Top Recruitment Partners Recognized by Career Development Services

“Career development is not just about helping our students with finding jobs, but the right jobs that lead to successful and fulfilling careers. We are eternally grateful to all the organizations we work with… We couldn’t do the work we do without you,” emphasized Career Development Services (CDS) Executive Director Greg Mass to the employers assembled in the Campus Center Atrium. There, on a Tuesday afternoon in late April, representatives from many of NJIT’s recruitment partners  — a good number of them alumni — gathered on campus for CDS’ annual ceremony recognizing the organizations that hire NJIT students for internships, co-ops and jobs.

In 2017 alone, the NJIT recruitment partner organizations accounted for 940 NJIT student intern, co-op and full-time hires for a variety of positions in a range of industries. Their role in shaping careers helped the university achieve a No. 1 national ranking from the New York Times for upward economic mobility for graduates within 10 years of finishing school.

Following are a few snapshots from the event.

Danielle Rosenblatt, university recruiter, East Coast, for Stryker, accepted the award for Best Continuous Partner. The medical technology company has been recruiting at NJIT for more than 15 years. “Our goal is to recruit once and hire twice, and that all starts with building a strong pipeline for our internship program. With that being said, it wouldn’t be without the tremendous talent we find here at this school to be able to make our pipeline dreams come true.”

Named Most Engaged Partner, Prudential has hired 32 full-time associates and 88 interns through its early-talent efforts since 2013. The company and the university recently launched the Prudential/NJIT Connection group, which, among other goals, seeks to enhance Prudential’s brand as a premier employer of choice through strategic partnerships with NJIT students, professors and faculty. “Year after year, we have the privilege of meeting some of the best and the brightest students in the country right here on your campus,” remarked Stephen Najemian, manager of Prudential’s Technology Internship Program, who accepted the award with Steven B. Saperstein ’84, chief operating officer of PGIM Fixed Income and a member of the NJIT Board of Overseers. “The students we meet, and those who happen to join Prudential, stand out for their knowledge, their performance and for their professionalism.”

UPS’ Application Architect Will Paul commented how NJIT students are helping to build the company’s next generation of technologies that support its operations and customers. In addition to being acknowledged as Top Diversity and Inclusion Supporter–NJIT’s Society for Hispanic Professionals in Engineering student chapter, UPS was recognized as Top Employer of Co-ops and Interns as well as a Top Employer of Graduates — the last an honor also bestowed on Optum, a health services and innovation company. Representing Optum at the event were Lisa Minieri, college recruiter, and Rick Target, IT director. “It’s a very complex system that we’re trying to change and we need to attract, recruit and develop some of the smartest people in the world to help us achieve that,” said Target, who serves as a member of the CDS Advisory Board. “Recently, I was in a meeting and we were reviewing all of our data on recent college programs and NJIT popped up on the top of the list in so many different categories, not just sheer numbers of graduates that we hire, but promotion rate, retention, engagement scores for the alumni. It’s across the board.”

Last year, multinational IT services company Cognizant hired 27 NJIT graduates for full-time jobs, making it the Top Employer of Graduates. Nicole Valentino, Cognizant’s senior associate of campus recruiting for North America, remarked how technically and behaviorally prepared NJIT students are for the workforce. “Their interview skills and their ability to really just hit the ground running once they join the firm is something that really sets them apart.”