Job Growth at the 100 Best Companies

Designed by Nicolas Rapp, with Anne Vandermey (@Vandermy), Job Growth at the 100 Best Companies is a companion infographic for the Fortune feature article, 100 Best Companies to Work For.

Fat paychecks, sweet perks, fun colleagues, and over 70,000 jobs ready to be filled — these employers offer dream workplaces. Like Google, which reclaims the top spot this year to become a three-time champion. Meet this year’s top 100, network with the winners on LinkedIn, and more.
In the latest issue of Fortune Magazine.

This is a great Bubble Map visualization that shows the reader three different dimension of information: Job growth (or loss), total company employees and total job applications over the course of the last year.

I do wish that all of the bubbles had been identified in the infographic.  There are many company bubbles unmarked, but the reader assumes they are a part of the Top 100 list.  Just my personal preference, but I would have used the company logos instead of text to identify the bubbles too.

Head over to Nicolas’ site to see the full-size version:

The Science of Salary

Salary Science builds on the information from Jim Hopkinson’s book, Salary Tutor, and the SalaryTutor.com site.  Designed by Shaun Sanders, the infographic is not actually from the book.  Instead, it shares information that goes above and beyond the book, as a great way to build awareness and help promote the book.

Jim has also published an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the infographic on his blog: How to create a viral infographic to market your brand.  You learn about his planning process, the infographic design cycle that Shaun goes through and see early images of the infographic taking shape.

I really appreciate some of the design choices they made along the way, and think the infographic is a super way to attract interest and promote Jim’s brand.  If you’re interested, here’s a link to the book on Amazon as well.  A must-read in my library.

Recruit-O-Graphic

What a great idea!  Kite Consultants designed this infographic job posting, Recruit-O-Graphic, as an innovative way to visualize the job requirements and to show some aspects of working for Kite.  What would have been a long, wordy job posting is now fun and easy to read.  You also get a great sense of the company culture and attitude.

I’m definitely doing something like this for InfoNewt when it’s time to recruit!

Thanks to Sebastiaan for sending in the link!

What Can You Expect to Earn in the Valley?

What Can You Expect to Earn in the Valley?, from Column Five Media for Focus.com, takes a look at the Silicon Valley salary levels.

Silicon Valley earns its famous reputation not just from the fortunes that entrepreneurs create, but also from the high-paying careers available to tech-savvy employees. However, the area is also known for its incredibly high cost of living. Is working in the Valley really worth it? And how much can you expect to make in the nation’s most celebrated tech scene?

This one uses some simple visualizations, but it does a good job of putting the data and the company logos right into the charts. I would have liked to see one more visualization showing a conclusion that the higher salaries do cover the higher cost of living or not.

Thanks to Jarred for sending in the link!

Client Infographic: The 2011 SAP Salary Survey

The 2011 SAP Salary Survey is a new (tall) infographic InfoNewt (my company) designed for Panaya, a software-as-a-service company that provides upgrade automation to SAP customers.  The team at Panaya runs this survey annually to gather information about SAP professionals, and shares it publicly as a source of valuable information to current and future clients.

In 2011, the number of participants more than doubled to over 800. So, while as an online survey it should be taken with a grain of salt, we believe it is more representative of current realities. We tried to focus on issues that are of interest to the global SAP community versus regional issues.

For example:

• Are Europeans earning more than Americans? (Hint: No)
• Is there gender bias among SAP professionals?
• Is there a correlation between education and pay level?
• What are the top paying jobs?
• What is the outlook for 2011?

You can read the detailed report here.

The infographic is only a top-level summary of the detailed report, and gives Panaya a great way to build awareness and share the survey results broadly with the online community.

Thanks to Udi and the rest of the team at Panaya!  There’s much more information available at Panayainc.com and ERP Executive: The Magazine for SAP Managers.

Top Jobs for Critical Thinking

While I was on the ThinkWatson.com site last week, I also found the Top Jobs for Critical Thinking.  I like how the design of this one turned out.  Using readily available salary data, they made the data relevant to their site in a very appealing infographic way.

Client Infographic: The Good News for Online Degrees

Good News for Online Degrees is a recent project InfoNewt (my company) designed for elearners.com to visualize the results of a survey of Human Resources professionals worldwide.

The results are good, as online degrees continue to gain credibility and popularity.  Designed as a companion infographic to the article “How Employers View Online Degrees” on the elearners.com website, the visual not only supports the article, but also stands on its own for posting on blogs.

I used a blend of pie charts, bar charts, circles and images to tell a story as you move down the visual.  The different visuals help separate the different questions that were asked in the survey, but always include the actual numbers as well.  For survey results, you want to be as transparent as possible by citing the source material, repeating the questions that were asked and using specific numbers to validate your visuals.

Personally, the most interesting results are in the stacked bar chart in the middle.  Online degrees have dramatically different levels of acceptance based on what level of role the applicant is applying for.

Available as a high-resolution GIF and PDF from the elearners.com site.

Cheers to Helen and everyone at elearners.com!

Labor Day by the Numbers

Appropriate for this week in the U.S., Labor Day by the Numbers takes an infographic look at labor statistics, top jobs in the U.S. and facts about the Labor Day holiday.  From fixr.com.

Thanks to Andreas and Thussa for the link!

Client Infographic: Beware Work-At-Home Scams!

Beware Work-At-Home Scams is a recent project InfoNewt (my company) designed for elearners.com to visualize how prolific work-at-home scams are, which jobs to avoid and how individuals can protect themselves.

The data is actually fairly difficult to find and very dry.  I had to read through a number of reports from the FTC, the SBA, the IC3 (I had never heard of the Internet Crime Complaint Center!) and other news reports.  Even after reading through those reports, there was very little hard data.  To create the infographic, I needed to use the figure of Orange Man as a character figure to help visualize the information.

Done in OmniGraffle, I think the topic was a perfect example of when an infographic is really useful.  Information that is incredibly difficult for consumers to find (let alone understand), so it wouldn’t normally reach the general public.

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GE open position: Leader, Data Visualization

GE is looking to hire a Leader of Data Visualization located in Fairfield, CT.  It’s very interesting to watch the data visualization field become an official function within mainstream companies.

Although, I think the the job description should be an infographic instead of text for this one…

Job Number: 1182874  

Date Posted: 08 July 2010  

Function: Marketing - Advertising and Brand Marketing  

Business: GE Corporate - Corporate Commercial and Communications  

Career Level: Experienced  

Location: Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Role Summary/Purpose

Over the past year, GE has worked to build the brand and competitive advantage by using design to simplify complex data, i.e. data visualization. Examples of GE’s data visualization work to-date can be found on the healthymagination web site: http://www.healthymagination.com/stories/decoding-data/

Essential Responsibilities

GE’s data visualization strategy consists of four separate work streams: 

• Developing proprietary data visualization applications to tell the GE story, focused on the pillars of the brand and advertising strategy: ecomagination, healthymagination, and innovation.
• Supporting communications and PR about flagship business initiatives with data visualization.
• Incorporating world-class data visualization into product design and user experience.

Developing an open source visualization site.

The Leader, Data Visualization will be part of GE’s Corporate Commercial and Communications team and will be responsible for execution of the corporate data visualization strategy, including the development of interactive data visualization applications and information graphics for brand building, customer-focused data visualization applications and ongoing support of the new data visualization web site. 

GE businesses may also be managing Data Visualization projects independently. The Leader, Data Visualization will be responsible for providing consultative support to businesses working on their own data visualization projects.

Key responsibilities include:

• Interpreting data to develop a storyline and creative brief consistent with GE’s overall brand strategy and priorities.
• Identifying and obtaining GE’s proprietary data and relevant third-party data. 
• Managing several creative agencies simultaneously, to ensure projects are aligned to the goals of the brand, on budget and on time.
• Presenting GE’s data visualization strategy to marketing, communications and design teams throughout GE.
• Coordinating timely launch of data visualizations across functions, including legal, IT, public relations.
• Monitoring discussion of data visualization in traditional media and blogsphere to identify emerging trends and new design partners.
• Managing awards submissions to ensure GE is recognized for leadership in visualization.

Qualifications/Requirements

• Bachelors degree, undergraduate experience in design, advertising or communications.
• Ability to analyze and interpret large data sets.
• Strong design sense, ability to lead creative teams.
• Ability to work in a matrixed environment.
• Creative thinker who thrives in a collaborative setting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project management skills with an ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and work under pressure.
• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills.
•  Must be a team player with an ability to work independently.