Nicole Job: Leveraging Data Harvesting and Deep Web Technologies

Since her college days at SDSU, Nicole Job lives for a worldly perspective. She tried her hand at many paths, from nursing to psychology, but no one subject could truly define her. She ended up majoring in global studies with the ambition to find a career that would keep her mind sharp. Little did she know, that career would include the title Data Acquisition Engineer at BrightPlanet.

In her free time, Nicole is a proud PC gamer. She and her friends will play co-op games online, which strategize around teamwork to achieve a greater goal. Although her daily processes are much different from online gameplay, the teamwork is just as crucial in her role at BrightPlanet.

A vital part of her role is giving support to our projects that are in need of it. She’ll often check in with the team, and inquire about what she can do to assist them with any ongoing projects.

Like the schedules of many of our team members, Nicole’s daily routine is hardly ever set in stone. It becomes quite the balancing act of jumping in and out of projects, depending at what stage each one is at. However, Nicole’s primary focus includes checking in on her clients, as well as the projects that she is directly overseeing or working on.

As part of her quality control, Nicole makes sure that everything is functioning as it should be, the results are clear, and that any improvements that she wants to make to the data harvesting are as efficient as possible.

Diving into the Game of Deep Web Technologies

Nicole notes that Will Bushee, VP of Technology at BrightPlanet, encourages the team to learn all that they can in order to improve their jobs. For her, this means deep research into computer science and the understanding of open source intelligence tools. As someone who values worldly knowledge and perspectives, being able to constantly improve herself is something she thoroughly enjoys.

As one of our Data Acquisition Engineers, she has two particular clients that she dedicates her work to. Typically, she’ll converses with the clients at least once a week. She’s noticed that as she continues to provide deliverables for these clients, she can sense joy from them once they see the outcomes we present.

The initial meeting with a client is fairly straightforward. If you were working with Nicole, she would first walk you through our technology. We want to understand what you know, because some of the Deep Web search terminology can be fairly new to many. When answering these questions, Nicole gets a good read on the client’s comfort level.

For example, many clients are using Google Alerts, and will ask questions regarding our work like, “How is this replacing it or how is it supplementing [Google Alerts]?” With these kinds of questions, we simply explain how we are providing the client with data, and how they can use it themselves.

Client Understanding with Deep Web Technologies

All clients are different from each other on the technical level. For Nicole, this determines the amount of time she dedicates to training.

Typically, at the beginning of a project, she will try to find some kind of data that the client is looking for, and then give them different outputs. What this does is presents a flat file, but sometimes clients prefer an API or to use the dashboard. She then goes over the sample data with them until it meets their needs. The ultimate goal is to deliver the data in the way that is most useful and usable for the client.

Sometimes a client will come to us knowing that they want data from the web, yet they’re not entirely certain on what they need from it. With one client she worked with, Nicole gave them a lot of data that was around finding and analyzing rental place availability in Canada. The client wanted to know what other rentals were out there, what prices looked like, the offered features and amenities, and so on and so forth.

As the dialogue continued between Nicole and this client, they indicated they wanted to know specifics. For example, are these places offering free electricity to their tenants? She was able to compile together her report and as the information kept growing, she ended up doing a completely separate report for when rentals went offline.

In the end, with this data, the client was able to judge how long a listing was up on a site. They determined if prices went up and then down right away, if they sold, or if there were any inconsistencies. Guiding every step of the way, Nicole assured the client of their data’s application and pointed them in the right direction.

Working Alongside a Data Team

As Nicole demonstrates in both her work life and personal life, cooperation and teamwork can help us achieve some truly amazing goals. When working with our Data Acquisition Engineer team, you get the knowledge and capabilities of a major data firm paired with a small personal team that helps you every step of the way.

If you have any inquiries about our processes and where we fit into your business, tell us what you’re working on. We’ll be happy to help you with any of your data questions and find the answers you’re searching for.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?