So as someone who does a lot of stats in the private sector, and has known a lot of stats can employees…
They are still woefully behind industry in practices and efficiency.
It’s still incredibly difficult to just pull data from statscan, and they could be storing/distributing it 100x more efficiently with modern open formats like parquet – which would massively cut costs. The vector system they use is incredibly confusing.
They do now have containerized notebookd and an on demand cluster. So that’s something we had 10 years ago.
From the people I know there, they don’t feel they’re learning, they feel their skills are useless and atrophying, and leadership sounds like it’s filled by brown nosing morons. There’s also a lot of people who I would never have hired there – but same with big corps.
It’s funny, I’d love access to their data, or to do work for them, but I could never work there.
ETA: I should clarify, I don’t think the problem is entirely too many people, it’s shit leadership, overly burdensome rules, lack of tech innovation (admittedly, they are improving).
I think one issue that really bites government workers is the idea that you spend your whole career in one place, from university to retirement. Frankly, that’s a horrible idea in the 21st century. You need to bring in people with expertise, you need diversity of thought, and you need people who have worn many hats in their lives.
The field of analytics has changed a lot in 10-15 years, and Stat Can has not had a good pace.
They do now have containerized notebookd and an on demand cluster. So that’s something we had 10 years ago.
Containers violate iso27002. The pros know that chasing the sparkle is a bad idea.
spend your whole career in one place, from university to retirement. Frankly, that’s a horrible idea in the 21st century. You need to bring in people with expertise
No. You train your staff because you value them – you don’t ditch experience. You’ll discover the truth of this eventually.
Wow, StatsCan is hit particularly hard.
So as someone who does a lot of stats in the private sector, and has known a lot of stats can employees…
They are still woefully behind industry in practices and efficiency.
It’s still incredibly difficult to just pull data from statscan, and they could be storing/distributing it 100x more efficiently with modern open formats like parquet – which would massively cut costs. The vector system they use is incredibly confusing.
They do now have containerized notebookd and an on demand cluster. So that’s something we had 10 years ago.
From the people I know there, they don’t feel they’re learning, they feel their skills are useless and atrophying, and leadership sounds like it’s filled by brown nosing morons. There’s also a lot of people who I would never have hired there – but same with big corps.
It’s funny, I’d love access to their data, or to do work for them, but I could never work there.
ETA: I should clarify, I don’t think the problem is entirely too many people, it’s shit leadership, overly burdensome rules, lack of tech innovation (admittedly, they are improving).
I think one issue that really bites government workers is the idea that you spend your whole career in one place, from university to retirement. Frankly, that’s a horrible idea in the 21st century. You need to bring in people with expertise, you need diversity of thought, and you need people who have worn many hats in their lives.
The field of analytics has changed a lot in 10-15 years, and Stat Can has not had a good pace.
Containers violate iso27002. The pros know that chasing the sparkle is a bad idea.
No. You train your staff because you value them – you don’t ditch experience. You’ll discover the truth of this eventually.
As an orange man once said, if you don’t count, you don’t have a problem.