Tech Firm Tries to Prevent Brain Drain by Recruiting High School Students

Jersey Shore has many talented students but they always go someplace else to work. A local tech firm tries to prevent this brain drain by recruiting high school students and giving them the experience of working for a local firm. The local firm is Commvault Systems, Inc., an information management software and data management company based in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. It recruits high school students from High Technology High School. The qualified students are given paid internship and receive a $2,500 college scholarship. They are given challenging work, and time to relax as well, as the office is equipped with a pool table, Foosball and ping-pong.

Keeping the brightest talents from other tech hubs

The program of Commvault is aimed at trying to keep the highly skilled tech talents in Jersey Shore from seeking future employment from other tech hubs such as Boston, Manhattan and Silicon Valley. Commvault is one of the biggest tech companies in Jersey Shore, employing 800 people.

The recruited students work eight hours a day, five days a week during their summer school break. The scholarship offer of $2,500 is good for each summer of work, therefore if a student works for four summers, the scholarship amount would be $10,000.

A bit risky

While this is a great program, a bit of a risk is involved. New Jersey used to be a global innovation hub, due to the work of the Bell Labs scientists, but that was eroded by political problems and high taxes. While it gives high school students the right work experience and help them to develop their self-confidence early on, it could also be detrimental. This is because it does not actually ensure that the talented students would choose to stay and work in Jersey Shore later. On the other hand, New Jersey is working with professionals to create a new identity and improve the image of the state.

Sharing the same vision

Commvault is not the only company that hopes to develop and nurture local talents. For the past three years, paid internships were offered by a tech company in Neptune called WorkWave to students at Ranney School. Tech company iCIMS advertises aggressively on Pandora, have billboards in strategic areas and recruits employees at college fairs.

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