Tech & Innovation Blog
Is Data Science the Right Career for You?
Voice of Our People, Career Advice, Career Insights
Data Science is perfect for you if you enjoy storytelling and solving complex problems with data.
Is Data Science the Right Career for You?
Mark P.
By Mark P., Lead Data Scientist, Product Development DataCloud
As a Data Scientist at ADP, I use workforce data to tell stories, using curiosity to analyze and display the data. In this blog, I’ll share my observations of experiences and trends in the growing field of data science.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, data science will continue to grow, and the number of jobs is estimated to increase by 28% through 2026. In other words, data scientists are in demand, and our role will continue to impact many industries.
What comes to mind when you hear “data science”? Numbers and graphs? Machine learning and big data?
Let’s dive into a quick definition.
What is Data Science?
My perspective on data science was shaped years ago. People started referring to themselves as data scientists and posting jobs for “data scientists” around the same time that machine learning with big data was spreading to industries and companies beyond tech.
I view data science as the methodical analysis of an extensive dataset to understand a subject of interest. Machine learning is a powerful means of such analysis, but not the only one. I focus on a different area, writing query code and dynamic calculations to produce interactive visualizations. To me, the significance of big data is more of a spectrum than a boundary. Science is a systematic study for understanding, and we can understand things with smaller amounts of data too. But big data like ADP has made the insights and applications deeper and more reliable.
Pragmatically speaking, data science can be whatever an employer considers it and communicates through the specific skills they seek. No definition of data science can replace an employer’s expectations, the candidate’s expression of their experience, and conversations about career fit and advancement. With evolving technologies and models, there are a growing number of opportunities in this career. As a Data Scientist at ADP, it is certainly rewarding to have occupational, organizational, and demographic facts on over 30 million US workers to explore – anonymized of course!
Mark and his niece
Top Trends in Data Science
Currently, two of the most visible trends in data science are cloud-based development and the advanced application of natural language processing (NLP).
Cloud-based platforms and services such as Amazon Web Services and Databricks make it easier to source data, develop analyses and models, collaborate with colleagues, and deploy products. We work closely with these partners and have often spurred innovation in their products as we expand our capabilities.
NLP has many current and potential applications in human capital management, including client support, occupation and skill classification, job posting development, and candidate recruitment. Since jobs are diverse, overlapping, and constantly evolving, building and maintaining comprehensive, systematic knowledge can be challenging. NLP can make our solutions more scalable and data-driven than classifications created by human experts alone.
Day in the Life as a Data Scientist
My research on restaurant employment and wages during the COVID-19 pandemic represents many common day-to-day components of data science work. While it is well-known restaurants were one of the most heavily impacted industries, ADP data shows some cities fared better than others. You can see this in the 18-month employment trends for 3 of the largest 50 US metros.
Visualizations like these are the tip of the iceberg: the most visible part of the work requires much more underneath. In addition to conceiving and developing metrics, models, and graphics to create knowledge, data scientists need to find good data sources and write code to retrieve and process their information. They need to understand the limitations of their sources – things like sample bias, predictive labels, outright errors – and communicate and correct them.
Restaurant employment change, monthly since Jan 2020
And data scientists need to query people as well as data! For example, interviewing local restaurant association executives for their expert perspectives and calling US Bureau of Labor Statistics economists to discuss statistical methods.
How can I gain experience in Data Science?
If you are interested in data science, you can find a ton of resources, including boot camps, online courses, Medium articles, and YouTube videos. If you look up #datascience on TikTok, it has 89 million views! Of course, classes are a great way to acquire vital education, but they can be a significant investment in time and money. You may wish to test your interest with a project that involves either a question you’d like to answer or a problem you’d like to solve. You’ll gain not only motivation but also a proof point to share with potential employers.
As an example, when 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang proposed a universal basic income, I was curious to know who might benefit from $1k a month and how to quantify the benefits objectively. I searched for household spending data, turned up relevant data and code from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and then used free versions of SAS and Tableau to create a public dashboard to answer that question.
Data Science Team at ADP
I’d advise anyone interested in data science to follow their curiosity and search the web for public data and free tools. You’ll face technical challenges along the way, but sites like W3 Schools and Stack Overflow can help you tackle them as they arise. Of course, many people prefer the structure of classes to an open-ended, “many-options-no-right-answer” type of project. The former is fine – but if you can take the leap and try the latter, you’ll gain a good experience of what real-world work is often like!
Final Thoughts
Data Science is a great option if you can:
- Think creatively and enjoy solving complex problems with data
- Problem-solve in a team environment
- Communicate effectively in programming languages
Three self-examination questions for Data Scientists interested in ADP:
- Does working with one of the most comprehensive employment data sets excite you?
- Are you inspired by transforming the understanding of and opportunities for millions of workers?
- Are you a technologist who continually breaks down challenges, champions creative approaches, and collaborates routinely with a diverse team of professionals?
Interested in a career in Data Science? Let’s work together!
Learn more about working at ADP here and our current openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
We are Proud to Design and Create a Workplace for Everyone
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
ADP will continue to strive to be the best place to work, creating a workplace for diverse talents.
We are Proud to Design and Create a Workplace for Everyone
At ADP, we’re constantly working to provide the best possible experience for our clients and associates. We’re proud to announce that we’ve been recognized with various awards! Whether providing outstanding service or creating a great place to work, we always strive to be the best.
iWIN – Business Resource Group
Women Impact Tech 100
When it comes to gender equity in the technology industry, ADP is leading by example. Our technologists are dedicated to developing inclusive products and services, providing a path forward for all our teams.
Women Impact Tech, an organization focused on improving opportunities for women in STEM, has named ADP one of the top 100 Women Impact Tech companies. The recognition criteria measure employee feedback on workplace culture for women, benefits, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
We are excited to see that our work is reshaping the tech space.
“These top 100 companies are doing the right things that make a difference in women’s ability to have meaningful careers, offering a culture for women to thrive,” said Paula Ratliff, the President of Women Impact Tech.
The good news doesn’t end here! We have also earned recognition from Top 50 Employer by Woman Engineering Magazine, Top 50 Best Workplaces for Women in India, and the AnitaB.org 2021 Top Large Company for Women Technologists for the second consecutive year.
“As a leader, I want to create an environment of empowerment with a diversity of thought and perspectives,” said Laurie Liszewski, VP of Product Development at ADP.
Opportunities across ADP include participation in our Women’s Leadership Development Program, Grace Hopper Celebration with AnitaB.org, and our Business Resource Groups such as iWIN (International Women’s Inclusion Network).
“There’s a lot here to be excited about. We’re all working together, and we’re going to be stronger in the long run,” said Amber Abreu, Senior Manager of User Experience (UX) research at ADP.
We can’t wait to see what’s next!
Next Big Things in Tech
ADP DataCloud has been named on Fast Company’s first-ever list of the Next Big Things in Tech list, honoring the technology breakthroughs that promise to shape the future. We have earned this recognition for our powerful people analytics solution, ADP DataCloud, which leverages our vast workforce data to address the most significant challenges businesses face today, including employee retention, pay equity, diversity, equity, and inclusion shift economic policy. Read the press release here.
In addition to this award, ADP DataCloud has also earned a Stratus Award, the Top HR Product of the Year, and the Data Analytics Innovation of the Year.
We are proud of the product enhancements our teams developed:
- The new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Dashboard allow companies to see the makeup of their workforce and address underrepresentation.
- Organizational Benchmarks taps ADP’s workforce data to help companies decide how best to deploy workers.
- When paired with ADP DataCloud’s Pay Equity Storyboard, clients can generate a personalized planner and budget to help them close gaps and measure maturity against peers.
This award further validates our clients and prospects of what’s to come and why they need us. Congratulations to everyone who has been a part of the development!
ADP 2022 Built In Best Places to Work
We are the proudest of our valuable people and the culture here. Built In, a top industry source for tech candidates to research and review companies, has named ADP with seven awards, including 2022 Best Places to Work in LA and New York City, Best Large Companies to Work & Best Benefits in both cities.
“Now more than ever, we’re proud to offer an engaging workplace with a dynamic culture that empowers our associates to foster innovation and develop innovative ideas with limitless possibilities,” said Aaron S., Senior Vice President of Product Development at ADP. “We are thrilled to be recognized in New York City and will continue our relentless focus on growing our technology from the energy of our associates.”
“Our highly engaged associates know we’re committed to providing each person with opportunities to use their diverse expertise to develop great products and technology that help deliver amazing client experiences,” said Leonard K., Senior Vice President of Product Development. “Built In LA’s recognition is an honor and a direct reflection of the innovation and dedication of our associates.
Built In’s Best Places to Work program rates companies based on their compensation, benefits, and culture. This year’s list highlights those employers who have created a culture that supports employees in-office and virtually that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Great Place to Work®
Great Place to Work® (GPTW), a global authority on workplace culture, named ADP Brazil Labs and ADP India one of the best companies to work for 2021. GPTW has a mission to build a better world by helping organizations become a great place to work for all.
Here are the award nominations.
ADP India
ADP India
- India’s Best Workplaces for Women 2021
- India’s Best Workplaces™ in IT & IT-BPM 2021
- India’s Best Companies to Work For 2021
- Commitment to Being a Great Place to Work
ADP Brazil Labs
ADP Brazil Labs
- One of the Best Companies in the Rio Grande do Sul.
- Women Impact Tech 2022 Honoree
The awards recognize ADP India and ADP Brazil Labs not only for their talented associates but also for an environment of technological culture and innovation applied in the workspace.
Our clients, associates, and tech recruiting teams remain focused on cultivating valuable relationships in the challenging times of pandemics. We will continue to strive to be the best place to work, creating a workplace for diverse talents.
Thank you, and Congratulations to all our associates who make ADP one of the best places to work!
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Driving Innovation with an Ethnography of AI
Women in STEM, Anthropology, Innovation
How might ethnography help advance our understanding of human and machine relationships?
Driving Innovation with an Ethnography of AI
By Martha Bird, Chief Business Anthropologist at ADP
Humans are typically curious by nature, but there’s a deep resource around human behavior that can be tremendously valuable as we design our strategies in business and life in general.
Cultural anthropologists combine curiosity and empirical science to deliver sustained value. We’re trained to interpret and translate why people do the things they do and how unconscious and overlapping motivations influence their actions, their attitudes, their approaches to the myriad people, products, politics, and places of everyday life. We do this by spending time in the places where people make meaning, a method of inquiry known as ethnography. It’s what gets us excited, and it’s where we impact academia and industry.
Part of our work focuses on challenging the things we take for granted and, in so doing, encouraging new ways of looking at ideas, interactions, and people we may have overlooked in the forgetfulness of the routine. Curiosity is our “rocket fuel.
My colleague, Jay Hasbrouck, captures the spirit of the anthropological mindset when he writes, “When used as more than a research tool to expose consumer needs, ethnographic thinking helps companies and organizations build on the cultural meanings and contexts of their offerings, develop the flexibility to embrace cultural change, focus their strategies at critical cultural phenomena, and test and develop business model changes.”1
Where Ethnography Comes In
For those of us in the tech sector, in particular, our focus is quite aggressively on questions around data biases, including how algorithms are constructed and, ultimately, who they advantage and who they don’t. It’s a much bigger issue than simply feeding the machine and imagining that the outputs are somehow free of judgment. They’re not.
But who should be responsible for exploring the roots of these biases that pre-exist machine learning — biases that are already deeply embedded in culture. We hear a lot of blaming in the popular press about this or that platform creating unfair advantages. Nevertheless, should we leave it to data analysts and computer scientists to untangle these social inequalities? It seems a more appropriate area of investigation for those of us who study culture and the power flows that animate it.
So, we begin to ask questions. What’s fair in a data-mediated world? What role does empathy play in communicating evidence and big data? What constitutes evidence in a global context, among others?
Placing blame on flawed algorithms and the companies on which data-driven services depend is really missing the critical point. We need to look outside tech and start to get serious about the very non-technical realities that contribute to an unequal present and, consequently, an inevitably unequal future.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the admittedly broad subject of AI viewed from an anthropological perspective. My main goal in doing so is to further challenge the cultural category of AI (big and small), while also exploring how ethnographic methodology (direct observation/active listening) might help advance our understanding of the human and machine relationships forming here and now and tomorrow.
Specifically, I’m thinking about two main question areas. First, a definitional focus: How might we begin to articulate an ethnography of AI, what role might AI technologies play in the service of ethnographic practice, and how might (and does) ethnographic inquiry inform AI technologies? Second, a philosophical focus: Who is responsible for bias in data, algorithms, and outcomes to include discussion around how work related to AI is currently organized within tech companies today?
As companies become increasingly reliant on data-driven insights to build their offerings, market their products, and guide the scope for future projects, we need to get serious about the reality that data isn’t raw or clean — but rather deeply reflective of the social and political circumstances from which they are pulled and to which they contribute. It’s an exciting time to be an anthropologist working in technology where the human is deeply enmeshed with the machine.
Get more insights from Martha Bird by reading Storytelling in Business: Capturing Organizational Wisdom.
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
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1 Ethnographic Thinking: From Method to Mindset (Anthropology & Business) 1st Edition, Routledge, 2018
Link to the original article.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Career Journey from a Filmmaker to a Conversational Designer (CxD)
Voice of Our People, Innovation, Career Insights
For anyone who wants to work as a conversation designer, the first step would be to understand how human-computer interactions (HCI) work.
Career Journey from a Filmmaker to a Conversational Designer (CxD)
By Azfar Rizvi, the Conversational Designer
If you look at my current role at ADP, you might be surprised with my professional background. For a decade, I was a journalist and a screenwriter traveling and producing films for global news and media networks. In collaboration with World Wildlife Fund and the British Council, my last films toured across Europe and the UK, garnering a mention from editors at Rolling Stone Magazine.
Who would’ve thought I’d be a good fit at ADP?
It wasn’t until 2015, when I was asked to consult as a screenwriter for an Amazon Prime Video project, I realized how transferable my skills were from screenwriting. Being part of a writers’ room at a significant streaming network pushed me to explore my fictional dialogue and screenwriting chops! And I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.
What Is a Writers’ Room?
A writers’ room is a workspace where TV writers brainstorm
each element of a TV series including episode breakdowns,
the series arc, the season arc, character development, and
various substories within each episode or each season. A writers’
room is where the direction of the season is determined and refined,
& where all the creative minds—the showrunner, producers, and writers
—brainstorm the ways in which they can help create an excellent show.
– MasterClass
As I emerged from my journey through Hollywood, I consulted on a year-long Conversational AI project for Google Assistant. This was a daunting undertaking. My Conversational Design work surfaced in front of over two billion users worldwide overnight. The new GA experience combined text and voice interaction ranging from songs and jokes to easter eggs and riddles. We pioneered an interface to bridge the gap between human conversational intelligence and artificial intelligence. Millions of these users were migrants from diverse backgrounds – so embedding grace in the experience to produce content that resonated with everyone took a significant amount of self-reflection and research. When we launched, we hit it out of the park. That was the day I truly understood what it meant for content to converge in the sweet spot between AI tech and storytelling.
I fell in love with this new universe and this journey eventually culminated at ADP!
Q: Why did you come to ADP and why do you stay?
This is a great question, and the answer constantly evolves for me. Arriving at ADP during the pandemic, I saw the team’s efficacy in the work of Conversational AI. Thousands of users and clients were trying to access accurate financial information using our existing platforms, and I saw an opportunity to be a part of these exciting acts of service – to be able to make lives easier by serving the best possible solutions in the most empathetic manner.
I continue to stay and grow at ADP because I love the learning opportunities provided by our UX leadership. The people-centric open-door policy here is unlike anywhere I’ve worked. I collaborate with an amazing team where people and culture triumph in service to overcome personal challenges every day. What more can one ask for!
Q: Let’s talk about using your creative and technical skills at ADP!
My role at ADP is a combination of conversation design and process ideation. From a CxD perspective, I collaborate with Product Owners and Managers. At this stage, we dive into what use cases we need on our roadmap and the tradeoffs. Internally, with the User Experience team, it becomes more hands-on as I design the conversational experiences and mockup the technical and functional base of what a multimodal experience could look like.
For the conversation design process, I leverage skills acquired across my previous work: UX writing, VUI design, interaction design, and audio/visual design. I like to think of my role as that of a bricklayer – understand the user needs, embrace the tech constraints, figure out the underlying logic (APIs, etc.), and design a detailed specification document that represents the complete user experience. The last step is to curate this experience and work with the developers to produce it. This journey forces me to leverage a combination of both industry chatbot standards, and the direction our ADP UX leadership wants our virtual assistant, A.V.A, to take.
Q: What is a piece of advice for candidates looking for jobs in Conversation Design (CxD)?
For the past decade, Conversational AI has been incorporated into a diverse collection of form factors empowering users to interact more organically with automated systems. This is when A.V.A, ADP’s virtual assistant comes in place. A.V.A combines digital concierges and AI-powered chat solutions, extending our users’ significant level of intelligent service automation and personalization.
Conversation Design (CxD) at its core is the craft of delivering a comprehensive experience users might engage in to arrive at a pre-determined automated outcome. It is the discipline of producing a series of detailed design flows/outcomes leveraging the businesses’ purpose and underlying logic to curate a holistic user experience.
CxD is a new field so there are quite a few pathways into the industry. For anyone who wants to work as a conversation designer, the first step would be to understand how human-computer interactions (HCI) work.
A good place to start would be to get comfortable with ambiguity. Begin with diving into UI (User Interface) and UX design. Understand the basics of a storytelling arc. Read, write, and analyze dialogues and screenplays. Utilize existing CxD platforms where you can design interactions, preview prototypes, and implement the final experience. Both Google and Amazon have detailed design tutorials for their Assistants. Use these resources to create experiences for your portfolio and start sharing these with peers on LinkedIn.
Q: What is some overlapping, essential skills required in both filmmaking and designing?
Before ADP, I produced conversational experiences for virtual assistants at Google and Verizon. A significant part of my skills is a continuation of my learnings from screenwriting and storytelling — understanding the user journey, how can we use context to create an empathetic user experience, and how can we continue to iterate on the results. Take a feature-length documentary as an example: you start with a core narrative, shoot the right visual, and edit to create a final product. The same logic applies to conversational AI chatbot. Before coming to ADP, I spent a lot of time poking holes in my own work – showing it to friends and family and asking them what works and does not work for them.
Q: What are leaders like at ADP? What is your team’s dynamic?
The UX leadership at ADP is unlike none other I’ve worked with in the past. These are some of the most empathetic and seasoned professionals in the industry who continue to push the envelope. The conversational AI technological roadmap is constantly being iterated upon and is just one of the hallmarks of ADP’s current work. We have a Design Guild where we show up to support each other’s work, experiment with emerging CxD and UX use cases, and future-proof ADP’s brand. Our leadership is committed to uplifting all of us through weekly 1-on-1 sessions and biweekly feedback walkthroughs.
Q: What inspires you outside of work?
My curiosity and passion for storytelling inspire my day-to-day outside of work. Before we were plunged into the Covid world order, I was working with emerging entrepreneurs to empower them to share their stories outside of their communities. ‘Life of I’ is my passion project that has fueled live storytelling events across cities in Canada, the US, Afghanistan, Australia, and Pakistan. I personally work with a select few storytellers who narrate a personal story of their choice in front of a live audience. We’re currently pioneering a new remote storytelling format in collaboration with a local NYC-based co-working space!
In addition, I am still involved with my original screenwriting team. We’re putting together a spec script for Netflix about a girl who travels across different magical worlds through a portal in her bedroom’s closet. The team’s super excited about this story of resilience and empowerment, and we start shooting in September. Fingers crossed!
Q: What do you look forward to the most in the future?
Deep down, I identify as a storyteller. I started my career as a radio producer around 20 years ago. Back in the day, it took me over two hours to line up the right theme music and queue up the correct songs for a 45-minute radio show. Today, the same can be accomplished in less than 5 minutes. The days of DATs are gone!
Behind all this evolution is the power of AI and automation.
AI’s technological development has constantly been transforming the way businesses nay the world operates. Developments in VR/AR space, the Metaverse, and the haptics have proven humanity’s desire to continue to push the proverbial boundaries. Over a decade ago, the first smartphone was launched, and it rendered keypads on mobile phones redundant. With this change in the traditional user interface, it was evident that technology will continue to evolve, reducing the size of our devices. Every ten years, human-computer interaction completely changes – Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Bixby, and other AI-powered virtual assistants are a testament to this change. And A.V.A. our virtual assistant is a step in that direction.
Interested in a Conversational Design career at ADP?
We are hiring! Click here to see what we have available.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Looking for an Internship or First Job? Here’s the secret sauce to getting hired
Early Talent, Intern to Full-Time, Career Advice
A great candidate needs to come to the table with something to offer, and unique skills will get attention.
Looking for an Internship or First Job? Here’s the secret sauce to getting hired
By Liz Gelb-O’Connor, Global Head of Employer Brand & Marketing
Here’s some good news for people without an advanced degree. Just because you have a higher education doesn’t necessarily give you more marketable hard skills or soft skills than someone without a bachelor’s degree.
Why? You can’t learn some soft skills in school. Money can’t buy them, and books can’t teach them. But if you have them, they can set you apart. Same for hard skills you’ve developed on your own, like learning a design tool, taking a free Google Analytics course, or nurturing your love of photography. When creating a resume for your first job or an internship, dig deep and mine your hidden treasure of transferrable skills and interests to help differentiate yourself.
ADP Interns at Roseland Headquarter
A true story for you. When I hired my first marketing intern in 2014, I wasn’t sure what to expect. So, I approached the experience with an open mind and discovered something valuable—not all critical skills were found on a resume. Sadly, despite the high cost of college and university education, not all students emerge with marketable business skills. I guess that’s kind of the point of internships and first jobs, right? To gain marketable business skills. Still, a marketing class on the 4 P’s (business majors, you know what I mean!) is almost meaningless when competing for a marketing internship, while working knowledge of InDesign will likely increase your chances.
Here’s what happened. My recruiter sent me 5-6 potential candidates for our marketing internship. During the candidate interviews, I felt like a dentist pulling teeth. Or worse yet, the aunt no one wanted to talk to at the annual holiday party. Seriously, some candidates gave one-word answers and had such low energy during the interview that I wanted to check their pulse. Pro tip: Don’t be like them.
At the end of the process, only one candidate seemed viable. He accepted a juicy Wall Street internship before receiving our offer. I wanted to give up and hire an experienced temp, but my recruiter called and begged me to meet one last candidate.
Enter Mia*, a rising college senior and transfer student. A few things stood out on her resume, neither of which she learned as part of her pricey college education: she owned an Etsy store for custom-designed party invitations and had experience using Adobe Creative Suite. Not only were these skills directly relevant, but they indicated three things:
- An entrepreneurial spirit
- Ambition to learn
- An eye for design
When we met for an interview, she came prepared with great questions and displayed an authentically positive attitude. She also sent a “Thank You” note, which some people might consider “old school,” but it shows gratitude and respect to me. All things being equal, I will choose the candidate who says “thank you” over someone who doesn’t.
Two weeks into her summer internship, I was so impressed that I offered Mia a full-time position when she graduated.
Here’s the additional secret sauce Mia brought to the table:
- Initiative – She volunteered to take on tasks that I didn’t even dream of asking her to do. I’d throw out an idea, and the conversation would go something like this, “Oh! I’ll do that. I’m not sure how to do it yet, but let me figure it out, and I’ll get back to you with some recommendations.”
- Creativity – “I have this idea for If your cool with it, I’d like to design something and show it to you.”
- Collaborative – “Do you need help with that? I can help you.”
- Organically Take on More –“I’m done with that. Do you have something else for me to work on?”
- Reliable – As a leader, I’m flexible and very supportive with time-off and vacation requests. No last-minute, unexplained absences for Mia. She always requested time-off in writing and with notice.
- Respectful – She always treated people with respect and acted with integrity.
When I build my teams, I look for these traits and skills whether someone has a degree or not.
After Mia, I hired two more interns that became full-time employees after graduation. Both went on to have successful careers at ADP.
ADP associates
Some questions you may have:
What do I do if an internship requires a specific degree?
Hard skills aren’t necessary for some internships because on-the-job training is provided. That said, some internships may require you to be a matriculated college/university student to qualify. Even so, this is where your soft skills can make a difference: collaboration, creativity, reliability, being a team player, etc. If the internship program offered is unaffiliated with current college/university attendance, you may only need the skills to do the job.
So, look at the actual internship requirements and gather your arsenal of soft and hard skills that can be transferrable to that role—then showcase them on a version of your resume.
What if the job required 2 years of relevant experience and I only have 1.5 years?
Again, examine your transferrable skills and highlight them. You may have less than two years of experience in that exact role, but what else do you bring to the table? Showing you are an avid learner and taking the initiative to develop other skills will demonstrate traits that could make you even more valuable than someone with those two years of experience.
So, when you interview for an internship or your first job, think beyond your resume. Think about how to showcase the skills you have that make you an asset, a functional part of a team, and uniquely you in a way that adds something to a role. Please, don’t be the candidate with a low pulse rate. Be the one who shines with positivity and shows how you will make the existing team even better and stronger.
How did it all turn out for Mia? She stayed with our company for over 3.5X longer than the average new grad. We even featured her in one of our employer brand campaigns for our campus channel. It was indeed a pleasure to watch her learn, grow, and thrive in our company, where she moved from marketing to a tech UX Design position. We are still in touch on Instagram as she travels the world and navigates the next chapter of her career.
For more, listen to Life @ ADP Podcast Episode 3: Tips for Interviewing, How to Make Lasting Impressions, and Helpful Hints.
*Name changed for anonymity
Interested in Internships, Marketing, Sales, or Technology positions at ADP?
Click here to search for technology positions, here for internships, and here for marketing & sales positions.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Future of Conversational AI: Here’s What You Should Know
Voice of Our People, Innovation, Career Insights
The more we understand what drives our situational awareness, consciousness, and creativity, the more we will evolve conversational AI and sentiment analysis with more robust outcomes.
Future of Conversational AI: Here’s What You Should Know
By Azfar Rizvi, Conversational Designer
“I’ll be back.”
We first heard this iconic line in the 1984 Hollywood blockbuster The Terminator, and it’s become a part of our collective consciousness ever since. It was mainstream media’s first attempt in depicting a fictional artificially intelligent system (Skynet), thus catapulting the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Then the depiction of AI went downhill. At least for a while.
People started to fear AI taking over the world through sentient neural networks. There are entire television series dedicated to playing on our fears about how antagonistic AI can be. And rightly so – drama and destruction sell more headlines. That’s the realist ex-journalist in me, LOL! As AI continues to fascinate humanity, our understanding of its limits and potential is evolving, and within it, there lies hope.
Azfar Framing in Action
This year, we finally transitioned from fearing robot overlords to cheering for sentient non-playable characters (NPC). The most recent Hollywood movie, Free Guy with Ryan Renolds, is a step in this direction. The story starts when an NPC develops self-awareness and strays from its programming. The NPC interacts with elements around itself in the game – it starts to think and feel. While this is interesting to posit, NPCs can’t develop sentience and act beyond their programming without human interventions.
The juxtaposition of the extremes has challenged us to think about the boundaries in AI. Corollary, these strides have been a significant force behind the digital transformation of businesses and entrepreneurship. We managed to bootstrap humanity’s collective learning with these recent advancements in AI and deep learning, manifesting the true meaning of the term global village. We’re truly connected and have transitioned from merely if/then/else chatbots to contextual ‘Conversational AI.’
ADP: Leading Digital Transformation
We provide payroll solutions for over 38 million workers worldwide. That means one in six US workers interfaces directly or indirectly with our universe. From a chatbot/conversational AI perspective, it means even more people will potentially interact with A.V.A., ADP’s virtual assistant. That’s where someone like me comes in and introduces Conversational Design (CxD).
Azfar Rizvi, UX Designer
ADP’s Service Technology leadership makes enormous strides to invest in the right infrastructure and create the right teams, producing trustworthy conversational AI platforms. We’re reimagining AVA to ensure our CxD is inclusive. Our persona aims to be innovative and empathetic, allowing intelligent responses to meet user expectations. Unlike conventional chatbots, ADP’s conversational AI understands the context of conversations and answers scenario-specific questions for users.
ADP provides our clients with the best payroll and HR experience, reflecting our processes and outcomes. Our teams work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the AVA experience has enough context and intelligence to solve our customers’ problems and help us learn for future iterations of our products. As a CxD and Persona evangelist, I relish the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues and industry leaders, envisioning what AVA could represent to the workforce. For many employees, AVA is their first touchpoint with ADP. I write, design, advocate, and build an empathetic experience for this reason. We want to set the tone right for a great experience from the beginning.
The Future of Conversational AI
In one of his letters, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “A man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.”
That quote summarizes the journey in conversational AI – with chatbots starting ambitiously and, as time passed, aligning more with market expectations. The CxD universe that was first created by telling jokes during the formative years of chatbots has now segued into more transactional experiences. We are iterating rapidly at ADP, and the learning allows us to create better, more empathetic conversational AI experience with higher engagement levels. While I may have transitioned from narrative film production and journalism, not a day goes by when I don’t think about the quintessential role storytelling plays in creating holistic CxD.
The chatbot market is projected to grow from USD 2.6 billion in 2019 to USD 9.4 billion by 2024 – with an overwhelming 80% of businesses expected to have some chatbot automation by the end of 2021. According to insights on MarketWatch, “The chatbot market is driven by factors, such as advancement in technology coupled with rising customer demands for self-service and 24*7 customer assistance at lower operational costs. However, lack of awareness about the outcomes of the use of chatbot technology with various applications to restrict the growth of the chatbot market.”
Azfar Visiting School
Good news: ADP is ready for the challenge! We’re working to humanize AVA, our conversational AI. We will continue to create more empathetic, accessible experiences as we build from the number of experiential and transactional use cases every year. Whether enhancing value around payroll or helping to create workforce management automation through AVA, we are determined to harness AI as a tool to boost productivity and enable even better support to our clients!
A significant part of these #ADPTech enhancements depends on our ability to incorporate sentiment analysis and predictive analytics to intelligently understand our users’ conversations and the intents behind those queries. These enhancements allow us to deliver a more robust solution to standard enterprise functions such as employee onboarding, HR-related questions, and global help desk.
All this gives me hope for the future of AI AVA’s global footprint allows us to continue innovating and designing more holistic experiences. As one of the pioneers in Conversational AI, ADP is constantly evolving at a pace limited only by our understanding of how the human brain works. The more we understand what drives our situational awareness, consciousness, and creativity, the more we will evolve conversational AI and sentiment analysis with more robust outcomes. As a storyteller who fell in love with AI, I remain enamored by the possibilities of our collective AI future.
In the weeks to come, let’s talk more about the opportunities around AI storytelling, leadership, and mentorship at ADP. I’ll be back! 🙂
Interested in a Conversation Design career at ADP?
We are hiring! Click here to see what we have available.
Tech & Innovation Blog
GPT’s Jesse W. Won Built In’s Inaugural Tech Innovation Award
Lifion, Innovation, Award
Jesse joined ADP just over a year ago, and his work on the Engineering Reliability (EREL) team for Lifion had already created an impact. He shared insights on how ADP is pursuing new technologies to benefit the world around us.
GPT’s Jesse W. Won Built In’s Inaugural Tech Innovation Award
Jesse W., the Senior Director System Reliability Management, recently won Built In’s Inaugural Tech Innovation Award, honoring visionaries in tech space and making significant contributions to the world of tech.
Jesse helped created a Global Reliability Operating Model that gives developers clearer direction, more agency, and improved job satisfaction while allowing them to deliver more innovative codes to customers faster and with fewer mistakes. His contribution to ADP represents a new culture of ownership-driven outcomes rooted in document-driven engineering, self-service onboarding, and human-centered designing.
Jesse focused on his team, “I want to give credits to the teams we work with. Without them, we would not be able to execute this larger strategy.” He worked with engineering leaders from product-minded approaches to backend engineering, connecting technology capabilities to business goals. Together, they build faster and safer software.
What are some fun facts about you?
I am an innovation leader, a prop plane pilot-in-training, and a vintage Japanese watch collector.
Could you tell us about the Engineering Reliability (EREL) team?
The EREL team is a platform engineering group that builds tools and infrastructure with a vision to help enable an outstanding developer experience at Lifion. It offers capabilities for feature teams to manage their security and develop their cloud-native infrastructure. My team works with them to provide self-service incident and change management.
A vital part of this success is the Global Reliability Operating Model (GROM), a holistic approach to building complex software in the cloud. GROM has allowed software teams to work autonomously, pushing collaboration to the max and minimizing complexity within Lifion’s systems. EREL is constantly building upon its systems, focused on feedback to understand what tools and pipelines can evolve to improve the user experience.
What words would you use to describe engineers at work?
Simplify, Innovate and Grow. EREL actively measures its impact based on real data available to them within the systems. Utilizing real-time data makes this possible and provides a creative space for all engineers at work.
Jesse (right) with his family
What advice do you have for those with a focus on innovation?
Separate the ideation and inspiration from the execution allows your leadership and individual contributors to devote their full intellectual capacity towards solving problems in the most innovative way.
Don’t limit yourself to what you think is possible. Look out three, four, five, or even twenty steps ahead of what can be done right now, then figure out the north start you need and inspire your teams to meet the larger business goals.
Congratulations, Jesse and the EREL team!
Learn more about working at Lifion and make sure to subscribe to our blog!
Tech & Innovation Blog
Women Engineer Magazine Top 50 Company.
Recognition, Awards, Women in STEM
ADP is thrilled to earn a place on this year’s 30th Annual “Top 50 Employers” in Woman Engineer Magazine for a second year in a row.
Readers of Woman Engineer Magazine chose top US companies they would most like to work for and/or whom they believe would provide a positive working environment for women engineers.
They chose ADP as one of the Top 50.
ADP is proud to build diverse teams that represent the diversity of our clients to drive innovation. At ADP, we focus on inclusion and reflect a diversity lens within our products.
Our focus on such programs as our partnership with Girls Who Code and our Women in Technology Leadership Mentoring Program has led to distinctions such as AnitaB.org naming ADP a 2020 Top Companies for Women Technologists Winner in the Large Technical Workforce category.
AnitaB.org recognized ADP for making the most progress toward women’s equity among companies with large technical workforces. We know that having a more diverse organization makes us stronger, and we are proud of supporting women in technology.
Our Global Product and Technology (GPT) organization stays close to industry benchmarks and has adopted measures to continue to drive progress. ADP also supports philanthropic organizations that nurture the career development of girls and women in the technology field, helping them fulfill their potential as future tech leaders.
Our technology leaders are committed to driving diversity, including recruiting and developing women technologists while providing opportunities for them to grow their careers.
Some recent product examples include the ADP DataCloud Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Dashboards to help companies see real-time workforce demographics. Some other products to promote a diverse workforce include our Candidate Relevancy tools and the award-winning Pay Equity Explorer.
We strive to offer personal development opportunities through self-driven platforms, and our International Women’s Network and our Empower Committee focused on Women in STEM. Regardless of your role, we offer opportunities for women technologists. Meet Some of the Women of ADP DevOps and how they drive data-centric development.
Some recent product examples include the ADP DataCloud Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Dashboards to help companies see real-time workforce demographics. Some other products to promote a diverse workforce include our Candidate Relevancy tools and the award-winning Pay Equity Explorer.
Visit us at tech.adp.com and learn more about what we do.
Tech & Innovation Blog
ADP Wins 2020 Breakthrough AI Award
Recognition, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science
Accessible Video Controls
Video: AI and machine learning to help our clients
[TEXT] Welcome to ADP DataCloud
[DESCRIPTION] In animation, a man speaks.
[TEXT] Hi, I’m Jack. I’m excited to share some of the recently launched DataCloud Features that are helping our clients navigate the Dynamic Workplace.
[DESCRIPTION] The word “Start” on a screen. Underneath it, the numbers 1 through 4. Jack touches number 1.
[TEXT] We’re helping Organizations Understand how their workforce has been impacted by Covid-19. How? Data Mashups. Data Mashups – Covid Workforce Impact. Data Mashup refreshes daily, displaying the # of Covid-19 cases documented by Johns Hopkins. This has helped organize and understand how their workforce has been impacted by Covid-19.
[DESCRIPTION] Jack presses 2.
[TEXT] We’ve identified Millions in tax credit opportunities for our clients. How? Say Hello to Storyboards. Storyboards – Employee Retention Tax Credit. Storyboards helps clients easily identify if they are eligible for Employee Retention Tax Credits. The platform will automatically calculate the tax credit opportunity based on eligible employees. E.R. T.C. has proactively surface to millions and tax credit opportunities for our clients.
[TEXT] 3. We are helping millions of Practitioners monitor employee sentiment about returning to the workplace. How? Meet Return to Work. Return to Work – Readiness Survey. Practitioners can now send short surveys to collect worker Readiness and sentiment about returning to the workplace. Surveys are delivered to workers through the easy-to-use a. D. P. Mobile app. Practitioners are monitoring employee sentiment about returning to the workplace.
[TEXT] 4. We’ve helped Practitioners Answer key questions about their organization. How? With Organizational Benchmarks. Benchmarks – Organizational Benchmarks. Clients can take a deep-dive into their organizational data and benchmark their company against peers. Uncover organizational questions like what percentage of labor cost do my peers spend on sales and marketing. Discover how their head count breakdown compares to their industry. ADP DataCloud, Learn, Get Inspired, Join the Conversation
Congratulations to our DataCloud team! Recognized for its impressive capabilities and significant value it brings to businesses, ADP’s DataCloud won a 2020 AI Breakthrough Award in the “Best AI-based Solution for Data Science” category. Watch the video.
In a constantly shifting world of work, businesses, now more than ever, are looking for a solution that helps them make informed decisions about their organization. Enter ADP DataCloud, a powerful people analytics solution.
Utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), the solution analyzes aggregated, anonymized HR and compensation data from over 30 million workers in more than 730,000 organizations to allow companies to benchmark and compare compensation data, turnover rate, and overtime. Endless possibilities open for better managing a global workforce when pairing this empirical data with the power of machine learning (ML) and AI.
The AI Breakthrough Awards recognize the top companies, technologies, and products in the Artificial Intelligence industry today. As more and more companies join the growing global AI market, this awards program honors those that stand out among a crowded field of competitors. In other categories, winners included IBM, Capital One, NetApp, and others.
Congratulations to the team for all your hard work to deliver amazing solutions and real-time trends to our clients. Way to break through!
Tech & Innovation Blog
Next-Gen Payroll Captures the 2020 Top HR Product Award
Recognition, Awards
ADP’s products continue to earn awards at a time when our clients need our innovative products the most. We are proud to be named a “2020 Top HR Product” by HR Executive.
ADP’s products continue to earn awards at a time when our clients need our innovative products the most. We are proud to be named a “2020 Top HR Product” by HR Executive.
ADP’s Next-Gen Payroll Platform enables companies of all types – from local small businesses to global conglomerates – to pay their employees their way. This real-time global payroll platform gives clients and their employees unprecedented transparency into how they are paid, along with predictive insights and suggested actions. Companies no longer need to guess the impact of regulatory changes but can proactively model these changes in real-time and plan for the future. At the same time, employees, contractors, and gig workers all have complete visibility into how their pay is calculated along with actionable tips on improving their financial wellness. Who couldn’t use that?
Built natively on the public cloud, this real-time global payroll platform:
- Gives practitioners and employees unprecedented transparency into how they are paid;
- Empowers practitioners to more easily understand the effects of regulatory and policy changes, enabling a stronger strategic partnership with business leaders by demonstrating bottom-line impact; and
- Delivers a breakthrough employee experience with predictive insights to model and understand the effect of potential life changes.
Winning solutions at the HR Technology Conference are selected based on several criteria, including their level of innovation, value-add to the HR professional, intuitiveness for the user, and ability to deliver on what they promise.
