Explore Rochester IT Symposium Touts Local Career Opportunities

The first step in retaining area graduates is pointing out the career options that exist locally. That’s the catalyst for the third annual Explore Rochester IT symposium being held at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Explore Rochester IT takes place from noon to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26, in RIT’s Gordon Field House and Activities Center. It’s intended to increase awareness, excitement and exposure of Rochester-area IT career opportunities among local college students in an effort to enhance the local professional community.

Students from across the region are invited to come and speak with chief information officers from many of Rochester’s largest companies. Representatives will discuss their firm’s IT initiatives along with the vocational outlook.

“Every year, our local colleges graduate students with IT degrees, and many of them leave the area to pursue jobs out of state,” says Fran Versace, student employment manager for RIT’s Information & Technology Services. “This program is an effort to retain the best and the brightest here in the Rochester area and to encourage local IT businesses to hire these talented young people.”

Sponsors of Explore Rochester IT include Bausch & Lomb, Computer Aid Inc., Energy East, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, Frontier, Eastman Kodak, Paychex, RIT, University of Rochester and Wegmans.

“The Explore Rochester IT Symposium is a great way for students to see what local options exist for IT professionals,” explains Patrick Neville, CIO for Energy East. “The participating companies support a wide array of technologies, and all have exciting projects underway. Learning about what the companies offer can have a dramatic impact on students’ decisions about their future.”

During the event, students will also be introduced to the Rotational Exposure Program. Students who participate in the program spend their summer working in the IT operations areas of three different sponsoring employers, rotating from one company to the next every three weeks.

“Each year, the Rotational Exposure Program introduces us to six to nine local college students interested in IT,” states Neville. “Even though the rotations are short, the program has provided us with a new channel to identify future employees and allowed us to benefit from the students’ enthusiasm. In return, the students get to see what types of IT opportunities exist in Rochester.”

David Koretz, founder, president and CEO of Bluetie Inc., will serve as the keynote speaker for the Explore Rochester IT symposium.

For more information, visit www.ExploreRochesterIT.com.