Humans have always wanted to know the future, especially when it comes to financial matters. While the fortunetellers of the past looked for patterns in the natural world, they often came up short, but then again they didn’t have access to big data. Until very recently, human resource departments did not use big data for analyzing potential hires, but rather the content of the applicant’s resume and how the interviewer felt. While the interview process has worked in the past, it does not objectively reflect the skills of the applicant, nor does it accurately determine whether the employee will fit in with the company’s culture or if they share similar traits of the top employees. Talent analytics is the practical application of big data for the purposes of human resources, taking into account data of past, current and potential employees to produce insight.