We may never know why we didn’t get chosen for a job interview, but we know about the recruiters….

What Recruiters Look At During The 6 Seconds They Spend On Your Resume

A recent study looked on recruiters decision making behavior. According to `TheLadder’ research, recruiters spend an average of ”six seconds before they make the initial ‘fit or no fit’ decision” on candidates .

The study used a scientific technique called “eye tracking” on 30 professional recruiters and examined their eye movements during a 10-week period to “record and analyze where and how long someone focuses when digesting a piece of information or completing a task.”

In the short time that they spend with your resume, the study showed recruiters will look at

1. Your name
   
2. Current title and company
3. Current position start and end dates
   
4. Previous title and company
   
5. Previous position start and end dates
   
6. Education.

The two resumes below include a heat map of recruiters’ eye movements. The one on the right was looked at more thoroughly than the one of the left because of its clear and concise format:

Now that you know more about what the recruiters look at within the 6 seconds, please check over your resume again being aware of the format and clearness of the  visual hierarchy and make sure you don’t include distracting visuals since “such visual elements reduced recruiters’ analytical capability and also disorders their decision-making” which makes it hard for the recruiters to “locate the most relevant information, like skills and experience.”

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This was the case during a recent job interview in Seattle, where Justin Bassett was astonished when the interviewer asked him to hand over his Facebook username and password right in the interview. Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn’t want to work for a company that would ask for such personal information. Depending on the job market, some candidates cannot afford to say no when confronted with the same question.

It has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or networks.

Needless to say this kind of activity on the behalf of employers has caused a huge amount of debate concerning privacy &issues, cival rights and whether a person’s private time is in fact “private”. Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of some proposed legislation that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.

Read the full story on boston.com

A milestone for browser wars

• Internet Explorer has been top browser since 1999
• Chrome use peaks weekends when users are home and can use their browser of choice
• Chrome was first for just one day

Google made history and finally achieved what no other browser has been able to do in the past 13 years – if only for a day. Chrome surpassed IE for the first time in market share.

According to StatCounter Chrome had 32.71 percent of the browser market on Sunday, while IE dropped to just 32.48 percent and Mozilla was at 24.88 percent. Interestingly enough, Chrome is a so-called “weekend browser” that is stronger on Saturdays and Sundays than during week as users can use their browser of choice. Consequently, IE loses market share on weekends.

Although Chrome only beat out IE for a single day, speculation has it that there is a good chance that the Chrome will permanently on top by May 2012. When Chrome exceeded Firefox market share for the first time last year, it took the browser about six weeks to consistently take the lead.

Read the full story here on Tom’s hardware

But after the much anticipated release and a flood of rumors many fans seem to have mixed reviews of the “new iPad”. Here is a breakdown of some of the “Rumors vs. Reality”.

Rumors vs. Reality

As is usually the case with Apple’s new product releases, there were lots of rumors flying around prior to the the new iPad launch last week. Here is a summary from the CNET News post “The new iPad: Rumor vs. reality” with a breakdown of the reality.

The New Name

According to a number of sources and reports the latest iPad was rumored to be called the “iPad HD” or the “iPad 3″. Apple ended up calling it simply “the new” and “the third-generation” iPad.

Retina Display

The most high-profile rumor about the next iPad was the beefed up display at 2048×1536 pixels. Apple came through on this claim with a 2048×1536 display and dubbed it a Retina Display.

Quad-core processor

A rumor concerning a quad-core in the next iPad started early this year and further rumors added a supposed dual-core “A5X” chip last month. The A5X chip on the new iPad is, in fact, a dual-core chip. Its graphics, however, are quad-core, making this rumor only partially true.

4G LTE

Speedier 4G LTE networking was cerainly expecited this time around as it rumors fell short in the iPad2 release. In fact, the new iPad does pack 4G LTE connectivity, but this is about connecting with Verizon Wireless and AT&T’s networks in the US.

Better cameras

Apple has never released a new, camera-enabled iOS device without making improvements, (Apple has done that with all five iterations of the iPhone). A report that came out in early January claimed that Apple was adding considerably improved cameras in the next iPad. A front-facing camera that worked in HD quality, and one on the back that was similar in quality to iPhones.
The fact is, the new iPad comes with a 5-megapixel camera which has considerably improved imaging than the one embedded in the iPad 2, but the front-facing camera remains at VGA quality.

iPad 2 sticking around?

Since the release of the iPad 2 basically killed off the first generation iPad, many iPad 2 owners are interested in rumors that say Apple is thinking of keeping the iPad 2 around (similar to how it sells iPhone 4 and 3GS at reduced prices). This is partially true, as Apple is apparently keeping the 16GB Wi-Fi-only and 3G models and selling at reduced princes.

Bigger Price Tag

Perhaps the most thinly sourced rumors of all hinted at the fact that we were in for a price hike but in reality the new iPad keeps the same price tag as its predecessors in the US).

New dock port

Apple has kept its dock port pretty much unchanged during the life span of iOS devices, but rumor had that Apple has been working to shrink the size of its dock to make more room inside its devices. This did not happen as of yet. The 30-pin dock adapter is still there.

• Read the full story here: “The new iPad: Rumor vs. reality”
• For a great source on the all things iPad 3: ipad3newsblog.com

For years, companies have been mining tweets in an effort to get information that may help them improve their products and services. But with millions and millions of tweets each day, it is an enormous task to aggrogate and analyze such data.

Should Twitter sell old tweets?

For further reading checkout this great debate “Should Twitter sell old tweets?” between journalist Grace Dent (sender of 43,081 tweets) and freelance writer Michael Hogan (21,135).

Researchers at the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute have teamed up with Google and the Catlin Coorporation to conduct a comprehensive study on the effects of climate change on the health of the coral along the 1,600-mile-long reef.

To conduct the study, the researchers have developed an underwater camera which is a maritime version of Google’s Streetview Car. The camera is able to take 360-degree panoramic under water shots in order to provide a viewers with this new “Seaview”.

In addition to helping educate us about the environmental issues impacting the reef, viewers will have a unique opportunity to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World as one might when diving – no wetsuit or plane ticket required.

According to project leader Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a professor at the University of Queensland, ”For the first time in history, we have the technology available to broadcast the findings of an expedition through Google. Millions of people will be able to experience the life, the science and the magic that exists under the surface of our oceans.”

Aside from being entertaining for people who may never travel to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel or scuba dive, the project hopes that the footage they capture can be used when the reef is damaged as a comparison.

It is pretty much the next best thing to diving the reefs yourself. You can see a demo of what the project will look like here.

For further reading:

reneweconomy.com.au/2012/virtual-diving-great-barrier-reef-climate-change-brought-into-view-15065

Olympus revealed a $1.1 billion dent in its balance sheet in December when it filed five years’ worth of corrected financial statements plus overdue first-half results.

The scandal was first exposed last October by former chief executive Michael Woodford. After querying dubious deals allegedly used to conceal the losses, Woodford was soon sacked by the Olympus board. He has since given up trying to get his job back blaming cozy ties between management and big Japanese shareholders.

Following the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s decision last month to keep Olympus listed, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors and the watchdog Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) have determined they can make a case, Kyodo said.

Olympus is likely to be indicted as a corporation as prosecutors charged chairman and president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, and six other people last week. The company would face up to 700 million yen ($8.82 million) in penalties if found guilty, Kyodo said.

Read the full story on reuters.com here

Biggest tech company IPO’s

• Apple – $100 million – 1980
• Microsoft – $61 million – 1986
• Netscape – $140 million – 1995
• Yahoo – $32.5 million – 1997
• Amazon.com – $54 million – 1997
• eBay – $63 million – 1998
• Google – $1.67 billion – 2004
• Pandora – $235 million – 2011
• Zynga – $1 billion – 2011
• Groupon – $700 million – 2011

Read more about this on huffingtonpost.com – Tech IPOs: How Facebook’s Big Move May Compare To Other Huge Tech IPOs

According to The New York Times, Facebook could be valued as much as $100 billion when shares hit the public market. At that valuation, Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year founder of the company, could hold as much as $28 billion worth of the company.  According to the company’s IPO filing, in 2011, it recorded revenue of $3.71 billion, operating income of $1.756 billion, and net income of $1 billion.

This super high profile IPO means it is now Facebook’s turn to ‘share’. Here’s a summary and fact sheet from a businessinsider.com post called Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Facebook’s Coming IPO

Breakdown of the Facebook IPO:

• Facebook’s entire business, in a series of charts.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will owe $1.5 billion in taxes this year.
• Facebook is now trading at a valuation of ~$95 billion on secondary markets.
• Facebook’s ad revenues are decelerating.
• Here are the millionaires and billionaires that will come from Facebook’s IPO.
• Three out of Facebook’s five co-founders, including Eduardo Saverin, own less than 5 percent of the company.
• Sheryl Sandberg will be worth something around $2 billion when all her shares vest.
• Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, accounted for 12 percent of Facebook’s revenue.
• Facebook has 425 million mobile users, but they’re worth $0.
• Zuckerberg is worth around $25 billion.
• Here are all the nitty-gritty details about Facebook’s business — like revenues and profits.

See also these related stories:

• Top Investment Gurus Sound Off On The Facebook IPO
• Hold Off Before You Jump On The Facebook Bandwagon
• Facebook goes public with $5 billion IPO
• Facebook IPO filing shines a light on company’s finances

That means the current $2.3tn will likely hit $4.2tn in a few years time and due mostly to the rapid rise of mobile internet access.

Some statistics from the study:

• in four years 3 billion people will be using the internet, (nearly 50% of the world’s population).
• every year about 200 million people go online for the very first time
• traditional internet access via a desktop PC will seriously decline
• by 2016 about 80% of all internet users will access the web using a mobile phone (due to cheaper smartphones)

The ‘new’ internet

In 2010, the internet economy of the G20 group of leading nations was worth $2.3tn, which is impressive but still only about 4.1% of the total size of all G20 economies. The research done by the Boston Consulting Group lists some characteristics of the “new internet” in 2016 as follows:

• web access will be mainstream and the standard
• the majority of web users will live in emerging markets (China is expected to have 800 million people using the internet by 2016)
• about 80% of all internet access will be from the mobile
• the internet will go more social allowing customers and companies to engage with each other
• there will be a substantial rise of the “internet of things” – all kinds of devices from sensors to cars to radiators will be connected to the web
• Technology giant IBM estimates that by 2015, one trillion devices will be internet-connected.

The winners

Of course, Google who supported the research, will most likely be one of the companies set to gain most from the rapid growth of the internet. Patrick Pichette, Google’s chief financial officer, was quoted, ”Understanding the economic potential of the web should be an urgent priority for leaders…”

The report also suggests a few of the other likely winners apart from Google.  The research points to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Baidu and Tencent in China and Yandex in Russia as ”internet ecosystems” that will try to tie users in to their customised part of the internet.

Read the full articleWeb economy in G20 set to double by 2016, Google says by Tim Weber, Business editor, BBC News website

Despite losses experienced throughout the period it was actually a period of surging revenues as their subscriber base saw significant increases. This is mostly due to increased iPhone sales over the holiday and customers wanting to distance themselves from the AT&T/T-Mobile fiasco. The company actually signed up 1.2 million wireless users, but posted losses spurred by increased expenses such as a hefty dose of pension costs. But the real culprit stems from the fact that Verizon actually sells the iPhone handset at a loss to encourage customers to buy two-year contracts. As a result, increased iPhone subscribers lessened Verizon’s profits, because Verizon absorbed most of the iPhone’s handset cost.

Verizon sees this as a “pay-now-profit-later” strategy and expects data sales and revenue from smartphone contracts to negate the costs it endures subsidizing handsets. The start-up costs for these contracts increases if users choose iPhones, but the profit margin will be ample as long as customers use data and complete their contracts.

Verizon anticipates a leap in data usage, illustrated by its decision to beef up its 4G service. The company is optimistic consumers will use increasing amounts of data, which will amp up data costs and give the company higher profit margins in the future.

According to forbes.com “Verizon’s future looks bright, despite its lackluster quarterly report. Still, the number of subscribers the company gained this year is expected to translate to larger profits in coming years.” (see Verizon Plans to Profit Off Data, Takes Hit from IPhone)

In regards this long-term business strategy, Matt Klassen of thetelecomblog.com is not so optimistic, “subsidy fees for particular phones will never be recouped because subscribers won’t use them long enough. In fact, due to the endless string of Apple upgrades carriers may never see that fiscal rebound, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the iPhone when they figure that out.”

If a mobile giant like Verizon – a company who has experienced surprising growth in a mobile market where some 99 percent of the available customer base is already locked into some sort of wireless contract – has to struggle this hard to absorb the subsidy costs of the iPhone then it explains why so few mobile service providers will go near Apple (even though they might really want to). When AT&T first experienced the subsidy burden three years ago it promised to rebound over time and that profit margins would return (but they haven’t).

It will be interesting to see the outcome here and certainly makes you wonder why any company would carry iPhone in the first place.

See “Verizon takes a hit from the iPhone” by Matt Klassen, and “Verizon Plans to Profit Off Data, Takes Hit from IPhone” at forbes.com