News & Events
2005 Job Expo Confirms Improving City/State Employment Picture
From left, City Tech Interim Vice President for Research, Governmental & Corporate Relations Jerome H. Blue, NYSIA President and 2005 Job Expo keynote speaker Bruce Bernstein, and City Tech President Russell K. Hotzler.
Nearly 400 City Tech graduating students and alumni met with recruiters at the College’s 2005 Job Expo in April.
Increased participation by regional employers at New York City College of Technology’s (City Tech) 2005 Job Expo in April confirms an improving employment picture throughout the metropolitan region.
In fact, March 2005 figures released in April showed a statewide drop in unemployment to 4.6 percent and a decrease in New York City’s jobless rate to 5.2 percent from 6.1 percent the month before -- the lowest local unemployment rate since January 2001.
The annual Job Expo opened in the College’s Klitgord Center Auditorium with City Tech President Russell K. Hotzler’s introduction of keynote speaker Bruce Bernstein, president of the Manhattan-based New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA), the leading trade association for software, information technology and web development companies in the New York City area. Bernstein talked about job and career opportunities throughout the computer industry and the economy as a whole.
Following his remarks, Bernstein stayed on to meet with many of the nearly 400 pre-registered or walk-in student and alumni job applicants who attended this year’s event, while President Hotzler toured the recruitment floor in adjoining Klitgord Center Gymnasium and thanked those staffing the 47 recruitment booths -- a record number of participating employers in the Expo’s three-year history.
Recruiters were on hand from firms and organizations as diverse as Coca-Cola Enterprises, Con Edison, Health Plus, the New York City Department of Information Technology, New York Methodist Hospital, Time Warner Cable, the NYPD and FBI, and Columbia University’s Astrophysics Lab. The City Tech Alumni Association, which had helped promote the event, was on hand to welcome graduates back to campus.
“While employer participation was up considerably over last year, student attendance was down about 10 percent,” said Adrian Griffith, City Tech’s director of placement. “This reflects both increased hiring on the part of area employers and the fact that students are having an easier time finding employment or opting to delay entering the workforce to go on to graduate school.”
In his keynote remarks at the start of the daylong event, Bernstein noted, “While the employment picture in the software industry has been better, it’s also been a lot worse.” He counseled the largely student audience to take advantage of internship opportunities whenever possible while in school. “Students who have done internships before graduation have a vast advantage in the job market over those who haven’t.”
Bernstein also emphasized the importance of life-long learning, noting that “high-tech fields and virtually all others are changing so fast that even if you are highly trained, your skills will be outmoded in three to five years.”
At the end of the day, Dr. Jerome H. Blue, City Tech’s interim vice president for research, governmental and corporate relations, praised the College’s faculty, staff, Placement Office and Alumni Association for effectively promoting and staging this year’s Job Expo. “Especially significant was the increased participation by regional employers with more jobs to offer, which bodes well for job seekers. What’s more, the number of employers from last year who came back again this year speaks well for the caliber of student and alumni applicants and the quality of the education the College provides them.”
Blue also reported that Brooklyn-based KeySpan Energy Delivery had expressed interest in developing new internships for City Tech accounting students and that the Brooklyn Public Library system is looking to develop internship opportunities for students interested in information and library science.
Photos by Ken Brown
