“Ego checking is not exactly a LinkedIn registered skill.” Andrew Gadomski
Welcome to another edition of WTF 2020 An Influencers’ Guide to Navigating the Shit Show. Today our virtual WTF 2020 Bus tour takes us to the Jersey Shore and the Captain of Data – A Workforce and HR Data Scientist and Analyst, my good friend Andrew Gadomski.

My motivation for starting this series was simple…

On many days, I just became consumed, distracted, disheartened, shocked, and horrified by the continuing shit show we are subjected to on a daily basis. I was feeling completely overwhelmed and decided to reach out to a group of doers, of influencers, of smart, successful people I’ve met and interviewed over the past 15 years to find out how they are able to tune out the bullshit and focus on the positive. How they’re able to stay productive. And what advice they can share with mere mortals such as myself.

Here’s a brief on Andrew. And I scraped this right off of his LinkedIn profile because it’s so well written.

Andrew started Aspen Advisors in 2006 (name changed to Aspen Analytics in 2018) because he saw an opportunity to help the many recruiting and HR departments that were burning time and money on tools they didn't understand, using training that was taught once and forgotten, and engaging vendors who could not prove their service value (let alone find and respect candidates consistently).

Most of HR and the C-suite didn't get Andrew’s vision. (No surprise there, right? As Andrew has noted, “Ego checking is not exactly a LinkedIn registered skill.” Andrew was talking about data and business analytics in 2006, back when guessing, gut feel, and "we have always done it that way" reigned supreme. He learned to teach during the sale...and became a pretty good instructor in the process.

Quoting Andrew: “Flash forward 10 years, and several hundred thousand hires later. It has been a wild ride working with the world's largest companies and staffing agencies.”In 2008 NYU asked Andrew join their staff as an adjunct professor. He loved it,  got hooked on teaching and speaking and have made education in the classroom and on the conference circuit a pillar in his career. And speaking from personal experience, anyone watching and listening to this who’s had the benefit of participating in one of Andrew’s classrooms, sessions or workshops knows he’s damn good at it.

Andrew has a BS in Marketing and Business Logistics from Penn State and a Master of Science in Business Analytics from the NYU Stern School of Business.
TALKING POINTS:

* Andrew, it’s great to see you and have this opportunity to catch up.
* How’s life on the Jersey shore? How’s your family?
* How has the past 8 months changed your business, and how have you pivoted to virtual everything?
* You work with a lot of large corporations. What are they telling you? Is there any common thread in these conversations?
* You’re a data geek. So what is the data telling you about 2021?
* Tell us about your Talent Acquisition Certificate Program.
* What have been some of your personal challenges during COVID-19 and how have you addressed or overcome them?
* As you know, a lot of folks we know working in HR, in talent acquisition, in recruiting, have been laid off or furloughed – what advice can you share with them on how to find and land new opportunities?
* The vendor community in HR and TA has been equally decimated. What’s your take?
* How do you stay positive and motivated?
* What, if anything, has inspired you in 2020?
* Finally, what advice would you like to share with our audience?
* How can folks connect with you?

RESOURCES:

* Aspen Analytics 
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