One Day, One Job » statistics

U.S. Department of Labor

Willy Franzen — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:02:13 +0000

Having graduated from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, I spent a lot of time learning about work, employment, and labor issues during my undergraduate days. While most people think that Labor Day is all about the end of summer (sorry!) and not being able to wear white anymore, my school ensured that I was made more aware of the history of Labor Day. Oddly enough, ILR didn’t give us the day off from classes, but they did excuse us from classes if we went to a big Labor Day celebration with speakers from major unions. If that sounds like something that would interest you, then maybe you’ll want to check out jobs with the U.S. Department of Labor. There isn’t a more suitable employer to feature on Labor Day than our Federal Government’s Cabinet department responsible for promoting “the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States.”

A Labor of Love

Maybe I’m unique in being fascinated by the world of work, but I think that the issues surrounding employment and labor are going to continue to play a huge role in our economic (and quite possibly cultural) history. The Federal Government has built itself a significant role in these issues through the Department of Labor, and with nearly 20,000 employees I don’t think the DOL is going anywhere in the near future. The scope of what the DOL does for our country’s workers includes:

improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements.

This creates all kinds of cool jobs for people who are interested in employment issues. From Statistician to Industrial Hygienist, the range of positions at the Department of Labor is extremely wide. Since you most likely have the day off, you’ll get the pleasure of browsing through the DOL’s Job openings yourself, since there are too many for me to list here. Before you do that, though, you may want to check out the DOL’s Reference Guide for College Students entitled Starting Your Career at the U.S. Department of Labor. It’s not flashy, but it will walk you through the process of getting a job at the DOL.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How are you celebrating Labor Day?

STATS

Willy Franzen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:41:20 +0000

I love statistics—especially when applied to sports—so it should be no big surprise that some of my favorite blogs include The Wage of Wins Journal, Sabernomics, and FanGraphs. Surprisingly, the statistical knowledge found on the best blogs these days is often far ahead of what you will find in the front offices of many major sports teams. The reason for the recent advancement in statistical sports knowledge of laypeople has a lot to do with how easy the Internet and computers have made it to collect and analyze in-depth data. A big reason that sports data is available is because of Northbrook, IL based STATS. Their story is pretty cool. They were founded in 1981 and “began as a grass roots operation tracking baseball in a unique, esoteric fashion.” Now, they’re “the world’s leading sports information, content and statistical analysis company.” I guess that numbers worked out for them.

Do Your STATS Match Up?

If you’re a sports stats geek like me, you’re probably already dying for a job with STATS. As you look more closely at the company, I think that your excitement will grow. They couldn’t be a bigger deal when it comes to sports statistics—they cover an insane number of sports, and their clients include the NFL, the NBA, CBS Sports, Google, Yahoo!, and quite a few other impressive names. So what about jobs at STATS? There are quite a few opportunities, and plenty of them appear to be suitable for new college grads. Current entry level positions include Part-Time Paralegal, Soccer Optical Tracking Position – Major League Soccer, Database Administrator, Computer Programmer, Data Collectors (Golf, Football, Baseball, or Soccer), and STATS Reporter. All of these jobs look awesome, so apply by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@stats.com (a few positions require you to apply in a different way, so be sure to check out all of the Job Listings first).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

And if you ever wondered about proper sports grammar, you need to check out STATS’ Style Sheet.

CPWR

Willy Franzen — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:49:34 +0000

For most of the jobs that we feature here, safety isn’t much of an issue. You may be concerned about job security given the current economic conditions, but not many of the jobs that we cover will put you in harms way—at least as long as you don’t tip back too far in your desk chair. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of dangerous jobs out there, and many of them are in the construction industry. It’s doubtful that the business of building things will ever be completely safe as long as humans are doing it, but CPWR is doing its best to improve safety in the construction industry. Their acronym used to stand for The Center to Protect Workers’ Rights, but now it seems that their full name is The Center for Construction Research and Training. They are a Silver Spring, Maryland based non-profit organization (despite their .com web address) that was created by the AFL-CIO in 1990, and they’ve become “an international leader in applied research, training, and service to the construction industry.”

Work Safely

CPWR’s mission is pretty simple, they have a “common vision of a world in which workers acting collectively, their union representatives, employers, government, users of construction services, academia, and the public work together to prevent occupational fatalities, injuries, and illnesses and continuously improve working conditions throughout the construction industry.” They focus on working with all stakeholders to create win-win situations through research, since there’s still a lot that we can learn about how to make construction safer. If safety research sounds like something that you could dig into, you’re in luck. CPWR has a job/internship for you. They have the same position listed as both on Idealist, and it’s for a Research Assistant. It requires a background in “computer science, statistics, economics, mathematics, public health, or other quantitative social sciences,” and you can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to sdong@cpwr.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about workplace safety?

Wolfram Research

Willy Franzen — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:49:42 +0000

If you’re an Internet geek like me, then you’ve probably noticed all of the buzz around Wolfram|Alpha. Some have dubbed it a “Google killer,” but as far as I can tell, they’re way off the mark. They’re wrong because Wolfram|Alpha isn’t a search engine – it’s a knowledge engine. The goal is “to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.” The concept is kind of hard to grasp until you try it, but once you see how it works, I think that you’ll be impressed. So, who is behind Wolfram|Alpha? Wolfram, of course! They’re based in Champaign, IL, and they’re “one of the world’s most respected software companies–as well as a powerhouse of scientific and technical innovation.” They’re the company behind Mathematica – a software package that excels in ” computation, modeling, simulation, visualization, development, documentation, and deployment.” I’ve never had the pleasure of using it, but I know math teachers who think it’s pretty awesome.

Join a Powerhouse

From what I can tell, Wolfram is about as academic as a company can get. They use their expertise in computer science to create amazing tools that help smart people do their jobs and research better. Yet, Wolfram’s ambitions go beyond that. This Wolfram|Alpha thing seems to be a well received attempt at going mainstream, and it’s only in its early stages. You have to love a company that is constantly working to make people smarter and more effective, which is why you should consider jobs with Wolfram Research. They don’t have specific job openings listed, but they are constantly looking for people in the following areas:

Algorithm Development
Software Engineering
Financial Engineering
Image and Signal Processing
Control Systems
Geospatial Information Systems
Instrument Control
Experimental Data Analysis
Statistics
User Interface Development
Applications Development
Software Quality Assurance
Technical Support
Technical Marketing
Business Development
Project Management
International Business Development
Special Projects
Mathematica Programming
Information Technology
Customer Relations
Educational Outreach
Technical Writing
Sales
Scientific Business Development
Technology Licensing

There’s a single online application form for all of these positions, and it’s really in-depth. So, if Wolfram Research already has you fascinated and “you’re clear-thinking, pragmatic, and energetic about getting things done well,” then go ahead and apply ASAP. Additionally, Wolfram Research has some Science and Technology R&D Fellowships that you may want to check out. Beyond Wolfram’s headquarters in Champaign, IL, they also have locations in Boston, MA; Oxford, United Kingdom; Paris, France; and Tokyo, Japan.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Wolfram|Alpha’s capabilities?

MDRC

Willy Franzen — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:58:29 +0000

No matter what you’re doing, finding out what works and what doesn’t is the key to success. It may sound overly simple, but it’s amazing how many people, companies, and organizations keep doing things that don’t work based on thoughts and feelings. Hard, scientific research is often the only real way to figure out what works. Unfortunately, science and non-profits often don’t mix (remember how much trouble I had finding a math-related non-profit last week). One exception is MDRC, an organization that “is best known for mounting large-scale evaluations of real-world policies and programs targeted to low-income people.” They’re at the forefront of the science of doing good, and “over the years, MDRC has brought its unique approach to an ever-growing range of policy areas and target populations.”

Researching for the Greater Good

I hate to make this post mostly quotes, but MDRC’s site does a great job of communicating what they’re all about. I think the following paragraph sums MDRC sum exceptionally well:

Too often, public policies that profoundly affect the lives of low-income families are shaped by hunches, anecdotes, and untested assumptions. Ineffective policies waste precious resources and feed public cynicism about government. Most important, such policies may hinder the very people they are designed to help. MDRC was created to learn what works in social policy — and to make sure that the evidence we produce informs the design and implementation of policies and programs.

MDRC has 5 policy areas that are their main focuses – K – 12 Education, Higher Education, Families & Children, Workers & Communities, and Welfare & Barriers to Employment. If you’re passionate about any of these areas and stimulated by social science when it’s actually practiced scientifically, then working at MDRC might be a dream come true. Your first move should be to check out their Jobs page. You’ll see 5 job postings – a couple of which appear to be entry level friendly. Those include Research/Management Assistant – Accountability and Deployment Department (New York, NY) and Technical Research Assistant/Analyst – Welfare and Barriers to Employment (Oakland, CA), and Technical Research Assistant/Analyst – Young Adults and Postsecondary Education (New York, NY). You can apply for these positions by sending a cover letter and resume to jobs@mdrc.org , and you can find out more about working at MDRC on their website.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think about taking a scientific approach to doing good?

U.S. Census Bureau

Willy Franzen — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:48:34 +0000

Every 10 years our country does a census to collect demographic data about our populous to drive public policy decisions. It’s an extremely big deal, and it temporarily creates 1.4 million jobs (according to government figures). But those aren’t typically the types of jobs that we talk about here, at least not the ones that send you door to door asking how many people live at a given residence. Luckily, the U.S. Census Bureau does a lot more than its once every ten years nationwide census. They are “the leading source of quality data about the nation’s people and economy,” so you’d be amazed by all of the things that they track. For instance, much of the economic data that you have been hearing about in the news lately – as in “Stocks plunge on weakened Monthly Retail Sales” – comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. If you’re fascinated by data or just love counting things, there aren’t many places that offer a more interesting work experience that the Census Bureau.

Everyone Counts at the U.S. Census Bureau

Ok, I’d like to go on about the cool things that the Census Bureau does, but we don’t really have time. Navigating the Census Bureau’s job offerings is kind of a hassle, so I want to make sure that you can find what you’re looking for. On their main Jobs page they have links to four sections – Headquarters Opportunities, 2010 Census Taker Opportunities, Regional Office Opportunities, and Student and Research Opportunities. You may be tempted to check out the Student Opportunities, but you actually want to check out either the Headquarters or Regional Office Opportunities. If you check out the Headquarters Opportunities, you’ll find job listings like Statistician / Analyst, Mathematical Statistician, Information Technology Specialist, Geographer, and Cartographer. These links will take you to more specific listings where you’ll find a link titled “How to Apply.” If you click that, you’ll find even more information and another link to the specific job descriptions on USAJobs.gov. You can also skip ahead and just search all of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 90 current openings. If you decide to check out the Regional Office Opportunities, you’ll just have to select a region, and you’ll be shown a list of opportunities. It’s a lot simpler.

As for locations:

The U.S. Census Bureau headquarters is located in Suitland, Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia.

The National Processing Center (NPC) is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The NPC also has two call centers located in Hagerstown, Maryland and Tucson, Arizona.

The Census Bureau has 12 Regional Offices located in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle.

The Census Bureau has a ton of jobs, and there are a lot more coming. Many of these offer extremely interesting entry level work, but you’re going to have to show off your data parsing abilities to find and apply for the jobs – they don’t make the process easy at all.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you excited for the 2010 Census?

Rubicon Project

Willy Franzen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:53:40 +0000

As far as I can tell, now is not a good time to be in Advertising. When the economy slows down, ad sales usually take a hit. I know that first hand, which is why we’ve moved towards offering useful products – like job seeker training – instead of selling ads to employers (remember: all of our daily posts are editorial). With that said, online advertising is still the future, and with the struggles that many publishers are facing, now is a perfect time for innovation. That’s what Rubicon Project is all about. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based startup that is “on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry.” This means optimizing unfilled ad space through software. With 300+ ad networks to choose from, publishers just can’t possibly evaluate every ad network’s offers on their own. Rubicon Project can – in a matter of seconds – and then server the most profitable ad immediately.

Past the Point of No Return

According to Wikipedia “‘Crossing the Rubicon’ is a popular idiom meaning to pass a point of no return.” If you take a job with Rubicon Project, you will be past the point of no return towards a successful career in the advertising industry. To get a better sense of what Rubicon Project does, you should check out this video overview and then the rest of Rubicon Project’s videos. After that you can head over to Rubicon Project’s Jobs page. They have quite a few openings, and not all of them require a technical background. Opportunities that might appeal to new grads include Quality Assurance / Technical Support Engineer, Software Engineer, GUI Designer/Developer, Database Administrator, Stats Coordinator, Associate – Ad Network Alliances, Publisher Operations Coordinator/Analyst, Publisher Strategist, and Yield Management Specialist.

Rubicon Project has some interesting application questions because they get so many resumes. They include:

1. What are your three favorite restaurants in Los Angeles?
2. What’s one product (or gadget) you couldn’t live without and why?
3. What’s your idea of a fun night out?
4. How would you describe yourself?
5. Describe an innovative and original advertising idea.
6. What are your favorite websites?
7. And why not include an interesting bit of trivia about yourself.

You can send your answers to these questions to jobs@rubiconproject.com along with a cover letter and resume.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you noticed trouble finding jobs in Advertising lately?

Williams-Sonoma

Willy Franzen — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:40:04 +0000

Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I have cooking on my mind. I’m trying to make sure that I have everything that I need, because Thanksgiving Day always comes with some essential ingredient or cooking implement missing. A run to the store for an ingredient usually isn’t a problem, but a meat thermometer or baster can be a little tougher to find. That’s why you might want to make a day before Thanksgiving stop by Williams-Sonoma, and while you’re at it, you might want to think about what kind of jobs they offer. In case you’re not familiar with Williams-Sonoma, they’re “the premier specialty retailer of home furnishings in the United States.” Their brands include Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PB Teen, Williams-Sonoma Home, and West Elm, and they “cover every room in the house: from the kitchen to the living room, bedroom, home office, and even the hall closet.” Williams-Sonoma, the brand, is best known for kitchen wares, which is why I associate them with Thanksgiving.

Furnish Your Home and Your Career

Finding great companies to work for is all about having an “always looking” mentality, so use the holidays and everything that goes with them for idea generation. Williams-Sonoma popped into my head while I was thinking about cooking, so I checked to see if they have jobs for new grads. They do! Williams-Sonoma is based out of San Francisco, and their Careers site is easy enough to navigate. I just sorted through their Corporate jobs (if you want to work in retail, you can search for those on your own), and found four jobs that might be considered entry level. Unfortunately William-Sonoma’s Careers site doesn’t allow us to link directly to jobs, so you’ll have to look out for these titles: Associate Ecommerce Analyst, Direct Marketing; Statistical Modeling Analyst, Direct Marketing; Associate Website Merchandiser – PBTeen; and Packaging Designer. All of these jobs look really cool, and it should be easy to apply for them online. If you don’t see anything that interests you, Williams-Sonoma also accepts resumes for unlisted positions, so don’t be afraid to try “cold calling.” We’ve also seen some mention of campus recruiting by Williams-Sonoma; however, it seems to be mostly targeted towards MBA students.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

How are you using the holidays to generate job search ideas?

Crowd Science

Willy Franzen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:56:42 +0000

If I had known that today was World Usability Day, I would have waited another day to post about Hesketh’s entry level jobs. Unfortunately, I was out of the loop on this one, so I blew it. With that said, today’s company, Crowd Science, offers some pretty cool analytics tools that might help webmaster makes more informed usability decisions. It’s kind of a stretch, because most of what Crowd Science does is explore demographics, but who cares about World Usability Day anyway? (Ok, I do. A little bit.) So TechCrunch has dubbed Crowd Science as Google Analytics for demographics, and I think that the title fits.

Be the Science in Crowd Science

The way that Crowd Science works is that they give webmasters a snippet of code to add to their site. The code results in a pop over invitation to website visitors to participate in a demographic survey. It may not seem like the most effective way to collect data, but how else are you going to figure out the average age of your audience? Or whether your audience is more male or female? This type of demographic information can be extremely helpful whether the webmaster is using it to make his or her site more usable or to negotiate a deal with an advertisers. It’s a great looking service, and it’s something that I might consider trying here on One Day, One Job.

As for jobs at Crowd Science, there are three positions currently listed – Software Engineer, Systems Administrator, and Marketing Coordinator. They all require relevant expertise, but Crowd Science seems more than willing to hire new college grads for these positions. The Systems Administrator job is even identified as mid-level, but the description includes the note – “but if you’re less experienced and think you have the chops and can prove it, we’re all ears.” That’s what we like to hear! We’re also excited to see a Marketing position available at a tech startup, since usually the jobs are so heavily skewed towards software development. All of the jobs are located in Mountain View, CA, so if you think you have the chops (yes, they want you to send them a picture of your facial hair… just kidding) for the jobs, then send your cover letter and resume to jobs@crowdscience.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think Crowd Science would have to say about One Day, One Job’s audience?

Gapminder

Willy Franzen — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:00:12 +0000

Statistics in college is painful. It’s dry. It’s long. It pretty much sucks. Because of our high sample size, we can say that, with a high p-value, about most college stats courses. It’s really a shame, because statistical literacy is one of the most useful things you can pick up in your undergraduate years. It’ll change the way you think about politics and sports. It’ll change the way you read a newspaper. It will even make you question whether the prescription that your campus health clinic gave you is worth filling. By the way, when will they learn their statistics and stop asking guys whether they might be pregnant? If someone could figure out a way to bring statistics to life – to present even the driest data in an entertaining way – they’d be a millionaire. Or they’d start a non-profit organization called Gapminder.

Before we go any further and get your hopes up, Gapminder doesn’t have job listings of any sort; however, we’re so in awe of what they do that we’re going to talk about them anyway. Whatever! We do what we want. At this point you’re thinking that either we are huge nerds, or Gapminder must be the second coming of Facebook. Both are probably true. So what are we so excited about? This presentation by Hans Rosling at TED (Technology, Entertainment Design) – you have to watch this! This guy not only combines humor with the amazing features of Gapminder created software Trendalyzer to put together a truly entertaining presentation, but he also breaks down misconceptions about world demographic data faster than Chuck Norris would with a roundhouse kick.

Now, Gapminder doesn’t own Trendalyzer anymore (they sold it and the developers that worked on it to Google), but they are continuing their mission to promote a fact-based world view. There’s no political agenda behind what they do, just a desire to align perceptions with the data.

Gapminder work serves a purpose of filling a gap. There has been a market failure in distributing global data. A lot of people are interested in the data, but don’t get access to it (and if they manage to access the data, they need to be advanced skilled statisticians to analyze it). Gapminder wants to make data more accessible and easier to use for instant visual analysis. We believe decision makers, politicians as well as education at almost all levels lack adequate tools.

To really full enjoy what Gapminder is doing, watch that presentation and then play around with Gapminder World. You can also watch more presentations on their site or watch Gapcasts on their YouTube channel. Like we said before, Gapminder doesn’t have entry-level career opportunities. They don’t even have any jobs listed, but we really wish they did. Maybe if we wish hard enough (or you try cold calling), they’ll see the need to hire one of our talented readers. They’ve got the money from the Google purchase of Trendalyzer and grants they’ve received, why wouldn’t they want to invest it in entry-level talent? If you can get new college grads interested in stats, you can get anyone interested – and that’s the goal, isn’t it?

You should also take note that Gapminder’s FAQ says that they are looking for people to contribute. You can apply by sending along an e-mail detailing what you would like to do for Gapminder through their contact form. It’s not a job listing, but it might be a way to build a relationship towards future employment.

Note: On April 27th we revisited entry-level jobs at Gapminder.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Please leave a comment and tell us that you think Gapminder is as cool as we do, otherwise we’re going to feel like major geeks.