Performing Social Data Analysis with Neo4j: Workforce Trends & Corporate Information Leakage

Not until long ago, performing a study on how the graduates of a University programme have integrated in the labour market was a tedious task, requiring the sending and, hopefully, the receiving of (online) questionnaires. Fortunately, given the popularity of professional social networks, carrying out a survey is now much easier, as former students can simply export their online profiles while giving consent for processing their data. As a small-scale case-study, this paper uses professional information from a number of alumni of the Computer specialisations of the Faculty of Automation, Computers and Electronics, University of Craiova. Given its highly-interconnected structure, for modelling this snapshot of the local Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workforce, we chose to use Neo4j, the most popular graph database. By relying on a set of data visualisation techniques, the resulting system allowed for the uncovering of valuable feedback and insights from within this data. Several remarks are made regarding the observed trends among current employees. Moreover, a discussion is carried out on of how corporate information can unknowingly get leaked on social media by a collective of employees. While this case-study is limited for a very specific use-case, the proposed approaches can easily be extended for various scenarios.