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Article from the Global Policy Journal, helping to visually conceptualize the location of the "centre" of the earth's economic activity over various time periods, giving reasoning for its predictions up to 2050. It also provides policy implications for this shift. Excellent article--I highly recommend the read.

The stereotypical notion of an Indian call centre is fast being outpaced by a growing move to the Philippines. This article states that the shifting jobs from India represents almost 30 Billion dollars in loses. It's interesting to read that when one may think that the jobs shift form North America to Asia, but in reality they also shift from different countries in Asia

This article from the National Post talks about five cultural shifts that are changing the corporate workplace. These include the level of trust between employers and employees, the ways in which companies hire and fire employees, the end of the "40 hours work week" and importance of task related work as opposed to time constraints in new young workers, reputation and the need for young workers to find satisfaction and meaning in their work, and demand for corporations to donate a portion of profits to charitable causes. An interesting article that relates to trends in upcoming generations of young workers.

Interesting article written in April 2013, when RBC was outsourcing jobs and there was much hype in the media about it.  The author makes some interesting points which I have highlighted for you to read.  Firstly, commenting on the fact that Indian workers are actually as well qualified or more qualified than Canadian workers to get the job done.  Friedman mentions this in his book when talking about his visits to Bangalore.  She notes that when businesses boost profit this is good for the economy because it means they will invest it. However, it was noted by Stanford in Economics for Everyone, that this is not always the case, and the amount of profit being spent on luxury goods rather than investment is currently increasing.  Interesting note the author makes about us vs them.  She mentions that if the jobs had been moving somewhere else in Canada, would the reaction have been just as passionate?  It is important to ensure that we are looking at cultural and racial issues here and taking these into account.   Lastly, she comments that on how we have to allow "the natural forces of capitalism to work".  Stanford also mentions how economists will often refer to capitalism as "natural" and that this is not true.  It is one economic system (which has been created by man) which we currently use, but it is not the only one that can exist, and it certainly did not exist before man did.  It is not natural like the seasons.  

On page 216 of the Shift, Gratton mentions that the internet is increasingly being used to help entrepreneurs find funding for their projects. This made me think of something I had seen in passing a couple of times, called 'crowdfunding'. Crowdfunding refers to sites that allow you to raise money for a certain idea, company, start-up etc. These sites charge a fee (usually percentage of money raised) and provide certain services to customers (PR, coaching etc). Some sites allow only certain types of ventures (creative ventures, Bands only, T-shirts only, non-profit/charity only), while others are open to everyone. Sites typically offer a "Keep-Everything" policy (where you keep the money regardless of getting the goal), or an "All-or-nothing" policy (where you only get to keep the money if you reach the goal). This article provides some of the top platforms for crowdfunding, however in my preliminary research I was able to find sites that were not on this list such as "GoGetFunding" and "Patreon" and "GiveForwards". It seems that these sites are popping up all over the internet! Definitely something to keep an eye on!

The Shift to Alberta

This article related to chapter 6 of the The Shift, where Gratton outlines how Gen Y-ers like John and Susan seek social engagement over personal financial success. It also discusses a recent rise in 'social entrepreneurship', where young graduates are creating their own social change start-ups as a way to fulfill both their need for employment and sense of social responsibility.

This website was used by an entrepreneur I know. Basically it is like the marketplace InnoCentive mentioned in Chapter 5 of The Shift, however it is based around logo design. Basically entrepreneurs put out a call or contest for the logo you would like, with an explanation of what its being used for, who the audience is etc. Then graphic designers place in entries. Once the contest is over you choose your favourite one and they get paid the prize. It costs $29 to start a contest and then whatever you are willing to pay for your prize. My friend who used it was very successful, and as soon as I read about InnoCentive it made me think of this! I can image there will be more websites like this in the future

This article reiterates what The Shift argues throughout the section on becoming an innovative connector. It also provides a few helpful tools and ideas for starting, and building your own network, and emphasizes the importance in doing so. Although the article is brief, it provides significant information about how the process of networking works, as well as diminishes the negative views towards the career development tool. The article not only relays different means of establishing networks - suggesting conferences, or contacting former employers, or classmates - but it also includes strategies specific to both the outgoing and shy personality types. It offers sequential goals, in which people branch out and meet 3 new people at an event, but also offers less-threatening options such as meeting only 1 new person at a time. Because the article is on a school website, there are also opportunities to explore the website further, for information unrelated to networking altogether. This article is also a helpful resource for future career research and exploration.

Salman Sakir's article is relevant to the issues raised in Friedman's book The World is Flat in which Friedman in a sense laments over the impact of globalization upon the developed countries, the USA for him, because the developing countries like Brazil and Asian countries like China and India have a massive work labour influence upon the West. Sakir focuses on both the positive and negative aspects of globalization, one of the five forces in Gratton's The Shift and a form of global economy as discussed by Stanford in his Economics for Everyone. Because of low wage and easy availability of experts/labour in the developing countries, foreign investments have been attracted by those Asian and developing countries where the jobs have been created for the locals. On the other hand, the citizens of the developed counters of the West and the North America have consumed the products from the developing countries in a reasonably lower price. Poverty ratio has been decreased in the developing countries which have also been integrated by the phenomenon of globalization. These are positive impacts. But in the developed countries, manufacturing industries have been moved out. so unemployment rate is ever increasing, Sakir highlights these aspects of globalization in this article.

The forces of the Shift that surrounded the changing face of poverty really interested me. I saw these as being important to my future because of my keen interest in social justice. I can see my future work having to do with helping underprivileged people. This article provides an interest perspective on why the face of the poor is changing, even though between 2005 and 2010 nearly half a billion people escaped $1.25-a-day poverty.

This article describes ways in which small independent artisans can fight back against the competition of large megacompanies. Although in Chapter 9 Stanford mentions that independent businesses are negligible in the large scheme of things, I think it is interesting to look at competition from this point of view. Also, upon reading this article, I think that these kinds of more personal purchasing interactions may become more popular in the coming world as Etsy is another online marketplace, similar to ones mentioned by Gratton in The Shift.

The September 2014 edition of The Canadian Journal of Career Development has excellent articles on trends applicable to our class in general and specifically "The Shift" text. I recommend reading the article "Beyond Green Jobs: Assessing Sustainability Enhancing Career Options".

In The Shift, we learned that focus on innovation and creativity will continue to grow. This article details what the author believes are the "50 Most innovative communities" in 2014. (One of them includes "Dropbox!") What I really enjoyed about this brief article is that it highlights innovative companies across a variety of industries from Retail to the Automotive industry to Philanthropy.

In the Shift, Gratton mentions globalization and the increased shift of jobs overseas. This link (it's actually an audio podcast) speaks to what Gratton states is the increase of jobs to Asia and India and information on this practice. It is interesting that they note that outsourcing does not have to simply be done overseas - a firm can outsource anything if it gives it to another firm - and it also speaks to how offshoring jobs isn't always the best option and can even end up costing the business more money. It also provides an outline of the benefits of sending jobs overseas, but also the benefits of keeping certain parts of the business in country and why large businesses may actually refute what Gratton is proposing .

In the Shift it is outlined working from home and the impact on one's daily lifestyle and social functioning. The HuffPost article is a very light hearted "poke" at the challenges of working from home and highlights the impact of taking out the "social" from working in an office environment. Although light, it does bring forth some serious transitions from working in a traditional work environment.

I found going through the Shift Workbook very insightful and it inspired me to look around for some additional quizzes that assess your areas of interest. For me, in the past, I have always been very analytical, interested in lab testing, anything in the sciences really, and have shifted toward a more person-focused career journey. It's so interesting to me to do these little quizzes and see that my results have completely switched to the "helping" profession! It's just 15 questions and I feel it's a nice and easy quiz for the younger population. It gives results for the following categories: helping, people, administrative, creative, technical, practical.

When I was reading The Shift this week, I found my comprehension of Grafton's technological projections somewhat limited because I don't have a very vast knowledge of current technology. Particularly, she mentioned The Cloud often in the text, and its ability to make technology and software much more accessible and affordable for people across the globe. I needed a simple breakdown of what The Cloud really is, so what better place to go then HowStuffWorks? This article breaks down The Cloud as a "web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for her or his job" and highlighted its key aspects in a way that I could fully understand. I like how it also brings up the Dark Side of cloud computing- the inevitability that it will eliminate the need for many IT jobs (a concern that Grafton has also highlighted for the future), and then the issue of privacy (Grafton mentions mistrust of leadership as prevalent in the future). Since dark projections are the topic of the week, its worth thinking about the implications of posting all of our personal information online... Can we trust our governments and multi-nationals with that kind of information?