Tech firm recruits high-school students to prevent local brain drain

Tired of watching highly skilled talent flee for high-tech hot spots, Commvault Systems Inc. has begun to recruit students from local high schools. It is offering them paid internships, challenging work and a $2,500 college scholarship – not to mention ping-pong, Foosball and a pool table in the office.

Executives hope the students will remember them when they begin their careers.

"The caliber of output that we get from them is insane," said Lisa McGahran, Commvault's director of human resources. "It's mind-blowing."

New Jersey technology companies are scrambling to keep the best and brightest students from fleeing to hubs such as Silicon Valley, Manhattan and Boston by partnering with high schools at the Jersey Shore.

They have turned science and math students into prized commodities, lavishing them with perks that star athletes could appreciate.

BIG MONEY AT STAKE

It normally would be a fun story about how the popularity meter has been turned upside down, about the computer science wizards who call a news conference to announce their college choices while nervous alumni look on.

But there is a lot at stake. New Jersey's Gross Domestic Product growth rate of 0.4% last year ranked 46th nationwide. It was evidence that the Garden State's  image as a global hub for innovation that was cultivated by scientists at Bell Labs has been replaced by one of high taxes and political shenanigans. And observers say it is getting tougher to keep top talent here.

"New Jersey has to have an identity people feel good about and is authentic," said Brian Smiga, a technology investor from Atlantic Highlands who founded the TEDx Navesink speaker conference. The group is working on a program called "Brand New J" to improve the state's image. "We need to rediscover an identity people feel good about."

An identity that can attract students like Cynthia Guo, who graduated last spring from High Technology High School in Middletown, N.J. and then spent the summer at Commvault working on a microdata management program alongside professional coders.

Guo, 18, of Marlboro, N.J.,  said her nerves were quickly put to rest by colleagues who were approachable and patient. She developed confidence that will come in handy. She recently started her first year at Harvard University, where she plans to study computer science, applied mathematics and, perhaps, economics.

You could hear the excitement in her voice when she talked about what was ahead. Harvard. New friends. Maybe working at home one day, close to her family. Maybe working in California or Boston.

"There are opportunities everywhere," she said.

The hope: Catching the attention students like Guo early – really early – will get them to rethink the Jersey Shore.

FINDING LOCAL EMPLOYEES

Commvault isn't alone. WorkWave, a technology company in Neptune, has offered paid internships to students at Ranney School in Tinton Falls, N.J. the past three years, Chris Sullens, chief executive officer, said.

And iCIMS, a software company based in Old Bridge with about 500 employees, also is growing fast.

It recruits at college fairs. It puts up billboards. It advertises on Pandora. But partnering more closely with high schools makes sense, said Colin Day, the company's chief executive officer.

Students already live in the area and have a reason to return to the Jersey Shore – particularly if they are saddled with student debt that would make living in expensive tech hubs difficult, Day said.

"We had to have a hard look at ourselves and say, are we in a great place to pull people out of tech hubs? Leave Austin, Denver, Silicon Valley and come to New Jersey?" Day said. "In all honesty, we probably said, 'No, probably not.' The state needs (an image) makeover first.

"So we said, what are we going to focus on? We've got to focus on people who are here right now or grew up here and persuade them to stay here," he said.

High Technology High School is a good place for companies to start. It is routinely ranked among the nation's finest, sending graduates to Ivy League schools. Its students last year averaged 2,274 out of 2,400 on their SAT. It even requires its seniors to spend each Friday for a semester working in what it calls mentorships at an employer.

But a visit on Thursday showed what local companies are up against. Some students travel to New York City for their mentorships. And there is the feeling that many of them will be able to write their own ticket once they graduate from college.

Haley Mander, 17, of Holmdel, took time out of her multivariable calculus class to talk about her future. In the short-term, she'll begin a mentorship at Commvault and finish her application to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

In the long-term? "I was thinking California because there's so much opportunity out there with Silicon Valley," she said.

KEEPING TALENT IN NJ

The partnerships with businesses don't come without risk. The school keeps close tabs to make sure students don't simply answer phone calls and aren't exploited for their cheap labor, said Pamela MacNeill, the mentorship coordinator.

But Principal Kevin Bals said the program makes sense, both for students and employers.

"There's a lot of talent out there," he said. "Why not keep it here?"

Commvault is trying. The data-storage company is one of the Jersey Shore's biggest technology companies, with 800 employees and annual revenue of $608 million. Last year, it opened a four-story, 278,000-square-foot headquarters at the former Fort Monmouth Army post. And it is trying to hire skilled workers to help jump-start its sales.

The company has used the tried and true methods: campus visits, job boards, social media and employee referrals, McGahran said. But it decided it might have better luck at local high schools, where students already are invested in the Shore. Their families are here. They might not have known about opportunities close to home.

Last summer, it provided paid internships to six students from High Technology High School. This year, it is expanding to Manalapan High School.

The students work five days a week, eight hours a day during the summer. And they receive $2,500 a year for scholarships. If they work there four years, it could amount to $10,000, McGahran said.

"I can't tell you if it's successful yet, but we've had students return every year," she said.