This week was the Education Business Forum in NY, the conference where we learn about how to run and grow an education technology business.
There were sessions on funding, investing, marketing, selling, hiring and managing, and transforming businesses. Here is a short summary of two of the sessions. And if you are hungry for more, well, I guess you should attend the Education Industry Summit in June.
Finding the right people
We are all called upon to either hire people or at some point look for a job ourselves. Here are resume and interview tips for you if you find yourself in either role.
What companies look for in employees
- Employees who will be good ambassadors
- People who are looking to learn and seek out opportunities
- People who attract other competent people
- People who demonstrate values and integrity
- A person who shows a good balance of humility and self-confidence
What companies look to avoid in employees
- Candidates who cannot give examples of success or failure
- Candidates who focus on the short term
- People who say they are ready for the next step in their career (because at some point soon they will likely be saying that to another company)
- People who give “there was too much change” as their reason for leaving
- Someone who doesn’t ask questions or doesn’t ask good questions during the interview
Privacy
While Europe passed their continent-wide privacy law, in the US, it’s been up to each state, and states often model their laws on California. This year, California passed its CCPA privacy law, which, according to one policy wonk at the conference is “the worst written statute I’ve ever seen” with ambiguities, contradictions, and even plenty of typos.
The law applies to any business that reaches 50,000 devices, people, or households. It does not apply to nonprofits. If you expect to do business in California you need to comply by January 2020 or risk $7500 per instance (per person or device) in fines.
In oversimplified terms, the law requires companies to provide
- Clear notice that you are collecting information
- Transparency in disclosing what data you have and are collecting, and you must provide a copy of the information you have on a person upon request.
- Opt-out capabilities that are easily accessible and obvious, and once opting out you cannot contact that person again, sell that person’s information, and an individual can authorize another individual to make that request for them
- Deletion, the ability for someone to request you delete all the information you have on them
- Non-discrimination, you cannot provide the same services at different prices to different people or groups of people, or different services at the same price to different people.
While the law is a clear attempt to reign in Facebook and Google, one of the ambiguous areas is education. If a student or parent requests deletion, but if your agreement with a school or district requires you to track student achievement, which of those two takes precedence?
The SIIA is monitoring this and trying to get the state to clarify how it applies to education technology. If you are a member of the SIIA, you can contact SIIA Public Policy for clarification.