Career Trends

SEO stands for "search engine optimization." It is the process of getting traffic from the "free," "organic," "editorial" or "natural" search results on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.

I choose this website on search engine optimization to relate to Friedman's ninth flattener: In-forming. This resource explains how making your website popular through optimization influences the success of the web page.

This article is interesting because we are used to major companies outsourcing their positions across the world, but here a service paid for by Canadian taxes is being outsourced elsewhere, taking jobs away from Canadian taxpayers. This introduces an interesting ethical issue, as many believe it is wrong for a company paid for exclusively by Calgarians is outsourcing jobs to other areas of the world.

Here is a website where people can join an on-line "coffee" chat room to discuss and share insights and spark ideas that will "plant the seeds of the future opportunities" We're connecting students, recent grads, and young professionals with leaders and established professionals over a cup of coffee. This site demonstrates the ability to connect with professionals both locally AND globally. What a great idea!

EARLY NEXT MONTH local dignitaries will gather for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a facility in Whitsett, North Carolina. A new production line will start to roll and the seemingly impossible will happen: America will start making personal computers again. This article discusses the reasons why offshoring activity is declining and the trend towards "onshoring".

This article highlights insourcing and GE's initiative to bring back some of its production to the U.S.

This program is program developed specifically for gymnastics clubs. It manages classes, fees, and even can keep track of inventory and sales at your front desk. Parents can access this from home and fill in registration information, sign up online for available classes and even make monthly payments without ever needing to come into the gym.

This web-tool was originally a special module of the web tools offered by Tools for Organizations since 2000. However, in 2010 it was released a stand-alone software for scheduling and managing volunteers for events and projects. The system allows volunteers to sign up for hours, once the event is completed the staff member then confirms these hours, and these hours are logged and tracked.

Constant contact is an online marketing tool. It allows users to create professional looking emails with easy to use templates. It also provides many other tools to incorporate into your emails such as surveys, RSVP's for events, coupons, Facebook promotions and much more.

This article explores how, although outsourcing has not reduced the number of jobs available in Canada as much as people once feared, it does however impact the wages available in Canada as companies now have stronger bargaining power.

This article explores the anger many Canadians felt over outsourcing. However, the author believes that Canada must learn to deal with this, as it is something that has happened before to us (with manufacturing) and is not happening to other countries as well (manufacturing is moving from China to Vietnam)

This article has a distinctly different view of the fall of the Berlin Wall than Friedman does. While Friedman saw the fall of the walk to be a great equalizer, Jean-Pierre Lehman states that other walls went up in its place.

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.

This is part of The Globe's Wealth Paradox series , a two-week examination into how the income divide is shaping Canada. Income levels for most Canadians haven't changed much in recent years, but for one group: The wealthy are pulling away from the pack.

Last Tuesday, Tata Motor's Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) opened its first plant in Changshu, China. The luxury car-maker's $1.78-billion Make-in-China push has come a little over a month after Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry confessed to be greatly encouraged under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership to join the "Make In India" programme that, he said, brings together industry and government for crafting a new future.

This short article focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing. It also shares the most commonly outsourced businesses.

The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) is a non-profit, independent research and media organization based in Montreal. In addition to the Global Research websites, the Centre is involved in book publishing, support to humanitarian projects as well as educational outreach activities including the organization of public conferences and lectures. The Centre also acts as a think tank on crucial economic and geopolitical issues. The Global Research website at www.globalresearch.ca publishes news articles, commentary, background research and analysis on a broad range of issues, focusing on social, economic, strategic and environmental issues.They have established an extensive archive of news articles, in-depth reports and analysis on issues which are barely covered by the mainstream media. There are quite a few articles on economic trends arising from globalization, such as outsourcing.

The website Globalization101 is a vast resource covering many topics regarding the globalization phenomenon. The article High-Stakes Testing in particular looks at different educational systems, and how US admissions are undergoing reform, while being compared to other educational system styles. The major link between this article and the first chapter of the World is Flat is the focus on skills, not job titles or location. The new standardized admissions tests will focus on skill development opposed to grades which may level the playing field for people to find internationally connected jobs. 

Interesting article from CBC outlining the draw to outsourcing to lower costs for businesses and increase efficiency, yet the downside of loss of jobs.

TORONTO - Sears Canada is laying off 245 workers, the lion's share in its information technology department, with plans to replace them by partnering with companies that outsource to India and the Philippines, a senior spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

I thought this article would be really interesting to post because I don't know about everyone else, but I have heard a lot of times over the past few years that Sears is facing financial issues. It can be seen then that Sears is trying to remedy their issue by cutting costs by outsourcing the IT positions to those in other countries such as India and the Philippines.