virtual assistant/ "Educating tomorrow's AI and cybersecurity tech leaders and CEOS"

Mar. 14, 2018 "I want to be virtual assistant": Today I found this article by Jared Lindzon in the Globe and Mail.  This job I'm interested in: 

Job: Virtual assistant

The Role: The tasks assigned to a virtual assistant are similar to those of an administrative or executive assistant, only they are fulfilled remotely. As a result, virtual assistants are often hired on a per-hour basis, typically work from home and can maintain multiple clients at a time.

"The role of a virtual assistant can vary, because you can be anything from general administration to an executive administrative assistant with a specialty like medical or finance or IT," said Bobbie Racette, a former administrative and virtual assistant and the founder of Virtual Gurus, a Calgary-based virtual assistant agency. 

"Generally you're going to be doing a lot of e-mail management, note-taking, documentation and travel arrangements."

Ms. Racette explains that virtual assistants can work independently or as part of an agency, and can be hired for general assistance or a niche skill such as digital marketing expertise or bookkeeping experience.

"We could probably have a four-hour conversation on the different tasks they're required to do, which is why a virtual assistant needs diverse skills and a willingness to be flexible," she said.

Salary: Virtual assistants that work independently set their own hourly rate, which Ms. Racette says typically falls between $30 and $55 per hour, depending on their level of experience and whether they have received specialized training in relevant fields. 

Those that work independently are also responsible for finding and managing their own clients.

Those assigned clients and tasks through an agency typically earn between $17 and $35 per hour, explained Ms. Racette.

According to PayScale.com, the average rate for a virtual assistant in Canada is $22.50 per hour.

Education: While there are no formal educational requirements for virtual assistants, those with specialized training, certification and experience can often charge more for their expertise.

"Let's say you're going to work as a real estate assistant, you're going to probably need your real estate licence in order to work with realtors," explained Ms. Racette. 

"If you're going to be a medical assistant, most likely you'll need a university degree or training in medical assistance or transcription services, so it depends on your target niche as a virtual assistant."

While certain fields have educational or licensing requirements, Ms. Racette says that most clients hire virtual assistants based on prior experience, not education.

Job prospects: The job prospects for virtual assistants are strong and growing in Canada as a result of a number of trends. The rapid advancement of communication technology and remote working tools has significantly lowered the barrier to entry, while the trend towards outsourcing tasks to contractors and freelancers has made Canadian organizations more open to the concept than ever before.

Furthermore, with less access to traditional office resources, the growing startup, freelance and contract work force in Canada is increasingly hiring virtual assistants to help fill the gap.

"There's a of people looking for virtual assistants, and in order to jump into it, you just have to get set up and go for it," said Ms. Racette.

Challenges: The two greatest challenges most virtual assistants face are both related to client retention, according to Ms. Racette. One is the high potential for conflict that inevitably results from working remotely on a per-hour basis, as it's difficult to verify the number of hours worked.

"Administrative assistants are also often at the bottom of the barrel, and so if your boss or client is having a bad day, you're going to be the one feeling the wrath of it," she said. "You've got to retain your clients, so you've got to keep your composure, which can be difficult in those situations."

Why they do it: Virtual assistants enjoy the high degree of autonomy and flexibility the job offers. Those that pursue additional training in niche fields are also often passionate about supporting that industry.

Misconceptions: The biggest misconception about virtual assistants is that they charge for hours they're not working, which Ms. Racette says is a big problem in an industry that depends on maintaining trust with clients.

"Clients are always going to have an issue with time, so before you start doing it make sure you know how you're going to manage your time, how you're going to bill the client and how you're going to show them how you're spending your time," she said.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/i-want-to-be-a-virtual-assistant-what-will-my-salary-be/article38274952/

 "Educating tomorrow's AI and cybersecurity tech leaders and CEOS": Today I found this article by Jeffrey B. Kratz in the Globe and Mail:

General manager, Latin America, Canada & Caribbean, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services.

I have been one, I have raised one and I am sure it is one of the most difficult periods in life – being a teenager.

During my teenage years the technology that we used included floppy disks, the Walkman and the VCR. There were also typing courses on personal computers that were connected only to the electricity in a wall.

Times have changed so fast with the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) creating new categories of smart devices, infrastructure and customer experiences.

Add social media and we are not talking about a note being passed in a class, we are looking at information being archived in online databases that could live perpetually.

Amidst all these changes it could arguably be one of the hardest times in human history to make sense of technological advances that also have social consequences.

How does a teenager prepare for college and plan for a career that leverages these tools? How do educators and parents effectively support them? How vital is educating teenagers on social skills along with cutting-edge technology to shape the future of the global economy?

I have the privilege of travelling thousands of miles around the world annually while leading the public-sector business in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean for Amazon Web Services. As part of my mandate, I interact with education, government and non-profit organizations, helping them determine how best to utilize cloud, AI, IoT and other technologies.

While it is rewarding to watch innovative organizations build dynamic technology use cases, perhaps the most memorable part of my job is championing participation in the AWS Educate program, which initially focused on educating college students and professors about cloud-computing fundamentals.

 In December, 2017, the AWS program expanded to secondary and high-school students with education around AI, IoT and cybersecurity. To date, there are over 35 Canadian higher education institutions using the AWS Educate program.

At the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), professor Bill Klug equips students with cloud-computing resources and skills to help them succeed after they finish school, including helping students secure a job. For example, Klug helps students secure employment with AWS partner Cloudreach.

With this impact in higher education, I am excited for the outcomes of educating teenagers with this quality curriculum.

In terms of educating teenagers for college and beyond, there is no doubt that Canada is emerging as a world leader in AI and startup business creation with government organizations such asCIRA supporting Canadian innovation.

With the opportunity for students to be taught best practices, educators are playing a critical role in the development of individuals that may be CEOs of profitable startups before the age of 22. Due to the scalability and ease of use of AI, IoT and machine learning, a fast-thinking and acting teenager or college student can turn an idea into a viable business quicker than ever before.

We are approaching a time where teenagers can do more than launch a business slowly with the help of their parents, and are empowered with the technology, resources and training to do it on their own.

Imagine what this could mean for student athletes. Instead of just playing sports and studying they could conceptualize and create the next generation of AI used by the MLB and NFL to provide Next Gen Stats, helping to change how athletes perform, coaches prepare and fans engage with players and teams.

Depending on how technologies such as blockchain, autonomous cars and yet-to-be-invented innovations impact business, government and every day life, cybersecurity will become increasingly important.

Instead of training students how to type on a green screen, educators are now entrusted with the tools to protect economies. Traditional chemistry projects could be amplified by introducing cybersecurity considerations to determine how to protect a scientific innovation to help identify and diagnose diseases.

This may sound unrealistic for a high-school student, but in 2016, two Stanford University students used AWS technology to determine if deep learning can identify the precursors to blindness caused by diabetic retinopathy.

In the future, life-sciences companies may need to protect these types of insights from criminals who not only steal data or mine for cryptocurrency, but could take the information to try to create biological weapons. Teaching today's teenagers – who will be relied upon to solve tomorrow's security threats – will mean businesses can be more proactive in addressing these threats by having a larger talent pool to draw from. 

Just do a search on the most in-demand jobs today and they are related to these fields. These trends will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

Educators that join programs such as AWS Educate are contributing to a valuable cycle of creating new high-school teachers who will teach preschool, kindergarten and elementary-school students how to use the latest technologies when they reach high school.

Lastly, high schools are typically better at addressing gender and racial diversity compared to today's business world. With this setting to provide technology training to individuals from all walks of life, the global economy stands a better chance at having a more diverse future through more equitable access to invaluable skills.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/educating-tomorrows-ai-and-cybersecurity-tech-leaders-and-ceos/article38258223/

"Why should women aim to be considered equal to men? They can be so much better"/ "Workplaces taking cues from employees to become more Indigenous friendly"

May 11, 2018 "Why should women aim to be considered equal to men? They can be so much better": Today I found this article by Helena Morrissey in the Globe and Mail:

Helena Morrissey is founder of the 30% Club, former chair of the UK’s Investment Association, 2017 Financial Times business leader of the year, keynote speaker at the Ramsay Luncheon on May 9 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Toronto.

I’m confident that you know some incredible women.

Perhaps a leading female executive at your company, a teacher with the amazing ability to bring out the best in her pupils or a fantastic single mother who works extra hours to provide for her family. You may know women who work full-time and help out generously in their local communities, women who take risks to campaign for a better world or are simply great neighbours to lonely elderly residents. 

You may well be an incredible woman yourself, following in the footsteps of many generations of wonderful women, each building on the achievements of the last.

And yet gender equality – by which I mean equality of opportunity and fair treatment, without discrimination or prejudice, for men and women, whatever colour, creed or background – remains frustratingly elusive across the globe. 

There has been real progress in some countries, but it is clearly unfinished business. Yes, there are (a few) more women at the top, but many others remain discouraged about their prospects, or conflicted in their multiple roles as mothers or carers with careers. 

And men, too, may feel unhappy, straitjacketed by societal expectations about their own roles; in Canada, like the UK, the suicide rate for men is three times that of women. 

What can we do differently to create better outcomes for more people?

 Why have all our collective efforts over many years not yet translated into the result that, to paraphrase Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, seems so obvious in 2018? 

I’m convinced that we have been tackling gender and other inequalities in good faith but in ways destined to disappoint.

 I’m also convinced that, today, we have an unprecedented opportunity to achieve a real breakthrough; but to seize the moment, we need to first see gender diversity through a different lens. 

In most businesses, our approach has tended to revolve around special diversity initiatives – helpful at providing focus, but by their nature peripheral rather than central to the main event. Often, the initiatives are led by underrepresented groups, but women talking to women about women’s issues will only get us so far. 

And most “diversity programs” have been tacked onto long-established ways of working and managing people. They are incremental steps effectively aimed at fitting more women and other diverse talent into a system of work and career patterns that evolved long before the digital revolution, before women were (at least) as highly educated as men, and certainly long before the term “work-life balance” was coined. We’ve been fiddling around the edges of a “system” that perhaps isn’t really relevant for anyone today.

Instead, we now have the opportunity to shake up how we work, live our lives, love and bring up families together, men and women, as partners. Partners that are equal, but bring diverse skills and ideas to the table, improving our collective intelligence and ability to solve today’s complex problems. 

Four factors have coincided to create this opportunity. 

First, the digital revolution that has already shaken up so many aspects of our lives also enables companies to devise working practices that are more focused on outcomes than on hours at the same desk. 

Shaking up the rulebook – for example, defaulting to all roles being “agile” (with a few necessary exceptions) rather than granting women a special favour to work flexibly, can lift engagement and productivity – while improving diversity.

Second, the nature of effective leadership is changing in a networked world. People will no longer be told what to do by leaders they don’t particularly trust. Leaders today need to earn the right to lead, to inspire not force, be emotionally intelligent and able to connect with customers, employees and other stakeholders. 

The idea of closing the gender pay gap by training women to be more assertive undermines our valuable differences; instead, businesses need to work out how to enable women to be women at work. Gender-intelligent talent development is the way forward. 

Third, the next generation expects work-life balance. In the UK, a 30% Club survey involving more than 20,000 university students showed that more than 90 per cent of both male and female respondents prioritized “work-life balance” as a career consideration. 

The next generation does not just expect women to have career opportunities, but for men to play a significant role in their future family’s life as well. Companies seeking the best and brightest talent are aligning their approaches to a changing definition of success.

And last but not least, increasing longevity – the “100-year life” – is shaking up the traditional career path chronology. Motherhood is certainly not the only reason why women are under-represented at the top of business and politics, but it’s a factor. 

So often, the point when women have children has coincided with the moment their male colleagues are throwing everything at their career. With longer working lives and possibly several careers, that linkage will be broken.

These multiple trends are combining to create a brand-new context to aim higher in our gender equality efforts. It’s not a question of intensifying past initiatives. Today, as other forces alter how we all work, live and relate to each other, we can and must be bolder in our ambition. 

Working with men, women can contribute to the creation of a world where far more of us have choices, a greater ability to be ourselves, to achieve life goals including – but not limited to – our careers. 

And along the way, let’s make sure we don’t replace one form of injustice with another. Yes, we all know many incredible women, but after centuries where one half of humanity has been regarded as effectively superior to the other, what would be the benefit in just flipping things around? The far greater prize is balance.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/leadership/article-why-should-women-aim-to-be-considered-equal-to-men-they-can-be-so/

3 days ago

Excellent, thought-provoking article. However, the headline is blatantly sexist and unacceptable.

3 days ago

I also was confused by the headline writer. The author provided interesting ideas about differences and clearly made her final statement about balance. Why would the headline be "they can be so much better" implying than men. Bush league.

3 days ago

The headline is just the usual 'hook' - the spin that provokes the self-righteous indignation intended to get you to read the article. Just another example of why the MSM is so distrusted.

3 days ago

The headline created by the headline editor, it does not match the content of the article.

Nowhere in the article does the writer imply that women "can be so much better" than men, nor does the writer bristle against the idea that women should (merely) "be considered equal to men". Both of those concepts are the product of the headline writer's imagination, they are not present in the article writer's content.

The most questionable part, of the article writer's actual words, is right here, talking about bosses ("leaders") and job-holders ("people") at workplaces:
"People will no longer be told what to do by leaders they don’t particularly trust. Leaders today need to earn the right to lead, to inspire not force... and able to connect with... employees...".
Um, sure, good luck with that utopian dream. In real world 2018, those "people" with those entitled attitudes will soon be shown the exit door at a great many workplaces...

3 days ago

Equal does not mean the same. Everyone has different skill and predispositions. Equality was meant to refer to the societal obligation to provide similar "rights" to all people regardless of sex, age, religion or ethnicity. We are for ethical reasons only to ensure as much as possible that the playing field should be level for everyone. We should respect the individual choices to pursue the career and lifestyle they choose, provided it does not in any way fundamentally impede on any other. Laws are put in place to ensure that does not happen. Articles like this promote sexism rather that refute it. No one should expect men to take any particular role in "family life" anymore than anyone should expect a woman to take the lead in child care. Those are choices to be made within individual families and it is about time we stopped forcing any particular agenda down anybody's throat, and showed respect to those for any job well done.

"Workplaces taking cues from employees to become more Indigenous friendly": Today I found this article by Suzanne Bowness in the Globe and Mail:

When Tracey King applied for the inaugural position of Aboriginal Human Resources Consultant at Ryerson University in 2010, she brought two sacred items – eagle feathers – along to her interview. One feather was given to her by a traditional healer as an acknowledgement of Ms. King’s efforts in that realm, and the other was from her family for supporting them through her grandmother’s death. 

These prized objects, high honours in her Potawatomi and Ojibwa community, helped her to talk about skills that might not be explicit on a résumé but essential nonetheless. 

Now incumbent in the role, which Ms. King says is the first of its kind at a university in Canada, she encourages Indigenous candidates to bring their own sacred objects, as well as to smudge (engage in a ceremonial burning of sacred sage medicine) before the interview. 

Many take her up on the offer. That’s just one of the ways the university is attempting to be more welcoming to aboriginal hires. Other advances include a diversity statement on job postings that flags First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples specifically, an invitation for aboriginal candidates to contact Ms. King directly via e-mail or toll-free phone call, and a Google group and monthly meeting for members of the community. 

Since Ms. King has been at Ryerson, the university has more than tripled its aboriginal faculty and staff numbers, which currently stands at 90 people, including five faculty members. 

Becoming more Indigenous friendly is a goal for more and more workplaces seeking to reflect Canada’s diversity in their hiring. As of the 2016 census, Indigenous or aboriginal people (the identifier is in flux and used interchangeably here), which includes First Nations, Métis and Inuit, made up 4.9 per cent of the national population. 

Yet, a 2017 Statistics Canada report showed that aboriginal people generally have lower employment rates, were less likely to work in knowledge education (professional, management and technical positions tending to require postsecondary education) and earned less than their non-aboriginal counterparts. Experts suggest these issues can be addressed by offering more pathways into organizations and reaching out to build employer trust with Indigenous communities.

Aboriginal Link has been advising workplaces on these pathways since 1999, providing consulting, student recruitment programs and scholarships, and inclusion training workshops, among other services.

 To date, the organization has accumulated a database of more than 28,000 Indigenous organizations in Canada, to reach a community representing more than 1.5 million Indigenous people. It also hosts AboriginalCareers.ca, a career site used by many employers to reach the community online and through less technological means more suited to remote communities, including circulating postings on bulletin boards and via fax and direct mail.

Michael Milanese, Aboriginal Link’s president, says that while many organizations today are just at the beginning of their foray into this support role, others have been doing so for years. Either way, he says it helps to have senior management on board. “It really begins by demonstrating a commitment to wanting to deal and work with Indigenous people in Canada,” he says. 

RBC is one of those organizations that has both a long-standing Indigenous outreach and new programs in development. In 1991, the company established the Royal Eagles, an employee resource group designed to help Indigenous employees connect. The oldest of several equity groups in the organization, today the Eagles have an online platform for information sharing, do outreach in Indigenous communities and hold in-person events for support and mentorship. 

Norma Tombari, senior director of Global Diversity and Inclusion at RBC, says beyond the supportive aspect, this group makes business sense. “The resource groups are wonderful resources to the organization as well because they provide feedback on our policies and practices,” she says, adding that they also offer insight into that population within their client base. 

“We also get an understanding of what’s going on in the community, into where we can assist and how we can better serve our clients.” The percentage of Indigenous employees at RBC stands at 1.6 per cent. Other initiatives at the company include high-school recruitment programs, a summer internship and cultural awareness workshops.

Another company working on boosting its Indigenous presence is the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Marc Barrette, director of talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion for the CBC, says the broadcaster has connected with Aboriginal Link for recruitment and retention seminars, and has a standing profile page on the AboriginalCareers.ca website. 

On the Radio-Canada side, a new initiative takes on four Indigenous interns for a full year (most interns are hired for a shorter time period). A new leadership program offers mentorships to several groups including Indigenous employees. 

Mr. Barrette calls the efforts a no-brainer. “Our population is very diverse, so we need to make sure that these different groups and communities recognize themselves in our content and also in our work force,” he says. Currently, 2.1 per cent of the organization’s work force is Indigenous, with higher percentages in the North at 31.6 per cent and in Manitoba at 9.6 per cent.

Chantal Fraser, a First Nations HR professional formerly with the Canadian military and consultant who now runs cultural-awareness and recruitment workshops on behalf of Aboriginal Link, says there are barriers at every of stage of the application process that well-intentioned workplaces don’t always realize they are imposing on Indigenous applicants.

At the initial recruitment stage, applicants in remote communities that lack broadband access may not even see postings or be able to complete the electronic application process. Including an e-mail address on job postings, preferably that connects directly with an Indigenous HR consultant who can help walk applicants through jargon and pull out transferable skills to highlight in cover letters, can help. Including Indigenous languages in the list of options candidates can identify as speaking creates a friendlier application.

At the interview stage, knowing about Indigenous cultural norms can help. As an example, Ms. Fraser mentions silence. “Whether you’ve been raised mainstream or traditional, silences are very much an accepted part of the communication process. So, when you’re interviewing somebody who’s Indigenous and has been brought up to respect silences, you have to allow time in the conversation and in the interview process to let those silences naturally occur,” she says. 

Another tip is to have the interview team reflect the organization’s diversity. Both Ms. Fraser and Ms. King also make it a priority to reach out to the community through events such as powwows and friendship centres, and encourage organizations to do the same.

At RBC, Ms. Tombari recommends workplaces new to Indigenous outreach should devise an overall strategy for their efforts and put metrics in place to measure their success. She adds that consulting with Indigenous employees can help ensure you’re on the right track. “Engage your Indigenous employees in the process. … Really listen, engage and get their input,” she says.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/article-workplaces-taking-cues-from-employees-to-become-more-indigenous/

 

5 months ago

Good article . Thanks . Costly to Pander to one group though ….and what about the other disadvantaged groups - they don count , or ...? You never really move to this point which is a natural point to speak to . Social engineering is costly to do it right ! ….Great thoughts though .

Daryl005

This is just getting ridiculous!