Wall Street Looks to Rensselaer for Best IT Hires

A recent study answers the question: where do Wall Street firms go to hire the top IT talent they need? The answer is Rensselaer. The Institute was named by Wall Street and Technology magazine as one of the top five schools where Wall Street firms recruit their computer programming and engineering employees. Rensselaer was listed along with Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.

In making the announcement, Greg MacSweeney, editorial director for Wall Street and Technology, said, “On Wall Street, technology is vital to the success of business. So it’s no surprise that CIOs are looking for the best and the brightest technologists to help build the next generation of capital markets technology.”

The magazine and the study it published cited certain skills IT graduates need to be hired by Wall Street firms. They must know Java and C++, they said, as well as demonstrate an ability to collaborate and fit within an organization’s team and culture.

“The fact that we are one of the top schools in this study comes as no surprise,” said Jim Hendler, professor and head of the Rensselaer Computer Science Department, and former director of the Institute’s IT and Web Science program. “A large number of our undergraduates do dual majors, minors, or other joint programs between IT and/or computer science and another field, learning not just depth, but also breadth. These students have 100 percent job placement, and our proximity to New York City makes us a natural for the Wall Street recruiters.”