The Times recently chronicled scenes of holiday shopping in New York City with archived photographs going back more than 80 years.
Do you enjoy holiday shopping? Do you have any shopping traditions that you look forward to every year?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
As the world continues to adapt to combat climate change, the energy sector is undergoing more drastic changes than almost any other industry. The shift from coal, oil and gas towards clean energy sources is signalling the end of certain traditional energy industries. However the emerging renewable sector is producing countless opportunities for those willing and ready to adapt.
Renewables produce well-paying, high-skilled and secure jobs across a range of fields. These new energy sources require technicians, mechanics, scientists, IT employees and managers in order to function efficiently. If you’re interested in a rewarding and secure career in renewable energy, then check out these courses and careers contributing to a safer and more sustainable world.
This course is a fantastic primer for anyone looking to enter the energy industry. You’ll learn about existing sectors such as coal and oil and the traditional energy landscape. This is vital information to possess in order to be able to successfully contextualise and understand the shift towards renewables. New energy sources are considered under various headings, such as ease of access and how they affect the building industry. You’ll also gain valuable knowledge on consumption and the sociological debates around energy usage.
A fascinating course on energy alternatives, this course covers electrochemical devices and fuel cells. If you’re interesting in the technical or mechanical side of renewable energy, then this course is a must. You’ll learn about how electrical generators convert stored chemical energy into electrical current and see how supercapacitors support high energy density. This is a science heavy course for those who already know the areas in which they want to specialise.
Despite its growing popularity, solar power technology is still relatively misunderstood. As it becomes an increasingly global energy source, skilled technicians and scientists who understand both the science and the engineering behind solar energy are going to be in high demand. This course also covers practical subjects such as the installation of solar panels on both domestic and commercial buildings.
As solar energy becomes more and more common, the need for technicians and engineers capable of servicing both the panels and the derivative hardware will become as established as the need for plumbers and electricians is today. Both businesses and private homes will need their solar panels installed, serviced and repaired, creating a stable and secure new market. Like these other trades, solar panel technician is a highly skilled job. Get a headstart on your competitors by beginning this course now!
Wind turbines are becoming an increasingly common part of the world’s landscape as we harness the wind’s power to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. While the basic science of wind turbines hasn’t changed from the logic of the windmills of the past, the reality of operating or servicing a modern wind turbine is a complicated one. This course will explain both the science and the technology behind the gathering and storing of wind energy.
Now head to Alison’s Career Guide to turn your new skills into exciting careers!
Solar energy systems engineers are responsible for the efficient operation and maintenance of the solar energy systems that supply commercial, industrial and domestic energy users. As demand increases, solar energy systems are going to be placed under increased strain, making this position a vital one.
Solar energy technicians oversee all aspects of the running and maintenance of solar energy systems. This includes monitoring the panels, assuring that the energy is stored correctly and making sure that the system is safe and secure for all other workers.
While expanding renewable energy is vital in the fight against climate change, it’s also crucial that we reduce our energy usage and wastage. Energy conservation specialists have a vital role to play in changing how we consume energy and reducing the energy that goes too waste. As more and more rewards are introduced for green business policies, energy conservation specialists are going to have an increasingly important advisory role to play in the private sector.
HTML and CSS form the foundation of modern web development. HTML defines how a web page is structured, and CSS defines its style. While both languages are relatively easy to learn, once you know the basics, you’ll still need to sharpen your skills with practice.
Code challenges are a great way to sharpen your programming skills and combine them in different ways. Here are 10 HTML and CSS code challenges that’ll help you take your skills to the next level. To get started, just pick a challenge, open up a workspace, and start coding.
Note that while these challenges are designed for beginners, you’ll still need to have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. If you need a refresher, use the courses below:
1. Create a tribute page
Choose a historical figure who’s meaningful to you and create a webpage dedicated to them. The webpage should include:
A timeline of the person’s life in the form of a list
This can be completed with only HTML, but use CSS to give it some style.
2. Create a Wikipedia page
Wikipedia is one of the backbones of the internet, and it has a relatively simple layout. Create a Wikipedia page on the topic of your choice. It should include:
A title or heading
A table of contents with links to sections within the page
Superscript number links that link to the corresponding number in the reference section
An ordered list of references
3. Create an HTML and CSS-only search results page
Create a mock Google search results page. It should include:
HTML forms are an important part of many websites. Create a form for a survey on the topic of your choice.
Include a variety of answer options, including text fields, dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, and a submit button. Don’t forget to add a title, and consider using CSS to improve the look of your form. Here’s an example.
5. Create a parallax website
A parallax website has a fixed image in the background that stays in place while you scroll through other parts of the page. It’s a popular effect in web design and gives an elegant look and feel to a page.
Design a parallax webpage. Divide the page into three or four sections. Set three or four background images and align text to each section. You’ll use margins, padding, and background positioning to create the effect. Here’s an example of a parallax website.
6. Create a product landing page
Many websites are designed to showcase and sell products. A product landing page needs to be attractive, informative, and easy to read to appeal to consumers. Your product landing page should include:
A picture of the product
A header and footer
Columns
Multiple sections
Consider the color scheme and ensure that elements don’t overlap each other.
7. Create a restaurant website
A restaurant website is similar to a product landing page in that it should showcase the restaurant and menu items appealingly. It’s more complex, though, with images of different foods and drinks. First, create a responsive restaurant website using a viewport and media queries.
8. Create a chessboard
This challenge teaches you how to create and format a table. You’ll also need to learn how to insert UNICODE characters.
Create a chessboard. The board should be alternating colors and an eight-by-eight grid. Here are the UNICODE characters you’ll need for the pieces.
White King: ♔
White Queen: ♕
White Rook: ♖
White Bishop: ♗
White Knight: ♘
White Pawn: ♙
Black King: ♚
Black Queen: ♛
Black Rook: ♜
Black Bishop: ♝
Back Knight: ♞
Black Pawn: ♟
9. Create an event or conference website
This challenge continues the theme of building attractive web pages. This one will include a registration button that links to a registration form. You’ll also need details and images of the speaker or performer and venue. Describe the event and include multiple sections along with a header and footer. Consider the color scheme and use fonts that are readable and reflect the theme of the event.
10. Create a portfolio website
Take what you’ve learned throughout the other challenges and create a portfolio website. The website should reflect your skills.
Include a page with your resume, work samples, a photo, and a top menu with links to an about page, contact page, and any other pages you’d like to include. In the footer, include your contact information and links to your relevant social media accounts.
Building your HTML and CSS skills
Code challenges are just one way to build your HTML and CSS skills. You can also brush up with courses like Learn HTML, Learn CSS, and Learn Intermediate CSS. These courses build on one another, though you can always jump into an intermediate class if you already have a good base knowledge of CSS.
Skill Paths are another great way to learn specific skills. Our Learn How to Build Websites Skill Path walks you through HTML and CSS, along with responsive design and accessibility. You’ll end the class with a polished website that you can use in your portfolio. We also have a standalone course on responsive design.
If you feel confident in your HTML and CSS skills, it may be time to learn another language. Our course on JavaScript builds on HTML and CSS to help you make websites even more responsive and dynamic. Once you learn JavaScript, we offer a course on Building Interactive JavaScript Websites that brings all those skills together.
Amazon demanded on Wednesday that Lina Khan, the new chair of the Federal Trade Commission and an avowed critic of the company, recuse herself from any antitrust investigation into the e-commerce giant.
The company argued in a 25-page petition to the F.T.C. that Ms. Kahn could not be impartial in antitrust matters involving the company because she had been intensely critical of Amazon as a scholar and writer and because she had worked on the staff of a congressional investigation of the company.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word impartial in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how impartial can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
In “Anonymity No More? Age Checks Come to the Web.” David McCabe writes that in an effort to protect children online, more companies and governments are forcing users to prove how old they are:
Richard Errington clicked to stream a science-fiction film from his home in Britain last month when YouTube carded him.
The site said Mr. Errington, who is over 50, needed to prove he was old enough to watch “Space Is the Place,” a 1974 movie starring the jazz musician Sun Ra. He had three options: Enter his credit card information, upload a photo identification like a passport or skip the video.
“I decided that it wasn’t worth the stress,” he said.
In response to mounting pressure from activists, parents and regulators who believe tech companies haven’t done enough to protect children online, businesses and governments around the globe are placing major parts of the internet behind stricter digital age checks.
People in Japan must provide a document proving their age to use the dating app Tinder. The popular game Roblox requires players to upload a form of government identification — and a selfie to prove the ID belongs to them — if they want access to a voice chat feature. Laws in Germany and France require pornography websites to check visitors’ ages.
The changes, which have picked up speed over the last two years, could upend one of the internet’s central traits: the ability to remain anonymous. Since the days of dial-up modems and AOL chat rooms, people could traverse huge swaths of the web without divulging any personal details. Many people created an online persona entirely separate from their offline one.
But the experience of consuming content and communicating online is increasingly less like an anonymous public square and more like going to the bank, with measures to prove that you are who you say you are. This month, lawmakers in Washington, which has lagged other world capitals in regulating tech companies, called for new rules to protect young people after a former Facebook employee said the company knew its products harmed some teenagers. They repeated those calls on Tuesday in a hearing with executives from YouTube, TikTok and the parent company of Snapchat.
Critics of the age checks say that in the name of keeping people safe, they could endanger user privacy, dampen free expression and hurt communities that benefit from anonymity online. Authoritarian governments have used protecting children as an argument for limiting online speech: China barred websites this summer from ranking celebrities by popularity as part of a larger crackdown on what it says are the pernicious effects of celebrity culture on young people.
The Alison Career Guide is the one stop career encyclopedia that provides you with everything you need to successfully embark on your career of choice. The Guide outlines over 500 possible careers, offering digestible and invaluable information on skills requirements, necessary experience and typical job responsibilities.
For each career, the Guide suggests a range of recommendations, from Courses related to that career to Careers similar to the one you’ve chosen. The Career Guide also has a personalisation feature which provides the Learner with even better Course and Career recommendations based on their interests and motivations. Available on both app and desktop, this tailored service is unique to Alison and unlike any user experience on any other learning platform.
Personalised Recommendations in just 5 questions
Alison’s personalisation feature can be implemented by answering just five simple questions. By telling us more about your learning goals and career objectives, we can offer bespoke advice on the courses and careers best suited to your plans and expectations.
Q1. What is your main goal at Alison?
This first question tells Alison’s machine learning algorithm what brought you to the Alison platform. Whether you’ve signed up to gain a new hobby, to upskill for a promotion or to change your career, we’ve got the courses for you. Choosing the third option means the follow up questions you’ll be asked will focus in on how to leverage the Career Guide to best suit your career goals.
Q2. Which career categories are you most interested in?
The Career Guide offers detailed analysis on a wide variety of jobs spanning an incredibly varied range of sectors and fields. Whether your main area of interest is healthcare, agriculture or information technology, there are a host of career opportunities on offer.
Q3. Which course categories are you most interested in?
By answering this question, you provide our recommendation engine with the information necessary to recommend the ideal courses to teach you the skills you need to secure the job you want. For example, you might be more interested in the management side of a career in digital marketing, or you might prefer to teach it to budding digital marketers. Depending on your answers to this question we’ll know what career path you have in mind.
Q4. For each category, tell us which sub-categories you’re most interested in?
Question 4 zeros in on the specifics. To make sure that we only give you the most relevant suggestions, you can select detailed course sub-categories that interest you, such as software development or data security.
Q5. What career stage are you currently in?
Our recommendations for courses and careers vary depending on the career stage you’re currently in. The options are:
Seeking a promotion
Currently unemployed
Starting my career
Looking to change careers
Recently promoted
Re-entering the workplace
Currently in school
Currently in university
Personalisation = Precision = Success
Alison’s personalisation feature is easy to use and results in a more useful and productive learning experience for the user. The feature allows for constant updating, meaning you can change your preferences as your career advances. The feature also includes a feedback function through which you can let us know if our suggestions are relevant. Depending on your answer, we’ll be able to improve the personalisation feature even further, providing you with even better recommendations for careers and courses.
You’ve worked hard to land your Junior Software Developer interview. You’ve built your skills, created a Junior Developer resume, applied to jobs, and now, you’re this close to launching your new career. All you need to do is impress the hiring manager.
While it’s impossible to know exactly what questions you’ll face during your interview, rehearsing with common interview questions is a great way to prepare. Here’s a list of technical and behavioral Junior Software Developer interview questions.
Traditional Junior Software Developer interview questions
Traditional interview questions are those you’re probably familiar with. They help your interviewer learn more about who you are as a person, your motivations, goals, etc.
While these questions are pretty standard, make sure you highlight your enthusiasm for software development in your responses.
1. Tell me about yourself
This one kicks off almost every interview. Have a brief elevator pitch ready that explains who you are, your experience, and what you bring to the table. You’ll also want to touch on your motivations and what you’re looking to gain from your next role.
Elevator pitches lie at the heart of networking and interviewing, so practice your pitch until it’s perfect.
2. Why do you want to be a Software Developer?
As an aspiring Junior Software Developer, this is likely your first (or one of your first) development roles. The hiring manager will want to know what inspired you to start (or switch to) a career in software development.
It might be the creative aspects, a love for problem-solving, or wanting to be in a field where you’re constantly learning new things. Think about what drew you to software development and, if you’re a career changer, what prompted the change.
Behavioral interview questions help recruiters get a sense of how you respond to specific situations. They usually pertain to your past experiences, and they’re a great way to showcase your soft skills. Here are a few potential behavioral interview questions you might face.
3. Tell me about a problem you faced and how you solved it
Problem-solving is an essential skill for a Software Developer, so the hiring manager will want to know how you approach problems. Think of a specific problem from a previous job (or even from school or a volunteer position) and explain how you found and implemented a solution.
4. Tell me about an issue you encountered with a team member and how you resolved it
Software Developers often work collaboratively, so it’s important that you know how to function as part of a team. Still, any team will occasionally have friction, so you’ll also need to know how to resolve it.
Think of a situation where you had an issue with a team member — for example, a group project where someone wasn’t pulling their weight. Explain how you resolved the issue.
5. Tell me about a time when you were under a lot of pressure. How did you handle it?
Software development can be a high-pressure job. Hiring managers want to know you can handle and adapt to pressure. Discuss your approach to dealing with challenging situations. For example, you might break a task into smaller pieces to make it feel more manageable and assign deadlines to each piece.
Or, if the task was impossible to finish in the time allowed, you might ask for more time. Interviewers don’t expect you to be perfect, but they do expect you to handle pressure effectively.
Technical interview questions assess your knowledge of the tools and programming concepts you’ll use in your new role. Keep in mind that you don’t need to have all the answers — especially as a Junior Software Developer.
It’s okay to admit that you don’t know the answer if your recruiter asks you something you weren’t prepared for, but you’ll want to explain how you’d go about finding it. This will showcase both your willingness to learn and your approach to problem-solving.
Here are a few common technical interview questions for Junior Software Developers.
6. What’s your preferred programming language and why?
Discuss the programming language you prefer and why you like that particular language. Compare it to other programming languages so the hiring manager can see that you’re familiar with multiple languages and their pros and cons. Programming languages to familiarize yourself with include:
7. What is continuous integration, and why is it important during development?
Continuous integration is a DevOps practice that involves integrating code changes into a single software project on an ongoing basis. After code has been added, automated builds and tests are run.
Continuous integration is important because it allows you to find bugs in real-time and expedite software development.
8. What does equality refer to in JavaScript?
The equality operator ( = = ) checks whether two operands are equal, returning a Boolean result. If the operands are different types, it’ll try to convert them to the same type before comparing.
Questions to ask during your interview
Hiring managers also consider the questions you ask during an interview, so you’ll want to have at least a few prepared. Ideally, these are questions that’ll help you get to know the company as well.
Remember, the interview isn’t just for the hiring manager. It’s also to help you decide whether the company is a good fit for you. Questions to ask include:
What does a typical day look like for your Software Developers?
What’s your company culture like?
What are you looking for in an ideal candidate?
What are the company’s plans for growth?
What are the next steps in the interviewing process?
Preparing for the next steps
If you do well during your first interview, you might be asked to undergo a technical interview. Technical interviews often involve completing coding problems to showcase your programming skills and give the recruiters a sense of your abilities.
You’ll definitely want to prepare for technical interviews ahead of time. It’s not enough to be able to solve the problem — your interviewer will also be looking at your approach and the efficiency of your code. So, you’ll want to make sure you’ve mastered your programming languages and their respective methods and functions. To get started, check out the courses below:
If you still need help after taking the courses above, check out our Career Center. You’ll find our guide to acing technical interviews, tips from recruiters in the tech industry, guides to resume and portfolio-building, and more.
Switching careers can be a daunting challenge, but writing your resume doesn’t have to be. In fact, your resume can make the transition a lot easier. Not only will it pave the way for a great new job, but it’ll also help you organize your thoughts and evaluate the skills you can bring to a new career.
Read on to learn some resume writing tips for changing careers and which courses you can take to really make your resume pop.
1. Use a combination resume format
Because you’re trying to focus more on your skills and less on your work experience (which may not align with your new career), use a combination resume format.
A combination resume includes both skills that make you stand out and your work experience. This makes it a good option for people switching careers, especially if you put things in the right order.
Consider using the following order:
Contact info
Your professional goals or objective
A summary of your skills
Courses you’ve taken or certifications you have
Work experience
Education
By leading with your contact information, goals, skills, and courses, you’ll shift the focus away from work experience that may not apply to the job and give the employer a chance to see your other qualifications.
2. Highlight your qualifications within your professional goals section
The professional goals section is a great place to focus on your qualifications instead of just what you seek to accomplish, especially for someone switching careers. Say you recently completed courses like Learn JavaScript and Learn HTML. The statement of your professional goals could look something like this:
“Programmer proficient in JavaScript and HTML5 seeks to provide technical expertise, problem-solving, and creative thinking skills to a fast-paced development team as a junior programmer.”
A professional statement like this is both accurate and helpful, particularly because it highlights the skills you’ve learned instead of your limited experience as a programmer.
To succeed in a career as a programmer, you’ll need to be familiar with several programming languages. Get started with courses like:
3. Include a strong skills section
As someone switching careers, you really want your skills section to stand out. You should see this as your first chance to make a great impression on an employer. Hopefully, this will be the first heading their eyes dart to when reading your resume.
SKILLS
Proficient: JavaScript, HTML5
Intermediate: Python, C#
Developing: PHP
Listing your skills in this way makes it clear what your comfort zones are, as well as where you may need a bit more support or time. This format also allows you to honestly represent the full range of your abilities.
Feel free to list all of your relevant skills — not just the strongest ones. If a recruiter sees a skill they need (or might need in the future), they may be more likely to hire you, regardless of your level of proficiency.
While your hard skills need to be highlighted, your soft skills are just as important, so give them the spotlight they deserve. The easiest way to do this is by incorporating them into the descriptions of your responsibilities in previous roles.
While describing what you’ve done throughout your work experience, you can use words common to descriptions of soft skills in the tech industry. Some of these terms include:
Collaborated on…
Analyzed…
Managed projects…
Troubleshot…
Creatively addressed…
Implemented a discovery phase to…
Organized…
While what comes after these phrases may not directly apply to the job, you’ve still done a good job highlighting important soft skills you’ll need in the position.
4. Showcase your coursework
Your coursework should be another focal point of your resume because it speaks to your knowledge and skills. Feel free to include slightly more descriptive language as you mention the courses you’ve taken, such as examples of what you’ve done during the course. For instance, you can say something like:
COURSEWORK
Codecademy’s JavaScript course — developed front- and back-end solutions for web applications
Codecademy’s Bootstrap course — developed front-end designs for corporate and SMB solutions
Using this kind of format makes your coursework section read more like a work experience section. This shows recruiters that you know how to put your knowledge to good use.
5. Highlight the right professional experience
If you’re completely new to the field you’re switching to, use your work experience section to highlight your skills that apply to the role (as described above in the discussion about soft skills). Remember that a varied background isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Newcomers to the field often offer fresh perspectives that recruiters and dev teams love.
For example, people who have worked in education are often skilled at working in different-sized teams and with people of different backgrounds. Professionals coming from construction are often adept at multi-tasking, communication, and meeting challenging deadlines. You should also highlight these kinds of attributes as you break down your work experience.
1. influence or authority held by one group that is exerted upon another group
2. the dominance or leadership of one social group or nation over others
_________
The word hegemony has appeared in 57 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 23 in “The Beauty of 78.5 Million Followers” by Vanessa Grigoriadis:
The primary innovations, now, are less technological than cultural. And many of these changes are far overdue. The beauty industry has long exhibited devotion in its advertisements to what was once seen as the blond, blue-eyed American ideal, with the occasional woman of color thrown in (Eva Longoria). Fracturing this hegemony required someone extraordinary from outside the system to exert pressure on gatekeepers, and by that I mean Rihanna.
In 2017, when Rihanna and LVMH started the makeup line Fenty (Rihanna’s surname), she pushed the concept of creating foundations that actually matched the color of your skin. This was something beauty conglomerates had the practical capacity to do for decades but often didn’t, choosing instead to make women like me, with dark olive skin, paint from the same palette as Caucasians from Northern Europe …
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word hegemony in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how hegemony can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
