HR disaster be able to fix it’s faults by the end of the 2020’s and make Elon Musk’s dreams come true? Well, let’s not bet our lives on the death traps selling like hot cakes.
2017

The beginning of the Robot apocalypse
The Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research lab trained two chat bots to communicate with each other in order to learn how to negotiate. However, as the chatbots conversed, they diverged from human language (programmed in English) and invented their own language to communicate with one another — demonstrating artificial intelligence to a great degree that’s never been heard of. This had to be abandoned because the language was incomprehensible to humans, sounds a lot like people in town on a Saturday night.

2019

A Robot Hand that solved the Rubik Cube
Meet Dactyl, the apparent socially aware Robot adopted to the real-world environment in solving rubik cube. The robot was skilled in the simulated environment but was able to successfully transfer the knowledge into a new situation. To enhance the skill, OpenAI used automatic domain randomisation method and improved the capabilities of hand for solving the Rubik’s cube. The key point was the ability to deliver results in the environment that the robot was not trained for… can it clean my bedroom?

Tomorrow’s Tech
What’s next? Can’t even make toast without burning it? Don’t have enough room in the cupboards for your weighing scales? Well this frying pan kills two birds with one stone (not literally vegan readers). ‘Smarty pans’ checks the weight and temperature of the ingredients and guides the user through the cooking process through an app.
You’ve heard of Alexa, well meet ‘Athena’, a security camera that recognises people’s voices and faces, to distinguish friends and family from strangers. It can also detect fire from far away which sets off the alarm.
Forgot your keys, but got your phone? With ‘BrightLock’ it unlocks your door by detecting a pattern of light pulses fired from a smart phones flash.
Taking the bins out getting tedious? ‘Townew’ is the bin that detects movement and automatically opens to let you place your rubbish in the bin and at the press of a button it even ties the bag up for you. So, by 2040 does this mean I won’t even need to get up to put my left over food in the bin? Will there be a robot to do it for us? So many questions!

 

Written by Sophia Ghahramani

Country Manager – SaaS – Australia

We are working alongside one of the fastest growing vendors in the AI space globally and together we are looking for a senior executive to lead their expansion into APAC.

The business is a software vendor who experienced over 500% growth in the last 12 months. Their solution includes a customisable product that is targeted specifically at in-house legal and general counsels with large enterprise scale operations – offering a range of solutions and service in the legal technology space the give end to end management around governance, compliance and operations.

They have one of the best R&D teams internally and with the senior leadership team all coming from strong legal backgrounds it’s easy to see their proposition. Coupled with a smart BI and Analytics function and utilising cognitive technology, it is an AI Powered solution like no other in the market to date offering out of the box functionalities.

There not just a start-up as they have global operations and are backed heavily from a finance and resource perspective, making this one of the hottest brands to get involved in and as they take over the world.

The product is typically an off the shelf service offering both on premise and cloud solutions with customers typically being organisations that turn over $2bil+ so we are ideally looking for a true Enterprise leader, someone who has experience in working with similar solutions in a start-up environment. This role will be the first of its kind here in Australia so other core responsibilities include:

  • GTM strategies – APAC Hiring – Market Analysis
  • Be a hunter¬ Excellence in sales strategies and connecting with new and existing customers
  • Defining a true CX program globally for customers and employees alike.
  • Someone who can passionately represent the business and their core values.
  • Accurately forecast and report to peers.
  • P&L Responsibility

They are a business that supports a culture of autonomy and respect, and those with an entrepreneurial spirit and curious mindset thrive so it’s not just about the experience, it’s about the person!

The package is negotiable depends on experience so come speak to Debbie to learn more about the strategy and the team on 04219 66295 or send your CV for consideration to Debbier@logicalresources.com.au