Dhanya Menon

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There’s no such thing as finding the right time to catch up on your reading, is there? If you want to, you will.

Agreed not everyone is a bibliophile. But there are so many of us who find so many answers we seek in books from wonderful authors. Perhaps, reading is also an acknowledgment of willingness and humility, accepting that there is so much you don’t know.

Most people who aspire to become better, be it in their personal or work lives, look for books that introduce them to a plethora of ideas and possibilities.

As John Coleman says in his HBR article,

“deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy, and personal effectiveness.”

Hopefully, this list of best HR books for HR professionals we’ve put together, after speaking with many managers and doing a bit of research, will make your life exponentially more fulfilling!

Best HR Management Books

1. Topgrading: The proven hiring and promoting method that turbocharges company performance by Brad D. Smart

Brandford D. Smart, in his book shares a strategic hiring system created by him, that, he has used quadraple the hiring success rates for hundreds of clients he has worked with. This book is an advanced compliation of Brad’s experience he has acquired while working with global giants like General Electric and Honeywell.

In this book, the author shares:

• Simplified Topgrading methods for entry-level jobs
• The new Topgrading snapshot, which screens out weak candidates in 15 seconds
• The latest version of Topgrading interview script
• Case studies from 35 companies
• Additional innovations created by Topgraders

Whether you want to dive deep into Topgrading hiring processes or upskill yourself with the topic, this book has rich in information by the expert himself!

Buy the book here.

2. The everything HR kit by John Pitzier

Want to get back to the roots of HR? Well, look no further than this user-friendly guide that helps you navigate through all the best practices of recruiting, interviewing, screening, selecting and managing employee performance. Besides giving you ample information on the basics of HR, this handbook provides you with a toolkit to improve your processes in today’s world and consistently streamline them.

Buy the book here.

3. Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street

Just like the thoughtful title of the book, co-authors Geoff Smart and Randy Street emphasize the common challenges bigger organizations struggle with—ultimately falling into the trap of unsuccessful hiring.

This New York Times Bestseller emphasizes Smart and Street’s A Method of Hiring and discusses the fundamentals of hiring, which when implemented can give you the hiring success rate of 90%.

The book talks about:

• Avoiding common vodoo hiring methods
• Generating the flow of A players
• Asking the right interview questions

Buy the book here.

4. HR from the outside in: Six competencies for the future of Human Resources by Dave Ulrich, Mike Ulrich & Jon Younger

A top business book with survey data, examples, and stories, HR from the Outside In is brimming with insights for HR leaders. Changing and uncertain business contexts world over require HR professionals to invest in themselves and be equipped with new competencies while attempting to link corporate strategy and HR initiatives. The authors discuss six competencies:

1. Strategic positioner
2. Capability builder
3. Change champion
4. Technology component
5. HR innovator and integrator
6. Credible activist

These competencies will shape the future of HR. “Outside-in means that HR must turn outside business trends and stakeholder expectations into internal actions.” This book is a treasure trove of information to help HR professionals deliver value to employees and organizations and to external stakeholders, such customers, investors, and communities.

Buy the book here.

5. Powerful by Patty McCord

Patty McCord has helped create the Netflix Culture Deck—yes, the same deck that talks about the “no rules” culture. She has been the Chief Talent Officer at Netflix for fourteen years, and share her learnings from Netflix and other companies in the Silicon Valley she worked at.

In the book, McCord argues the age-old corporate HR practices that need to be abolished, and advocates practicing radical honestly. She breaks down the abstract subject “designing workplace culture” into actionable steps.

If you’re someone who is inspired by Netflix’s workplace culture and wants to understand and implement it in your company, then this book is worth a read!

But the book here.

6. Good to great: Why some companies make the leap…and others don’t by Jim Collins

A book that’s surely on every list of must-reads, Good to Great outlines six basic characteristics of companies that moved from good to great — Level 5 Leadership, hiring the right people, disciplined thinking, hedgehog concept or focusing on doing one thing really well, culture of freedom and entrepreneurship within a culture of discipline, sensible technological innovation, and the flywheel concept where success depends on a combination of small steps. Although some might argue that in this book is good or great depends on more quantifiable criteria, Jim Collings still has some amazing insights in this prequel to Built to Last to help HR managers take their teams to the next level. Companies such as Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Gillette, Wells Fargo, and Kroger are some of the good-to-great companies the author uses in this book.

Buy the book here.

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7. People skills by Robert Bolton

First published in 1979, this communication-skills bible continues to fascinate readers. Robert Bolton, Ph.D., is President of Ridge Consultants, a New York-based consultancy firm that trains companies to have meaningful conversations and improving interpersonal interactions.

Good examples, scenarios, and techniques are used to explain concepts such as effective listening, conflict resolution, and assertiveness to enhance verbal and nonverbal communications in the workplace. An HR professional could even read Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence along with this and have more than enough tips to overcome all sorts of communication barriers. Many readers have been asking for a shorter revised edition with language and examples more relevant to the 2000s.

Buy the book here.

8. Love’em or lose’em: Getting good people to stay? By Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

With reports on employee engagement and retention and their impact on organizational performance popping up every few months, a practical book such as this is a must-buy for every HR professional. Kaye and Jordan-Evans discuss 26 strategies to keep employees happy and make them stay.

The concepts may seem obvious but helpful navigation tools, interesting examples, stats, to-do lists, cultural references, and an overall neat execution make this book well worth the effort. For any HR manager or supervisor, employee relationships take up most part of their day and knowing how to effectively manage them is key. A manager self-test called The Retention/Engagement Index (REI) helps the reader navigate to chapters that would be most useful for them. (Also read – Best ways to improve employee engagement and retention)

Buy the book here.

9. Work rules! Insights from inside Google that will transform how you live and lead by Laszlo Bock

Forbes calls it a true masterpiece. And that it is. Under Laszlo Bock, former SVP of People at Google, one of the most innovative companies in the world, was named “the Best Company to Work For more than 30 times.” Drawing on his amazing experience, he chalks out a plan to attract the best talent in 14 chapters. Naturally, every company has its own character and can’t blindly copy Google’s unconventional ops and mission, but it can certainly use some amazing takeaways Bock shares — such as trust and empower employees, be experimental, create a high-freedom workplace, measure effectiveness of managers against outcomes you seek, believe in the power of the crowd, remember that not all perks are costly, and use interesting hiring practices driven by data. This gem of a book on Google’s HR approaches certainly has so many lessons to inspire HR and talent acquisition professionals.

Buy the book here.

10. Drive by Daniel H. Pink

A bestselling author and leading thinker on business and behavior, Daniel H. Pink pens a challenging and provoking book on motivation. Pink says most of what we know about what motivates us is wrong; the traditional carrot-and-stick approach is flawed and could end up doing more harm, such as leading to diminished performance, poor creativity, and unethical behavior, than good.

Using case studies and scientific research to make his case, Pink offers deep insights into an intrinsic and extrinsic motivator and their far-reaching implications in the business environment. In this book, Pink “reveals the three elements of true motivation: Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives; Mastery – the urge to get better and better at something that matters; Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.” Really valuable lessons on goal setting, rewards, and motivation for an HR manager, right?

Buy the book here.

11. Why employees don’t do what they’re supposed to do and what you can do about it by Ferdinand F Fournies

Surely, every HR professional can relate to the title. Ferdinand Fournies, a former Columbia Graduate School professor and a renowned business management speaker and consultant, bases this book on the responses from 25,000 managers.

He talks about 16 different reasons why employees don’t do what they are expected to do and what managers can do about it to boost employee performance. A quick, easy, and enlightening read, this book outlines a practical framework for preventive management, getting rid of roadblocks via effective communication, and leading change — problems are acknowledged, solutions are mutually agreed upon, and every achievement is reinforced. The revised version also discusses practical aspects of modern workplace trends such as telecommuting, flexi-time, temp workers, and occupational stress and safety.

Definitely, this one’s a must-include in the HR business bookshelf!

Buy the book here.

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12. Fierce conversations: Achieving success at work and in life, one conversation at a time by Susan Scott

Yet another amazing practical book on the magic powerful communication wields! She says, “While no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a career, a business, a marriage, or a life, any single conversation can.” Fierce Conversations, targeted mainly at a business audience, emphasizes the need for tough, authentic conversations to enable growth and gives you seven guiding principles to take away with you.

For some readers, the book may be a tad too long with so many anecdotes, but for most, the book provides incredible action items and models to lead change through richer relationships. For HR people, Scott’s book can be hugely helpful in tackling issues in fast-paced business environments and make deeper connections with people.

Buy the book here.

13. Aligning human resources and business strategy by Linda Holbeche

Based on UK practices, this book has good insights for HR business partners. Dr. Linda Holbeche tells you “how you can strengthen and prove the relationship between people strategy and business success through your approach to performance and development and impress at the highest levels” (from the back cover).

The book is highly recommended for senior HR strategists. It discusses in detail, relying on research and examples, the need for strategic HRM and its hows and whys. The book helps HR better understand its ability to deliver value, align strategy, and influence culture.

Buy the book here.

14. Hiring for attitude by Mark Murphy

Bestselling author Mark Murphy, who is also the founder and CEO of Leadership IQ, says that most organizations have got their hiring approaches wrong because they are typically looking only for people with the right technical competencies. In their study, Leadership IQ found that 46% of the 20,000 new hires tracked over 3 years failed with the first 18 months! They found that coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation, technical competence, and temperament were the top 5 reasons and concluded that “attitude” was the main reason they failed.

In his book, Murphy tells you how to evaluate attitudinal characteristics to identify top performers through tests and sample interview questions, using case studies from companies such as Southwest Airlines and The Four Seasons. An easy, insightful read for all talent acquisition professionals out there!

Buy the book here.

15. The employee experience advantage by Jacob Morgan

Morgan tells you how to win the war for talent by giving employees the workspaces they want, the tools they need, and a culture they can celebrate. He argues that through better employee experiences, companies can address issues related to hiring and retention, customer satisfaction, and innovation. He offers a holistic view of employee experience through examples, data, case studies, and stories to ensure that employees come to work because they “want” to and not because they “have” to. Morgan believes you can achieve this by designing the culture, technology, and physical spaces the right way. To more how to enhance employee engagement, HR professionals should invest in this valuable read today.

Buy the book here.

Which HR management book is on your reading list?

And that’s a wrap! But, we would love to know which book out of these are you reading next. Until then, happy reading and upskilling.

It wouldn’t be too presumptuous to say that half the population considers their jobs are just to get them by. Forbes says 52.3% are unhappy at work, and 63% are not engaged in their jobs. People who are over 35 (says Robert Half) seem to be more listless and unhappy than their younger colleagues who still have some of the stardust in their eyes. Alright, so most people don’t enjoy their jobs. Not news, is it?

Engineers don’t have a better story to tell either. The ennui or disillusionment seems to be a part of their work lives. Even as we are moving from a reactive economy to a predictive one, engineering remains one of the more coveted professions. It now offers degrees that are quite versatile, with enough job roles waiting for you to try. However, many engineers have voted for job dissatisfaction for various reasons, in informal polls .

What makes them unhappy?

Overworked, over-enthusiastic

Most engineers will agree that they tend to feel burned out faster because of a number of hours they put in, especially in the initial days of the job. Long work hours can take a toll on their personal lives, fitness, health, and mental well-being. Although some people simply aren’t willing to put in more than 40 hours a week, there are a few eager beavers trying to impress management or the truly passionate ones who spend a lot of focused hours at the office. The upside is that these engineers who “outwork” their colleagues do typically get ahead quicker. The downside is that they can become disenchanted in no time if they don’t see any tangible results, not to mention becoming unwell over time.

What the company can do:

Appreciate the engineers who show up early and stay late, doing productive work to meet deadlines. But encourage a healthy work-life balance for all your employees by providing exercise access, company outings, recreational areas, community engagement activities, flexible schedules, team building events, training or workshops, and childcare facilities. In the long run, your company will be more attractive to potential hires. Also, you can improve employee retention and be home to loyal, better-quality workers.

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Underpaid, undervalued

Engineers in big tech firms may not identify with this because they tend to enjoy several benefits above-market compensation brings. On the whole, we recognize the engineering profession as one that guarantees financial security. And many engineers feel that they are, more or less, being paid adequately for the job they do. But in fledgling firms, this isn’t always the case. Apart from the insane hours, engineers are on their toes all the time trying to fix issues, whether it is complex machinery or code, before they escalate. The young engineering graduates often complain that their appraisals follow a bell-curve. In this infographic, 50.4% of engineers said they were qualified enough to make more money.

What the company can do:

Offer qualified engineers a decent compensation; a griping lot will negatively impact productivity and company morale. As an engineering firm, ensure that you have proper work scheduling and project management in place. In startups, engineers often feel that they are grossly underpaid (some are overpaid!) after working almost 70 to 80 hours per week. Losing skilled tech talent to the competition is easily avoided by ensuring fairness in your hiring practices and in your efforts to retain, recognize, and reward.

Under-prepared, confused

Young graduates come into jobs excited and hoping to become Q (from James Bond) and change the world. But in reality, they become disgruntled by having to deal with dull tasks like checking for inconsistencies in sheet numbers across design drafts. Some of them even quit the profession few months after realizing that either they were ill-informed or that engineering was much better at the Uni. According to Michael MacRae (ASME), engineers are “tasked with projects that require technical skills without also providing an environment offering collaboration, problem-solving, and other perks that satisfy the engineering mind and soul.”This is also cited as a reason, because these graduates are not prepared enough for all that the job requires them to do.

What the company can do:

Remember to outline the exact responsibilities that define a role at the outset. Make them understand that along with interesting tasks, some gray jobs will be part of the position. Tell them what opportunities for upward mobility exist. Clearly chalk out a plan for advancement for technical staff. Create a positive work environment with helpful, patient senior staff or experts to smoothen any wrinkles. Invest in your employee, and you will see how their appreciation translates into personal and company growth. Also, remember to have dedicated personnel to liaise with the engineers and other non-technical staff to minimize conflicts and lack of clarity between requirements and expected solutions.

Apart from these, what else can companies do to keep their engineers happy?

Cultivating a cooperative and positive workplace atmosphere

Encourage professional growth and skill advancement among your team. Foster a climate that prioritizes teamwork and the exchange of knowledge to resolve conflicts and boost collaboration. Establish an environment grounded in mutual respect, where each member feels appreciated and supported. Promote transparent and collaborative communication within the team. Explore literature like “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott, and “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin for further inspiration.

Elevating code quality and sustainability

Begin by instituting code review methodologies (such as mob/pair programming or pull requests) to guarantee adherence to best practices and superior code quality. Prioritize automated testing to identify issues early and confirm code accuracy. Plan for ongoing enhancements and allocate time for substantial refactoring and addressing technical debt to boost code sustainability. Encourage, or even mandate, comprehensive documentation in everyday tasks to improve clarity and ease of ongoing maintenance.

Refining recruitment and interview techniques

Recognize that many engineers struggle with conducting interviews. Select and train a group specifically for interviewing, focusing on effective and impartial methods. Develop a structured interview process that assesses candidates on relevant skills and problem-solving capabilities, steering clear of irrelevant challenges. Always offer constructive feedback to applicants to guide their development, regardless of hiring decisions.

Advocating for work-life harmony and employee wellness

Promote a culture that values the balance between work and personal life, and supports employee well-being. This includes refraining from late-night communications and offering flexible working conditions, especially as many in software engineering find remote or adaptable work more productive and enjoyable. Encourage breaks, physical activities, and screen-free time in innovative ways, such as scheduling meetings for slightly shorter durations. Provide support and resources for mental and physical health.

Encouraging ongoing improvement and learning

Highlight the significance of innovation, experimentation, and staying informed about industry developments. Build a learning-focused culture, offering groups for skill development, book clubs, and open training sessions. Motivate staff to embrace new technologies and enhance their abilities, potentially incorporating learning into performance reviews. Ensure there are methods to objectively evaluate and recognize continuous learning and skill development.

Streamlining operations and minimizing bureaucracy

Assess and refine internal processes to cut down on unnecessary meetings, bureaucratic hurdles, and inefficient practices. Give teams more autonomy in decision-making and reduce unnecessary approval steps, handoffs, reviews, or other procedural inefficiencies. Adopt agile methodologies to foster a more flexible, efficient, and adaptable work environment.

Championing diversity and inclusivity

Work towards creating a welcoming atmosphere for people from various backgrounds. Actively pursue diversity and inclusivity within the organization. If not already in place, implement policies and practices that ensure equal opportunities for all employees.

Although the perks and compensation for tech-related jobs in big companies can be really attractive, cookie-cutter corporate environments may not work for some. Respect your engineers and empower them. Along with flexible work schedules, give them some autonomy and listen to their opinions. Give them the freedom to solve problems via innovative approaches in a results-driven culture. Groom them for leadership roles and train them on the managerial skills required to climb the ladder. Support their work-related interests and give them opportunities for career progression via access to and training on new tools and technologies. Conduct internal hackathons and other challenges to boost employee engagement by helping employees showcase their skills and foster collaboration and innovation. Recognize their contributions and ensure they see what difference their work is making to the company or the community.

If none of these work, then ask them what they need to be happy and productive. That has to work!

Hire your first engineers who love their work for free –

Grow into a major player in the global blockchain space with an innovative mindset.

The concept of a digital economy has rewritten business models you’ve adopted so far. Over 90 percent of organizations want a digital transformation strategy, anticipating cost reduction, increased innovation, and business growth in the future. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about products, services, technology, culture, or data; everything revolves around delivering value to customers and thwarting competitors.

And the booming blockchain technology has quite the same objectives.

With the technology still being in its infancy, people are unsure about how to make inroads. This post aims to convince the reader that whether it is a city, an organization, or an individual, an innovative mindset seems to be the answer to adjusting course and deriving maximum value.

What is blockchain technology?

An open, decentralized database that keeps a record of all digital transactions across a peer-to-peer network—that’s blockchain. All members with access to the network can view and validate the transactions using cryptographic keys, without a third party, such as a bank. The computers in the network are called nodes. This shared database with a secure audit trail is hard to tamper with. Blockchain is expected to tackle challenges such as duplication and control of information.

To understand how blockchain works, watch this great video from IBM using the diamond industry as an example:

Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, and Ethereum, a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts, are perhaps the most famous examples.

How can your company start implementing blockchain?

If you’ve decided that using blockchain will expand frontiers for you, then what next?

According to Deloitte, there are six key steps for companies to get started with blockchain:

• Inspiration (interact with think tanks or labs like MIT Media Lab)
• Education (gather information about practical implementation)
• Ideation (generate ideas, categorize, and prioritize)
• Collaboration (test and refine ideas with leading industry people)
• Prototyping (create a rapid or breadboard prototype)
• Implementation (critical, testing and validation phase)

Studies show that it doesn’t matter whether a country or a company wants to leverage blockchain, an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset is a key prerequisite. Ideation is a crucial step, where you can expect action when your ideation is effective. Get engaged employees to improve the existing capabilities or discover new possibilities using blockchain to unlock new use cases.

To make innovation in this space happen, companies typically look for implementation of ideas within or partner with vendors. Budding blockchain startups in the fintech ecosystem need backing in terms of capital, skills, mentorship, and infrastructure. Whereas, legacy companies tie up with accelerators to better their impact and reach. BFSI institutions and other firms are forming alliances, sponsoring innovation labs, and creating incubator programs on several platforms.

Scott Robinson from Plug and Play, a startup accelerator and open innovation platform, says that accelerators, incubators, and hackathons “show very quickly if a use case is something that makes sense for large corporations and they paint a pathway to matriculate the technology into the [legacy player’s] tech team.”

Many banks and other financial institutions are using hackathons to explore this emerging technology. Also, blockchain companies are struggling to encourage widespread adoption, especially when trying to reach the management of incumbents. Startups that are blockchain enthusiasts find that hackathons can give them that much-needed access to corporates in the financial domain, and the latter can work with these experts to make the most of blockchain. Companies also participate in hackathons for the wonderful networking opportunities they offer.

A hackathon, which involves all the six steps Deloitte talks about, is a great tool to discover talent and develop breakthrough products or services. The highly focused event leverages an innovative mentality and the right skills to augment the value chain. Crowdsourcing ideas from developers could be the only way for now to find financial solutions using this potentially disruptive technology.

Chainhack, Dutch Blockchain Hackathon, Blockchain Virtual GovHack, Hyperledger Hackathon, and Consensus are a few popular hackathons that drive home the point that Ishmael Malik, CEO of Blockchain Lab, makes: “Blockchain and Hackathons are poised to redefine the entire tech innovation lifecycle, accelerating by orders of magnitude technological progress.”

Then there is ether.camp (a recurring virtual hackathon), which “is a project aimed to create the ideal innovation environment for startups by utilising blockchain technology for the release of the Virtual Accelerator.”

Malik adds: “The future of such Hackathon-led innovation as highlighted by IBM and Intel in relation to the HyperLedger Hackathon, illustrates the ability for such a format in harnessing, showcasing and market testing new advancing technologies. Furthermore, it allows for previously untapped hacker skill sets to form into teams and generate innovative new ideas and products.”

Why now is the time to explore and invest in blockchain

This foundational distributed ledger technology is a mini-revolution all right.

Blockchain researcher Bettina Warburg says in her great TED talk, human beings keep trying to lower uncertainty to exchange value. Just as formal institutions such as banks or governments do according to American economist Douglass North. And just as blockchain technology will transform our economy by reducing uncertainty in not knowing who you are dealing with, not having visibility into a transaction, and not having recourse…to an extent.

Once you have understood the applications of blockchain and its implications for your business, you need to explore its potential and find a challenge that can be solved. That is, identify a use case → build a proof of concept → do a field trial → roll out.

Asset transactions are immutable and secure, and this opens up several avenues for innovation, either in the underlying technology or in the possible use cases of the technology that were previously unfathomable. The possibilities are limited only by the imagination as of now. (Read about some interesting things you can do with blockchain here.)

Accenture predicts that the adoption of blockchain by the financial services sector will be in the growth phase from 2018 to 2024 and by 2025, it will hit maturity. Capital market spending on this technology, which was $30M in 2013, is expected to touch $400M by 2019. While Gartner says a blockchain business will be worth $10B by 2022.

Although the adoption of this disruptive technology is growing, it will be some time before the fledgling goes mainstream. “But no doubt the application of blockchain will drive the fourth industrial revolution,” says Thomas J. Carroll, Avant Global’s Chief Information Officer. Eventually, innovative solutions will emerge to tackle the scalability, security, interoperability, and privacy issues of blockchain.

Introduction

When the world’s smartest companies such as Microsoft, Google, Alphabet Inc., and Baidu are investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the world is going to sit up and take notice. Chinese Internet giant Baidu spent USD1.5 billion on research and development.

And as proof of China’s strong focus on AI and Machine Learning, Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm, invested USD0.1 billion in “25 AI-related startups” in the last three years in China and the U.S.

Research shows that although genuine intelligence may still be a bit far off, AI and Machine Learning technologies are still expected to reign in 2017. Try reading up on Microsoft Project Oxford, IBM Watson, Google Deep Mind, and Baidu Minwa, and you’ll understand what I am trying to get at.

In 2015, Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies introduced Machine Learning (ML), and the graph showed (Figure 1) that it would reach a plateau in 2 to 5 years. Big players such as Facebook and Amazon are increasingly exploiting the advantages of this concept, which is derived from artificial intelligence and statistics, to extract meaning from huge amounts of (big) data.

Research predicts that the AI market will grow to about USD37 billion by 2025; in 2015 it was about USD645 million!

Source: Gartner

Difference between Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ML are not interchangeable terms. ML is sort of a subset of AI, which is a part of computer science trying to develop “machines capable of intelligent behavior.” Then, what is Machine Learning (ML)? “The science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed,” says Stanford. So you get that difference? You need both AI and ML experts to make smart machines that are truly intelligent.

Why are Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence “Hot”?

"Machine learning is a core, transformative way by which we’re rethinking everything we’re doing” — Sundar Pichai, Google CEO

The pervasive commercial success of machine learning/artificial intelligence is visible everywhere—from Amazon recommending what movies you might like to see to self-driving Google cars that can tell a tree from a pedestrian.

AI/ML has changed how data-driven business leaders make decisions, gage their businesses, study human behavior, and view predictive analytics. If your organization needs to unleash the benefits of this extraordinary field, you need the right minds—quants and translators.

With breakthroughs such as parallel computation that’s cheap, Big Data, and improved algorithms, utilitarian AI is what the world is moving toward. The increased need to handle huge amounts of data and the number of IoT connected devices that define the world today reinforce the importance of machine learning.

AI/ML, with tons of potential, is a great career choice for engineers or data mining/ pattern recognition enthusiasts out there. Also, Machine Learning is integral to data science, which is touted as the sexiest job of the 21st century by the Harvard Business Review.

An Evans Data Corp. study found that 36% of the 500 developers surveyed use elements of ML in their Big Data or other analytical projects. CEO Janel Garvin said, “Machine learning includes many techniques that are rapidly being adopted at this time and the developers who already work with Big Data and advanced analytics are in an excellent position to lead the way.”

She added: “We are seeing more and more interest from developers in all forms of cognitive computing, including pattern recognition, natural language recognition, and neural networks and we fully expect that the programs of tomorrow are going to be based on these nascent technologies of today.”

So, for people who have a degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Operational Research, or Statistics, the world could well be their oyster for some time to come, right?

List of Courses

I’ve put together (and agonized a bit over what to add and what not to) a few free top ML and AI courses that will help you become the next ML expert Google or Apple hires. Of course, it is hard work, but if you are willing to pursue something, you’ll discover ways like these to succeed.

Machine Learning Courses

1. Machine Learning by Andrew Ng

Co-founder of Coursera, Andrew Ng, takes this 11-week course. He is an Associate Professor at Stanford University and the Chief Scientist at Baidu. As an applied machine learning class, it talks about the best machine learning techniques and statistical pattern recognition, and teaches you how to implement learning algorithms.

Broadly, it covers supervised and unsupervised learning, linear and logistic regression, regularization, and Naïve Bayes. He uses Octave and MatLab. The course is rich in case studies and recent practical applications. Students are expected to know the basics of probability, linear algebra, and computer science. The course has rave reviews from the users.

Go to Course: Start learning

2. Udacity’s Intro to Machine Learning

A part of Udacity’s Data Analyst Nanodegree, this approximately 10-week course teaches all you need to know to handle data sets using machine learning techniques to extract useful insights. Instructors Sebastian Thrun and Katie Malone will expect the beginners to know basic statistical concepts and Python.

This course teaches you everything from clustering to decision trees, from ML algorithms such as Adaboost to SVMs. People also recommend you take the foundational Intro to Data Science course which deals with Data Manipulation, Data Analysis, Data Communication with Information Visualization, and Data at Scale.

Go to Course: Start learning

3. EdX’s Learning from Data (Introductory Machine Learning)

Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology, will teach you the basic theoretical principles, algorithms, and applications of Machine Learning.

The course requires an effort of 10 to 20 hours per week and lasts 10 weeks. They have another 5-week-course, Machine Learning for Data Science and Analytics, where newbies can learn more about algorithms.

Go to Course: Start learning

4. Statistical Machine Learning

Your instructor of the series of video lectures (on YouTube) in Advanced Machine Learning is Larry Wasserman, Professor in the Department of Statistics and in the Machine Learning Department at the Carnegie Mellon University.

The prerequisites for this course are his lectures on Intermediate Statistics and Machine Learning (10-715) intended for PhD students. If you can’t access these courses, you need to ensure you have the required math, computer science, and stats skills.

Go to Course: Start learning

5. Coursera’s Neural Networks for Machine Learning

Emeritus Distinguished Professor Gregory Hinton, who also works at Google’s Mountain View facility, from the University of Toronto teaches this 16-week advanced course offered by Coursera.

A pioneer in the field of deep learning, Hinton’s lecture videos on YouTube talk about the application of neural networks in image segmentation, human motion, modeling language, speech and object recognition, and so on. Students are expected to be comfortable with calculus and have requisite experience in Python programming.

Go to Course: Start learning

6. Google’s Deep Learning

Udacity offers this amazing free course which “takes machine learning to the next level.” Google’s 3-month course is not for beginners. It talks about the motivation for deep learning, deep neural networks, convolutional networks, and deep models for text and sequences.

Course leads Vincent Vanhoucke and Arpan Chakraborty expect the learners to have programming experience in Python and some GitHub experience and to know the basic concepts of ML and statistics, linear algebra, and calculus. The TensorFlow (Google’s own deep learning library) course has an added advantage of being self-paced.

Go to Course: Start learning

7. Kaggle R Tutorial on Machine Learning

DataCamp offers this interactive learning experience that’ll help you ace competitions. They also have an Introduction to R course for free.

Go to Course: Start learning

8. EdX’s Principles of Machine Learning

A part of the Microsoft Professional Program Certificate in Data Science, this 6-week course is an intermediate level one. It teaches you how to build and work with machine learning models using Python, R, and Azure Machine Learning.

Instructors, Dr. Steve Elston and Cynthia Rudin talk about classification, regression in machine learning, supervised models, non-linear modeling, clustering, and recommender systems. To add a verified certificate, you’ll need to pay.

9. Coursera’s Machine Learning Specialization

The University of Washington has created five courses, with practical case studies, to teach you the basics of Machine Learning. This 6-week course which requires between 5 and 8 hours of study a week, will cover ML foundations, classification, clustering, regression, recommender systems and dimensionality reduction, and project using deep learning.

Amazon’s Emily Fox and Carlos Guestrin are the instructors, and they expect the learners to have basic math and programming skills along with a working knowledge of Python. Course access is free though getting a valid certificate is not.

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Artificial Intelligence Courses

1. EdX's Artificial Intelligence

This exciting course from EdX talks about AI applications such as Robotics and NLP, machine learning (branch of AI) algorithms, data structures, games, and constraint satisfaction problems. It lasts 12 weeks and is an advanced-level tutorial from Columbia University.

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2. Udacity’s Intro to Artificial Intelligence

The course is expected to teach you AI’s “representative applications.” It is a part of its Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree Program. Instructors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig will take you through the fundamentals of AI, which include Bayes networks, statistics, and machine learning, and AI applications such as NLP, robotics, and image processing. Students are expected to know linear algebra and probability theory.

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3. Artificial Intelligence: Principles and Techniques

This Stanford course talks about how AI uses math tools to deal with complex problems such as machine translation, speech and face recognition, and autonomous driving. You can access the comprehensive lecture outline—machine learning concepts; tree search, dynamic programming, heuristics; game playing; Markov decision processes; constraint satisfaction problems; Bayesian networks; and logic— and assignments.

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4. Udacity's Artificial Intelligence for Robotics by Georgia Tech

Offered by Udacity, this course talks about programming a robotic car the way Stanford and Google do it. It is a part of the Deep Learning Nanodegree Foundation course. Sebastian Thrun will talk about localization, Kalman and Particle filters, PID control, and SLAM. Strong grasp of math concepts such as linear algebra and probability, knowledge of Python, and programming experience are good-to-have skills.

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Summary

In this post, a few of the listed courses are meant to help you get started in the exciting and fast-growing field of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Others take you through slightly more advanced aspects. The courses listed are free and the only thing stopping you from getting the most out of them will be a lack of commitment.

These world-class courses, which focus on a specific area of learning, are great stepping stones to lucrative and amazing careers in machine learning, data science, and so much more. If you don’t want the Baxters of the world to make you obsolete, you best teach them just who the master is.

So once you identify your learning goals, and assuming you have reliable access to technological requirements, be self-disciplined, build a study plan, set time limits, stay on schedule, work effectively with others, and, most of all, find ways to stay motivated.