General Assembly, Author at General Assembly Blog

How Data Is Revolutionizing Basketball: Q&A with Ballstar Co-Founder Vaughn Caldon

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Basketball has always had an incredibly passionate fanbase, fueled by the exciting and fast pace of gameplay and high-scoring matches. Some of the most famous athletes globally are professional basketball players, like LeBron James and Stephen Curry. Today, the NBA is broadcast in over 200 countries. 

As basketball has grown into a global phenomenon, technology has played a key role in taking the sport to new levels. Data analytics has transformed everything from how the sport is played and coached, to how fans engage with games and athletes. From tracking players’ performance to predicting game outcomes, data has become an indispensable tool for athletes and fans at every level. 

This surge of data in the industry has created unique opportunities for data scientists and data analysts who have a passion for both numbers and sports, as well as for UX designers and software engineers who bring this data to life via fan engagement apps and websites. 

To learn more about what’s behind this data-driven revolution in sports and the career opportunities it’s unlocked, we sat down with Vaughn Caldon, GA instructor and co-founder of Ballstar, a company at the forefront of data analytics in basketball. 

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The Ultimate Guide: Land a Tech Role This Year

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Dalona Turner, Partnerships Specialist at General Assembly, recently sat down with career expert and best-selling author Ashley Stahl, to discuss how to pivot into a career in tech. 

Both Dalona and Ashley are career changers themselves, which is important because it’s sometimes hard to discern if advice is rooted in theory or experience. If you’ve been thinking “I need a new job”, “I need a career pivot”, or “is technology a good career path”, here is some career advice that will help you get any job you want. 

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Rising in the Ranks: How One Military Spouse Unlocked Career Mobility From the Homefront

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It was 2021, and Michelle Artreche was working at an edtech startup in a marketing role. Although she had a passion for the discipline, she wanted formal training. Michelle wanted a stronger educational foundation so she could take her career to the next level, though she wasn’t sure where to start.

As a military spouse, potential relocation was a fact of life—which meant enrolling in a traditional in-person training program wasn’t really a viable solution. She needed a flexible, career-focused program that could fit her life.

Through a connection on LinkedIn, Michelle heard about The Adecco Group U.S. Foundation Service Scholarship, which awards scholarships to women veterans and military spouses that can be used for courses offered through General Assembly (GA). She took the initiative to apply, landed an award for GA’s Digital Marketing course, and began a new chapter in her tech career story.

Michelle has parlayed her newfound skills into a role where she’s tripled her income—and continues to grow in a career she’s passionate about. She is an incredible example representing the military/spouse community and showing continuous growth as a professional in her field. Read the following interview to learn more about her journey. 

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Meet Your Match: Breaking Into the Hospitality Industry in a Tech Role

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Novel sights. Magnificent cultures. Unexplored tastes. If you feel you live your best life on vacation, a career in the hospitality industry could provide the flexibility and travel perks you crave—and help you see more of the world sooner rather than later. There is no better environment for a sociable “people person” to make a memorable impact on the lives of countless guests and patrons day after day.  

When we think of hospitality, we may think of a front desk hotel concierge, wait staff, or theme park attendant. But the hospitality industry has become increasingly saturated with job postings for software engineers, data analysts, data scientists, and UX designers amid the digital transformation that’s taken place across all industries over the last decade. 

Take the story of Peter Cho, for instance: he made the move from line cook to software engineer after his restaurant shut down during the COVID-19 crisis. Though he didn’t have a college degree, a four-month software engineering bootcamp taught him how to code and break into a six-figure salary with better security, ambiance, and work/life balance. 

“I’ll never go back to restaurant work because my quality of life is so much better now,” Cho has said. “While I feel challenged at my current job, it feels healthy and more enjoyable, stemming from puzzle-solving rather than being yelled at in a kitchen.” Best of all, he no longer has to worry about job security or work 60 hours to make ends meet.

Continue reading to learn which changes have made hospitality a “tech industry,” and what emerging trends promise plenty of tech work in hospitality for decades to come. 

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Chart Your Course: Which General Assembly Class Is Right for You?

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Whether you’re making the leap into a career change, or leveling up your current skill set to land that next promotion, you might be wondering if an online coding bootcamp is right for you. The good news is that General Assembly offers a range of beginner-friendly class formats (from full-time immersives to flexible, part-time schedules), and we have a course that will fit your specific career path and interests. 

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Top 5 Industries Hiring UX Designers: Where to Find Your Next Career Opportunity

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There are two narratives dominating hiring right now. The first (and much louder) narrative is that tech workers are being laid off right and left. From the headlines, it’s easy to assume that new designers can’t compete for the few UX design jobs that exist.

The quieter discourse is that the labor market is stable, and growing at a healthy (albeit slower) pace. Let’s look at what the evidence says.

If you’re looking for entry-level UX designer jobs, there are lots of reasons for optimism. However, look beyond tech and software companies to deepen your pool of potential employers. Companies in diverse industries are hiring UX designers and you might miss out on your dream job if you only look at tech startups.

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UX, Visual, or Product: Which Type of Design Is Right for You?

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Great design is the cornerstone of every company’s marketing and sales strategies. The average person spends 417 minutes online. That’s a whopping six hours and 57 minutes per day, consuming online content day in and day out. Companies need to build visually appealing and intuitive websites and a great-looking product or service. 

With these requirements, the demand for UX, Visual, and Product designers is high. With companies like Forbes and Medium naming these creative tech careers as one of the most in-demand tech jobs in 2022 and 2023. 

With that in mind, this article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of UX, Visual, and Product Design, understanding the main differences between each to help you determine which design type is the best choice. 

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Meet Your Match: Breaking Into the Healthcare Industry in a Tech Role

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Across industries, the ability to work faster, cheaper, and without flaw is greatly enhanced by technology—yet, in the healthcare industry, these improvements mean the difference between life and death for billions of patients worldwide. So if you’re keen to make an impact in the lives of individuals—and willing to pick up a few tech skills to make it happen—the healthcare industry is happy to have you.

Just as quickly as big tech companies let workers go, places like Highmark Health scooped them up, adding 4,962 tech workers last March alone. More recently, health insurance company Humana posted 4,951 jobs, while Elevance Health sought to fill 1,751 open positions. UnitedHealth has added 10,000 new roles to their fleet of 36,000 tech workers over the last three years. And these are just a few examples of the many healthcare employers ready to take a big, bold leap with tech.

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Meet Your Match: Breaking Into the Retail Industry in a Tech Role

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Do you love retail therapy? How about the idea of a career that puts you on the leading edge of new product launches—ones that improve lives daily? If you dream of working in retail or ecommerce, a tech role might be the best way to break into the business, as retail is a top 6 employer of tech talent.

The blanket term “retail” encompasses any business that directly sells consumer goods. Retailers can include e-commerce sales that take place across the web, as well as brick-and-mortar stores like supermarkets, department stores, or specialty mom-and-pop shops. Household goods, appliances, fashion apparel, beauty products, toys, entertainment like video games—these subsets are all part of a $30.3 trillion global industry.

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The State of Tech Talent Acquisition 2023

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There’s an increasing demand for digital skill sets—with high-tech employment set to grow 13% from 2020-2030. Yet, as you know, the number of graduates from software engineering, data, and UX design programs isn’t keeping pace. 

What we found in surveying 1,000 global talent leaders in 2022, across 10 countries, is that we still have a long way to go in addressing the deepening tech talent shortage. The courage to tackle talent challenges will require more than commitments on paper—but new mindsets and strategies that build a more inclusive and resilient workforce, brick by brick. 

In our latest report, The State of Tech Talent Acquisition 2023,” we partnered with Wakefield Research to help tech talent leaders get a data-driven view of what’s happening and how leading companies are navigating the issue.

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