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The lastest stories and analysis on the Economist job market

Efficiency

Lionel Messi is one of the best footballer players ever. He’s an outlier in the number of goals he has scored (a record 91 in 2012), the rate at which he scores (1.35 goals per game for Barcelona in 2011-2012, which is a lot), and the number of times he has been voted the best player in the world (every year from 2009 to 2012; all that good stuff is from Wikipedia, by the way). However, he is also an outlier in how little effort he seems to make....

Review of Andy Field’s Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (2013; 4th ed.)

It used to be called “Discovering statistics using SPSS and sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” but the fourth edition has relegated the sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll to the inside cover, where you’ll also see lots of pictures of cats. Yes, this is a statistics book. The author is on Twitter and tweets about cats a lot. Yes, this is a statistics book. There are hidden references to Iron Maiden songs throughout. Yes, this is a statistics book. Fiel...

A-huntin’ for jobs on the wide open plains of the interweb

You push back the rough wool blanket and reach for your gun as the sun creeps over the ridge. Sleep came late on the stony ground and left early when the horses stirred. Standing, stretching, shivering, you look out to the still-dim west. They say that’s where the jobs are, thousands of jobs, filling the plains as far as the eye can see. You want to catch just one. You kick the ashes and pile on some twigs to brew the billy-can coffee for the lon...

Outsourcing Twist Creates European Opportunities in Biometrics

Outsourcing remains a buzzword in the programming sector, but the nature of this drive for efficiency is undergoing an evolution. The reasons for outsourcing jobs in biometrics, as delegates to the Pharmaceutical Users Software Exchange Conference 2013 were told in mid-October, ostensibly remain the same as ever. It's a means of cutting costs, distributing risk and accessing a flexible pool of skilled resources to work on less mission-critical ta...

Profiles: Milensu Shanyinde, Medical Statistician, Oxford Clinical Trials Unit

Milensu Shanyinde Medical Statistician, Oxford Clinical Trials Unit Studying for a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Statistics at Plymouth University was the right decision I made for a career in Statistics. I wouldn’t be where I am now if it was not for the high level of support I received and the wide variety of topics I learnt during my undergraduate studies. I really appreciated the open door policy among members of staff in the department as it...

Contributors

StatsJobs is seeking contributors to share their experiences with our audience. Generally the types of article that we use are news, reviews, interviews, opinion pieces, industry updates, infographics etc. We are also looking for individuals who are willing to participate in interviews. This is done very easily in the form of a few questions by email. We will also be publishing a regular ‘day in the life of...’ featuring statisticians from differ...

Looking for a data science position at Facebook?

Looking for a data science position at Facebook? After two successful prior Kaggle competitions, Facebook continues their mission to identify the best data scientists and software engineers that Kaggle has to offer. In this third installment, they seek candidates who have experience text mining large amounts of data. This competition tests your text skills on a large dataset from the Stack Exchange sites. The task is to predict the tags (a.k.a. ...

Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity

The amount of data in our world has been exploding, and analyzing large data sets—so-called big data—will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus, according to research by MGI and McKinsey's Business Technology Office. Leaders in every sector will have to grapple with the implications of big data, not just a few data-oriented managers. The increasing volume and detail of i...

Five reasons for using niche job sites

Job hunting is never quick and easy, but there are ways to streamline your search for the perfect statistics role, cutting out time and stress for you. Thankfully today everyone has access to highly-targeted, specialist job boards, covering just about every career sector under the sun – from statistics, to sales, to automotive, to travel sector jobs to name just a few. Niche job boards are industry-specific, posting jobs within a concentrated ind...

How to Clean Up Your Online Presence and Make a Great First Impression

Odds are someone is searching the web for you right now, or at least has looked you up fairly recently. Do you know what they learned? Better yet, do you control the pages and profiles they visited? If not, it’s time to take your online reputation into your own hands instead of leaving it to Google. Here’s how. Why First Impressions Matter on the Internet It’s no secret that friends, nosy family members, and potential employers will all take ...