One estimate was that there was a 60% increase in data stored last year. Experts estimate now we are storing a Zettabyte of data– a million times the contents of the world’s largest library or 250 billion full length movies. By 2030 we are estimated to need to store 35 times this amount. Everything from this written blog to the photo you’ve uploaded to facebook, to the card data you used to buy your lunch is now stored. However, what does this mean for the world of HR and careers. Well, we’re now on the brink to start using certain data to help people fulfil their potential to see correlations and trends. We can map the people who are succeeding in certain fields to model their successes. Do chess players make great management consultants? Do people who have an interest in film excel at managing people and does a maths A-level, when followed by reading French at university mean that you’ll have a great career in supply chain management? Whilst personal advice from careers consultants will always be needed, the potential for an improved quantitative and analytical approach to pointing people in the right direction and ensuring they achieve their potential will be one of the exciting developments in our space in the next few year. Watch this space.
James Uffindell, MD and Founder of The Bright Network
James started his first business aged nine, another one at 14. In his last year at university James setup an organisation, Oxbridge Applications, to help people apply to university and at 25, went on to co-found a social enterprise. While James has lived and breathed the commercial world for 10 years, when he left university he really had no idea as to what to do, or even how to go about it.
While some friends found their way into investment banking and law, many were left baffled and floundering. As James met more and more bright graduates who felt similarly, lacking in guidance he decided to set up The Bright Network.
