Cleaning files and searching for duplicates – this is what the digital waste recycler does. The volume of data is growing every year, as is the need for such specialists.

We tell you what skills recyclers need and how to get them

Who is a digital waste recycler?

A digital waste recycler in the field of Big Data  is a specialist who sorts, organizes and destroys unnecessary data both on physical media and on cloud servers.

Every year the volume of unnecessary information grows due to the development of Big Data. In 2023, the world will generate 120 zettabytes of data, or 328.77 million terabytes per day, and by 2025 this volume will be more than 180 zettabytes. Big Data can overwhelm systems, so there is a growing need for professionals who can clear media of excess information, copies and broken data to avoid overflowing.

What does a digital waste recycler do?

A specialist in this profession will analyze data on the network using Big Data tools and develop special algorithms that automatically remove unnecessary information. Individual specialists will also work on new ways to compress files to reduce their weight.

The recycler can work not only with company systems, but also with the data that any Internet user produces when he visits websites, sends letters, or performs other actions online. Such a specialist is able to identify duplicate information, spam mailings, old correspondence and broken or malicious files that are located on the network and transferred from one server to another.

Basic skills of a digital waste recycler

Since the work of a digital waste recycler is essentially related to the professions of a data engineer and partly  a data analyst , such an employee will need knowledge:

• data structures and mathematical algorithms. This will allow you to understand exactly how data is stored in order to correctly retrieve and process it;
• programming languages. Algorithms for data processing are written in Python, and tools for data processing are written in Java and Scala;
• SQL (Structured Query Language, structured query language) and databases. Such
• queries allow you to retrieve data from databases;
• tools for working with big data ;
• cloud technologies. Many companies work with data in the clouds;

basics of machine learning. AI skills will help in data modeling and statistical analysis, and the introduction of new tools will automate many processes.

Profession trends

According to ReportLinker analysts, the Big Data processing industry is expected to experience significant growth in the coming years due to the demand for analytical data in various sectors. The global data science market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.6% from 2023 to 2027. Its rise will be driven by several key factors, including the rapid development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as the growing volume of structured and unstructured data generated by enterprises.

The global data platform market is expected to grow from the current $189.5 billion to $1.1 trillion by 2030, at a CAGR of 25%. This is due to several trends.

The rise of big data. With the development of the Internet of Things, social networks and other data sources, companies need more specialists in processing and filtering information.

Focus on data-driven decision making. To analyze arrays of information, it must first be filtered and visualized.

The advent of advanced analytics. Machine learning and other advanced analytics require advanced support, including managing data storage and retrieval.

Demand for real-time data processing .

Since there are no vacancies for digital waste disposers on the Russian market yet, it is also premature to talk about salaries. However, you can roughly estimate them if you look at how much specialists in related fields receive. Salaries of data engineers on HeadHunter start from 200 thousand rubles. According to the Rabota.ru portal, the average salary of a data engineer is 230 thousand rubles.

Where did the profession come from?

The work of a recycler can be called adjacent to the work of a data engineer, who collects data, cleans it and structures it, as well as configures the loading and movement of data between tools. However, about 45% of the working time of such specialists is spent on loading (19%) and cleaning data (26%). With the growing volume of information, digital waste recyclers will begin to fulfill these responsibilities.

LinkedIn included data engineer in its 2020 New Jobs Report, which showed that the growth rate of hiring professionals for this role has increased by almost 35% since 2015. According to Zippia analysts, the number of data engineer vacancies will increase by 21% by 2028 compared to 2018.

How to become a digital waste recycler

Russian universities and online schools do not yet have training programs in this area. To prepare yourself for future work as a digital waste recycler, you can undergo training as a data engineer. This will give you an idea of ​​how to work with big data and machine learning technologies. Software engineers are trained by universities such as MSTU. Bauman, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, RTU MIREA and National Research University Higher School of Economics.

You can also take online training to become a data engineer. They are offered by Skillbox , Skill Factory , Yandex.Practicum , Netology and other educational platforms.

If you have experience working in IT, you can also take separate courses that will allow you to gain basic skills that are important for your specialty, for example, a free course on the basics of programming in Python or SQL from Codecademy. Courses on algorithms and tools for working with databases can be found on the Stepik resource. In addition, there are many collections of free resources, books and video tutorials on the profession.

To operate effectively, a business needs to think about its employees. Experts in corporate anthropology study the behavior of employees in order to build competent interactions between them.

We tell you how they do it

What is a Corporate Anthropologist?

A corporate anthropologist is a professional who studies company culture, informal relationships, and team behavior to learn business lessons from them. His conclusions are based not on formal arguments in favor of efficiency or dry analytics, but on the everyday state of affairs.

For example, managers may invite workers to a plant who regularly exceed targets in the hope that others will follow a good example. But, as practice shows , productivity will not increase. Other employees will ask newcomers to work like everyone else, so that management does not raise the established bar for receiving a bonus. Such informal connections are monitored by corporate anthropologists.

What does a corporate anthropologist do?

These specialists use different methods from anthropology, ethnography and sociology. One of the key tools in their arsenal is participant observation. This is a qualitative study that involves varying degrees of involvement, from simple observation to direct participation.

Participant observation techniques are used when they want to learn more about the lives of different groups of people. For example, a scientist might infiltrate a closed religious community or establish contact with an isolated tribe of natives to understand how things work from the inside. Corporate anthropologists perceive a company as an equally isolated community with its own informal laws.

Corporate anthropologists also conduct in-depth interviews and informal conversations with employees and management, studying office environment, nonverbal behavior, schedules, processes and activities, and employee attitudes towards them. From the information received, insights are extracted that help improve internal communications and establish interaction between individuals or departments of the company.

Skills Required by a Corporate Anthropologist

The profession will require basic knowledge of anthropology, which includes the social and cultural sections of this science. They are the ones who focus on researching different communities. However, additional skills will be useful for successful career growth:

• multilingual and multicultural to communicate and understand different people;
• critical and analytical thinking to correctly collect, evaluate and interpret information;
• knowledge of corporate law, which will help you navigate the restrictions and responsibilities of different parties in the company;
• communication and presentation skills to convey your ideas and give thoughtful feedback.

Trends and directions of the profession

As corporate culture experts, corporate anthropologists can be useful contributors to the creation of EVPs—employer value propositions. This is a set of benefits specific to a particular organization. They can greatly influence the decisions of job seekers when choosing a job.

A well-designed EVP can increase overall job applications by 39%, reduce job fill time by 24%, and increase the number of resumes received from high-potential candidates by 18%. Research by a corporate anthropologist will help identify and correctly convey the values ​​that a company can offer to employees.

Developing employer branding—the company’s image in the eyes of job seekers—is another important area in which corporate anthropologists can come in handy. According to workplace assessment company Great Place To Work, organizations that focus on their brand experience higher productivity, profitability and resilience during crises than their competitors.

Where and when will the profession come from?

Corporate anthropology comes to us from the classical science of different human societies. The first experiments on monitoring employees of specific industries as separate groups began in the 20s of the last century.

With the development of managerial approaches and the emergence of new business structures, companies increasingly began to need specialists in corporate anthropology. In 1996, the term “employer brand” was first coined , which marked the beginning of numerous studies in this area.

Today, corporate anthropologists are hired by giants like Intel and Nokia. Experts in this area publish books for top managers, where they compare corporate teams with tribes that have their own customs, foundations and rituals.

How to become a corporate anthropologist

Cultural and social anthropology in universities is studied in anthropology and ethnology programs , but basic knowledge for starting a profession is also obtained in other educational areas. Education in the field of psychology and sociology provides the necessary skills .

After training, you can find a job in this field in a specialized organization that is specifically engaged in anthropological research of corporations. Among them, for example, is the “ Academy of Social Technologies ”.

A career plan can help you stay afloat even in turbulent times. We tell you what you need to create it

About the expert: Maxim Desyatykh, founder of the service for selecting mentors for designers Duo Sapiens and co-founder of the technology company red_mad_robot.

First of all, it is important to clarify that a development plan in a profession is fundamentally different from a “career wishlist.” No one forbids dreaming of a coveted position in a company on the Forbes list, but you definitely shouldn’t plan your own development around this goal.

A career plan should be based not on what positions and companies a person moves to, but on what professional skills, qualities and experience he accumulates – they cannot be taken away, no matter how the world around him changes and no matter what happens in it .

Companies often participate in creating a specialist’s career track. Many of them have set up algorithms for development in different positions, and there are mentor programs.

This is logical: employers are interested in their employees developing – but developing precisely in this company and in exactly the way that is accepted in this particular company. Therefore, the development and career of a specialist is an area of ​​his personal responsibility, which is unreasonable to shift to the current employer.

It is worth saying that a career plan is not a prerequisite for moving up the career ladder, but it definitely speeds up this process, making it more meaningful and orderly. So where to start?

Anchor points

Visualize your career track and skill set

In order to draw up a development plan, you need to understand what the career ladder looks like in your area of ​​expertise. It’s worth visualizing what a specialist’s path looks like: from junior level, through middle and senior – to manager. You can also consider neighboring “branches” in which it is potentially interesting to develop or interact with them: development, marketing, design, etc.

The next step is to understand how the grades differ from each other in your case. For example, in the field of design, junior, middle and senior specialists differ in their level of qualifications in the work they do, and, for example, a design lead no longer draws a design, but manages people – this is a completely different skill. Consequently, at this stage it will be necessary to pay special attention to management issues.

Also, before creating a plan, it is worth understanding the necessary skill set in the profession: a map of skills, knowledge, qualities and experience. Understand how the skill set changes from one level to another and what requirements are placed on a specialist at each of them.

Set realistic deadlines

For digital specialists, the “gold standard” of growth looks like this: a step higher once every nine months. Of course, there are cases when growth in a position can take longer or less time – for example, when a person initially underestimated or overestimated the current grade.

However, this cannot be said to be an average: many specialists do not take any steps in their career for years, do not learn new things, and do not develop skills. Largely because they do not understand their path: they have no career plan and no movement along this plan. At the same time, their salary may, albeit slightly, grow due to annual indexation.

One way or another, the deadlines should be realistic and individual. You shouldn’t strictly limit yourself to nine months: this is just a convenient period of time during which, with the right approach, qualitative changes in professional development can occur.

Find a mentor

Of course, everyone makes a career plan, first of all, for themselves, and other people’s advice can only confuse you. However, it is still worth showing the plan to someone senior in the profession in order to think together about its content and feasibility.

These could be work colleagues – senior specialists or a manager, if the company has adopted the practice of investing in the professional development of people. You can also turn to external consultants – for example, a mentor who will tell you how it works not in a specific company, but in the market in general.

It is advisable that this is not a coach who talks about careers in general, but a person who has traveled a similar path to you and understands how it works.

Whoever you decide to turn to, the value of such a mentor is that he will help you set the right priorities, suggest missed points that the specialist himself may not see simply due to “unconscious incompetence” – when a person does not yet know what he does not know .

So, let’s move on to the structure of a career plan.

Career plan: what’s inside

Knowledge

This block includes obtaining theoretical information that will help grow your expertise – reading specialized articles, watching videos on YouTube, taking courses, listening to podcasts, attending conferences, etc.

In fact, acquiring knowledge is a process that for a modern specialist never stops. But if a person sets career goals and wants to achieve them in the near future, then acquiring new knowledge should be systematic and regularly present in the work schedule.

Skills

Unlike acquiring knowledge, skills are their repeated practice. Obviously, knowing how something is done and being able to do it are two different things. A simple example: if you are about to have an operation, it is better to go to the operating table with a surgeon who knows how to perform operations, and not with someone who knows how to do them.

Obtaining a skill presupposes that a person has repeatedly performed some action and reinforced it with the help of feedback from a mentor – this could be a colleague, a manager, or a mentor. Skills include mastering special working tools, programs, programming languages, etc.

Qualities

We are talking about well-known soft skills, which traditionally include negotiation skills, logical and critical thinking, emotional intelligence and much more. You need to understand what qualities are needed at this or that stage of your career.

For example, for a freelancer who works from home, it is not so important to immediately learn coordinated teamwork as the ability to negotiate with customers, but he can always return to this later – for example, if he goes to work in an office.

It is important to set realistic goals for yourself and develop qualities that can be trained. That is, do not set yourself the impossible goal of “becoming a charismatic leader,” but divide it into components: learn to communicate more environmentally, be more persuasive, and so on.

Experience

This point involves the intentional immersion of a specialist in situations and areas that are new to him. Gaining experience means facing a particular task, remembering mistakes, and drawing conclusions.

For example, a person may set a goal to work with fintech projects in order to have them in their portfolio, or use a new tool, such as A/B testing. Thus, gaining new experience does not occur chaotically, but purposefully: a person specifically begins to look for opportunities to try new things.

Money

In your career plan, it is also important to reflect changes in salary that will occur as you grow, to maintain motivation. Here you can rely on your own feelings, average market figures, and communicate with colleagues.

Assessing changes: how to understand that you have grown?

If a system of career tracks and mentoring is introduced at the company level, then the deadlines for assessing the current grade are most likely determined there. But often companies, especially small startups, have no time for this. It is especially important here that a specialist takes responsibility for his career and does not wait until his growth is noticed.

You can come to your manager at the beginning of your career plan to check with him, and then return to this conversation after the same nine months to share results and achievements, talk about increasing your salary.

There is a good “360 degree” assessment method, when a specialist discusses his professional development not only with his supervisor, but also with his colleagues, friends, and subordinates. After evaluating them, a certain “arithmetic mean” is displayed and an understanding emerges of what still needs to be worked on.

What will the teacher of the future be like? Founder of Geek Teachers Maria Plotkina on why the main quality of a teacher will continue to be the ability to navigate an ever-changing world

Geek Teachers is an educational project whose main goal is to help teachers master new educational technologies and digital tools. Among the project’s initiatives are educational festivals Geek Teachers Fest, courses “School of Projects” and “School of Speakers,” the show “Cabinet for Pumping,” as well as master classes on new technologies in education.

When you try to imagine what a typical lesson in the school of the future will look like, your imagination draws virtual reality helmets, a projection of a teacher in the form of a hologram, or robots from the Star Wars film series.

It seems that the teacher of the future will perfectly know what Big Data is, easily manage the “smart” space and receive calls on his wristwatch. There is a great temptation to give our teacher the characteristic features of the most daring heroes of science fiction.

But we should not forget that the main qualities of a teacher will still concern a person and his ability to navigate a huge information field.

Below are seven rules that teachers should adhere to in order to keep up with the times. So, the teacher of the future…

1. Consciously uses technology

Technologies are familiar to him and do not cause fear. He doesn’t feel the stress of having to reinstall the system on his laptop or clean it of computer viruses. He knows what cloud technologies are and can use them in his life – both work and personal. He knows how to install programs on his phone and understands how to use them to make his own life easier.

A teacher who only uses his phone for WhatsApp and simple games cannot speak critically about the Internet and mobile devices in the classroom. The rule here is: study, then criticize.

2. Takes care of your health and finds time to relax

“I went to work sick and almost fainted. I don’t have the right to be sick at home, I need to check notebooks, fill out a journal, and also be on time for the Unified State Examination commission.”

Can you imagine a typical teacher uttering a similar phrase? It is not typical for the teacher of the future.

If a person goes to work sick, this does not mean that he is doing a good job. On the contrary, he wastes his physical and emotional resources, forgets about his own health, and, of course, puts his children and colleagues at risk of infection.

Is it really fruitful and interesting to conduct lessons in a state of acute lack of sleep or a temperature of forty degrees? It seems not. It is impossible to achieve good health without maintaining the right balance between work and rest.

The teacher of the future knows how to relax: outside the school walls, he spends time with loved ones, does not forget about family dinners, goes on a picnic with friends, knows about the latest film releases and high-profile theater premieres.

Such a teacher remembers that accumulated fatigue leads to burnout, and knows different ways to restore vitality. For some, this method will be watching “viral” videos on Youtube, and for others, going to a pizzeria with friends, and here you cannot blame yourself for procrastination and wasting time.

3. Is interested in something other than work.

The following follows from the previous point: the teacher of the future has a hobby. In his free time, he bakes cakes or goes camping, writes fictional stories, or plays computer games. Any of them helps both to develop and to relax and switch.

Freeing up time for your favorite activities is not as difficult as it seems. It is enough to use technologies that make a teacher’s life easier. For example, use applications to automatically check tests or dictate an answer to work via voice message.

If a teacher spends less time on routine, he has more energy to develop quests and team assignments, introduce new lesson formats and home exercises, and develop his own skills and competencies.

Alexey Minchenko, geography teacher

Besides work, I have several hobbies, which I discovered, including when I became a teacher. And these hobbies help to earn authority among schoolchildren. For example, how many teachers do you know who do paddle boarding and are ready to paddle board along the Neva in December?

I also love console games: immersing yourself in another world, you can experience emotions that are not typical for you in everyday life, build your own state or become a bandit in the Wild West.

Also, at the end of the semester, my class and I organize a dance marathon in Just dance (this is an interactive game where you need to repeat the movements of the dancer).

4. Develops “soft skills”

The teacher of the future understands the importance of knowledge of his subject, perseverance and perseverance. But he must also have teamwork skills and control emotions. It is no longer possible to do without communication in the modern world, and work at school means continuous communication: with students and parents, colleagues and administration.

Do you want to get a new position? You need to impress the employer. Do you need a team for your own project? Without proper communication, even the best idea will fail. To receive a grant or other financial support, it is important to correctly and clearly describe your idea.

In addition, the teacher of the future:

Listens to the opinions of students and colleagues. By questioning someone else’s idea, our hero not only refutes it, but argues for his position or offers alternative solutions.
Does not judge others for their actions. He understands that each person has his own reasons for doing this or that action.
Doesn’t judge students for having pink hair, a pierced nose, or a tattoo. Experimenting with appearance is a personal decision for each person, and the teacher should not interfere with it.

5. Knows his rights

There is often a sad practice in schools – the administration asks the teacher to attend the Unified State Exam for free, hold an event after the end of the working day, go to work on their day off, or take an extra club. Often a teacher cannot go on sick leave, leave for family matters, or even take a day off due to a sudden change in work schedule or fear of judgment from colleagues.

Such situations can occur due to the fact that teachers do not read employment contracts, do not know their rights, and do not critically evaluate the words of the administration.

The teacher of the future carefully studies all documentation, protects his rights – independently or with the help of lawyers, thinks critically and always questions any authoritative opinion. He also knows where to get the necessary information – be it specialized groups on social networks, online consultations or specialized articles.

6. Financially literate

The educator of the future understands how important financial literacy is. He is critical of unnecessary banking offers, does not fall for the tricks of scammers, knows where his money goes and how loans and mortgages work. He understands what investing is and how to choose profitable cashback.

And, most importantly, he conveys his knowledge to his students – he explains why it is not a shame to talk about money, and uses his example to show how to protect yourself and your property.

7. Knows how to make money

If the salary leaves much to be desired, the teacher of the future finds alternative forms of income. Developing an online course, organizing a conference, maintaining your own blog, writing articles, filming lectures on computer literacy, or creating a popular science club—there can be dozens or hundreds of options.

The teacher of the future is not afraid of money and understands that there is no shame in receiving adequate remuneration for the work done. Our hero doesn’t spend his nights putting together other people’s presentations, forgetting about sleep and hoping for simple social approval.

He clearly understands that he is wasting his own leisure time, and asks for it not only to be treated with respect, but also to be paid.

Timur Guev, teacher of mathematics and computer science (New School)

It is extremely difficult for a person who is passionate about his business to take money for it, and this is a fact. It is in this regard that many artists and performers hire special people who sell the talent and abilities of their charges absolutely impartially. Teachers, unfortunately, are deprived of such opportunities.

The understanding that a teacher can earn a decent living did not come to me right away. It took about five years. You work for “thank you”, and it seems to you that this is the norm. You do not refuse requests from friends and colleagues.

But at some point you begin to understand that with this approach your development stops because you lack resources: time, money, rest, in the end. You are slowly starting to burn out.

So who is he, the teacher of the future?

Summarizing all of the above, it is worth noting that the teacher of the future is simply a progressive and modern person, because the mentioned traits and skills should be characteristic of each of us today. The teacher of the future is not about state educational standards, passing the next certification, artificial intelligence or voice control. It’s about the skills that will allow him to benefit from all these processes.