Emily Pope, Author at General Assembly Blog

About Emily Pope

Emily Kate Pope is a digital marketer, writer, and life-long learner based in Brooklyn, NY.

Don’t Wait for a Call Back: 4 Non-Traditional Ways Score an Interview

Here’s the good news: As of September 2015, the unemployment rate in the United States is the lowest it’s been in more than seven years. The bad news? The competition for current job seekers is steep.

You may spend hours researching a position, adjusting your resume, and crafting the perfect cover letter only to have some arbitrary algorithm eliminate your application before HR even sees it — let alone a hiring manager. Of course, you need to ensure your resume is optimized with proper formatting and keywords, but there are better ways to impress your potential employer.

You need to set yourself apart, and we’re here to help you do it. Here are five ways to stand out from the applicant crowd and score that coveted first interview.

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Meet the Maker: Behind The Scenes of GA’s New JavaScript Development Course

By Emily Pope

Earlier today, we announced JavaScript Development as the latest addition to our catalogue of part-time courses in data, design, and technology. As one of the most prominent and versatile programming languages in use today, there is tremendous demand from employers for JavaScript knowledge. In fact, JavaScript skills are in the highest demand for web development, mobile development, UI/UX and design jobs, according to a 2015 study from Burning Glass and GA on the demand for business and technology skills.

This course is the result of months of research, planning, and hard work executed by our Product team and coordinated by Mehan Jayasuriya, the Product Manager of Engineering courses here at GA.

Mehan and his team have spent the past few months working closely with employers, engineers, and students to develop and perfect the JavaScript Development course curriculum. We sat down with Mehan to discuss his development process and what makes this course relevant in today’s job economy. Continue reading →

What It Means to Be Data Literate

By Emily Pope

The Data Journalists handbook defines data literacy as, “the ability to consume for knowledge, produce coherently and think critically about data.” It goes on to say that “data literacy includes statistical literacy but also understanding how to work with large data sets, how they were produced, how to connect various data sets and how to interpret them.”

At General Assembly, we’d like to imagine a world where you don’t need a Ph.D. in Statistics to have a data-informed conversation about your business, your health, or your life in general. Over the past year, we’ve embarked on the journey to build a more data literate world through education offerings that meet the diverse needs of our students.

In building these courses, we’ve sought advice from data scientists, analysts, and hiring managers to determine the critical skills you need to become data literate in today’s workforce. We discovered that it isn’t just a concrete list of skills, but a mindset geared towards data—a way of approaching problems beyond “gut instincts.”

Here, we’ve proposed a few simple questions that will help you start to view the world through the lens of data.

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How to Launch a “Content-First” Business with Joe Pulizzi

By Emily Pope

If you’re a marketer, you’ve probably heard of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). With it’s quick tips and thoughtful lessons, this website is full of advice for startups, freelancers, and corporations who are looking to learn how content can help grow their businesses. We recently chatted with Joe Pulizzi, CMI’s founder and the man who coined the term “content marketing,” to discuss the content marketing revolution and what’s next for him and this fast-growing industry.

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The Power of Social Data: A Conversation with Dane Atkinson, CEO of SumAll

By Emily Pope

Ever since starting a dog walking business at the ripe old age of 10, Dane Atkinson has been hooked on entrepreneurship. He wrote his first piece of software at 12 and starting working in advertising at 13. By the time he was 18 years old, Dane was the C.O.O of an advertising company with about 30 employees. Now, he’s making headlines as the CEO of SumAll, a social media and e-commerce data platform, where he’s implemented a company-wide pay transparency policy.

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Dane when he came in to film a live stream. Read on to discover his thoughts on entrepreneurship, open data, social media, and more.

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How General McChrystal Captures the Magic of Small Teams at Scale

By Emily Pope

In today’s fast-moving society, the greatest leaders are those who discard bureaucratic business models in favor of a networked “team of teams,” empowered to make decisions quickly by breaking down communication silos between departments and positions.

This is retired United States Army General Stanley McChrystal’s philosophy, who dedicated more than thirty-four years of service to the U.S. military. His final, and perhaps most notable assignment, was as the commander of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003 until he retired in 2010.

Throughout his tenure, General McChrystal worked to develop scalable management practices that enabled the U.S. Army to embody this “team of teams,” which possessed the necessary agility and flexibility to fight in a modern, technologically advanced war environment and beat back Al Qaeda.

Five years into civilian life, General McChrystal applies the leadership skills he learned during his time in the Army to the business world as co-founder of the McChrystal Group, a leadership and management consultancy firm.

We recently had the great honor of speaking to General McChrystal before he came to our headquarters in New York for a keynote discussion on leadership and team building.

This special event was moderated by Scott Kirkpatrick, the President and COO of General Assembly, who spent time as an officer in the United States Coast Guard.

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How One Woman is Changing the World Through Open Data

By Emily Pope

Carey Anne Nadeau is the founder and CEO of Open Data Nation, which offers courses, trainings, and analytics about open, public data. She is also the course instructor for Data Analytics in DC and a mentor for the Data Analytics Circuit online course. Keep up with Carey on her mission to make open data more accessible @opendatanation.

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The DIY Computer: A Discussion with Alex Klein, Founder of Kano

By Emily Pope

Alex Klein was an imaginative kid who didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He expressed his creativity through acting, art, and finally, non-fiction writing before entering grad school at Cambridge to study philosophy and politics.

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Investing in The Next Generation of Superheroes

By Emily Pope

Growing up, Paige Edmiston was surrounded by an innovative and dedicated family who helped her appreciate the importance of creativity and entrepreneurship. As an adult, she has found her passion in helping young people achieve their dreams.With help from GA’s Digital Marketing course, Paige has found a community of like-minded entrepreneurs who have helped her support and grow her startup, The Sidekick Collective, which seeks to identify and invest in the superheroes of tomorrow. Continue reading →

20-Year-Old Entrepreneur Is Using Data to Retune The Music Industry

By Emily Pope

Raffi Khatchadourian is a Mathematical Economics major and incoming junior at Colgate University. A self-starter and talented entrepreneur, Raffi has established himself as the COO of indify, an emerging music startup, before many of his peers have even declared their major. Back in January, Raffi attended GA’s week-long Business Accelerator program in partnership with Colgate University. Since then, he and his co-founders have gone on to win $10,000 in funding from Colgate University’s Entrepreneur Weekend Shark Tank and $15,000 from Colgate University’s Entrepreneurs Fund. Read on to learn how this young entrepreneur transformed his passion for music and data into a successful early-stage startup.

Follow Raffi @DeadliestKhatch and his startup at @_indify. Continue reading →