NJIT Partnership with Prudential Addresses Tech Challenges

Longtime Newark neighbors, Prudential and New Jersey Institute of Technology, have joined forces to help Prudential solve technological challenges while providing exciting opportunities for NJIT students.

Like many leading financial organizations, Prudential has introduced cutting-edge digital technologies into its daily operations, increasing internal efficiency and productivity, and improving customer experience and satisfaction. With the obvious benefit comes the organizational challenge of acquiring and maintaining a workforce capable of developing and integrating the relevant technologies at the volume and scale required of a Fortune 500 company.

To help with this, Prudential has turned to neighboring NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC). With more than 4,500 enrolled students and graduating more than 1,150 computing professionals annually, YWCC has emerged in recent years as the leading generator of tech talent in the tri-state region.

Prudential has contracted with NJIT to help solve some of its pressing Information Technology (IT), software development and business analytics problems, typically assigned to YWCC’s more than one thousand graduate students. Many of these graduate students have valuable years of software development and other relevant work experience under their belts before they come to study at NJIT. Depending on the specific problem, YWCC project manager Munir Cochinwala identifies and recruits small teams of students with the most suitable background and experience. After being vetted by the Prudential technical staff, the students work, mostly remotely from the NJIT campus, on the projects, supervised by Cochinwala and the relevant Prudential staff.

“Prudential is delighted to have a long-standing relationship with NJIT, both through the consulting arrangements with Ying Wu College of Computing and the Undergraduate Co-op programs,” said Michael Herskovitz, who leads the Financial and Corporate Technology area of Global Technology. “It’s part of our commitment to the city of Newark to foster technology talent and innovation. 

The partnership has benefitted both organizations and has further cemented the relationship between the two Newark powerhouses. Prudential has been pleased with the performance of the students and their delivery, and close working relationships have been formed. The students have gained valuable real-world experience, and made positive impressions with a possible employer — Prudential has the option to employ the cream of the crop when they graduate. 

Dana Bochna, who leads Prudential’s Early Talent Pipeline initiatives, echoed Herskovitz’s sentiments, “By engaging with NJIT, we are nurturing a pipeline of talent from within Newark that benefits both students and Prudential.”

Craig Gotsman, distinguished professor at YWCC, said: “Our new partnership with Prudential has taken the relationship to a new level. Prudential has always offered our students employment opportunities, in the form of summer internships while they study and permanent employment after graduation. But NJIT was never really involved in these transactions. Now we are a full partner in vetting and exposing our strongest students to Prudential while better understanding their technological challenges. This is a much tighter relationship, resulting in a much higher quality talent acquisition pipeline for Prudential and a more streamlined process for our students. We look forward to scaling up the operation.”

Cochinwala added, “We [YWCC] place our students front and center with major companies like Prudential early in their academic experience to give them a competitive edge professionally. The results speak for themselves: we are now on our third project with them as a trusted partner. Future top caliber employees are borne of such hands-on experiences where students can earn as they learn while making an impact on the world around them. There is no better preparation for a career in any industry than this. We look forward to other opportunities with Prudential in making a difference together.”