BNY Mellon Partnership Provides New Opportunities for CIT Students

There's a new opportunity in town for CCAC students pursuing careers in computer information technology (CIT). CCAC Workforce & Job Readiness has partnered with BNY Mellon to provide an innovative path for CIT students to learn from real-world mentors in the cutting-edge field of financial technology.

S.T.A.R.T.U.P., which stands for Student Technology and Readiness Training Upskill Program, first partnered with CCAC in the fall of 2021. Since then, a dozen CCAC students have completed their semester-long participation. BNY Mellon is now calling on faculty to recommend students for the fall 2022 semester. Applications for spring 2023 will open in January.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for our CCAC students to connect with and be mentored by individuals working for a large corporation with major locations in Pittsburgh and New York City," said Sue Diehl, career specialist in CCAC's Workforce & Job Readiness Department.

Participating students have weekly one-on-one time with mentors to gain an inside look at how technology works in a global financial services organization. Participants also discuss potential career paths and build a network with other professionals and like-minded students.

"If you are serious about getting a start in tech - or at least gaining industry-leading experience that will stand out on a resume - then this is too good an opportunity to pass up," said Adam Bouchat-Friedman, who joined S.T.A.R.T.U.P. in the spring of 2022.  

Students who successfully complete a semester of S.T.A.R.T.U.P. are eligible to apply for additional opportunities at BNY Mellon, including a paid summer internship called the Future Technology Program (FTP).

"[FTP] is a six-week program held over the summer that will provide program participants with the ability to work on an Agile Project to gain robust technical experience in a certain functional area of technology," BNY Mellon stated in their call for applicants. "In addition, program participants will receive technical training, professional development skill-building, leadership exposure, mentoring and network opportunities."

Bouchat-Friedman was one of two students selected to participate in FTP this past summer, along with CCAC classmate Danyelle Brooke Stephans.

Stephans enrolled in CCAC's CIT program to pursue her dream of working as a world-class cybersecurity professional. While she was laser-focused on that specialty, her time in both S.T.A.R.T.U.P. and FTP opened her eyes to a broader spectrum of technology work.

"You will discover through this experience what other options there are, because you will have a chance to see what else is out there," Stephans explained, noting that she experienced everything from project management to software development. "By the end of it, you realize that was the whole point - to figure out, what other directions and paths am I interested in and comfortable with."  

Bouchat-Friedman agreed that the FTP workload was extensive. "I was introduced to technologies not covered in school, so I had to do a lot of learning off the clock. You will be part of active Agile sprints and have actual work to complete," he explained. "The firm is full of supportive people, but you'll have to problem-solve and do work on your own, as well."

During her FTP internship, Stephans worked with a number of new programming languages and tools, including SQL, Spring Boot, Angular, Unix and Java. While the quantity of new information initially seemed daunting, she put in the work and ultimately thrived with the support of her mentor and managers.

"I am continuing to learn Java throughout the fall semester [back at CCAC], because that's what they basically use constantly at BNY Mellon," she noted. After all, she now has her sights set on working for BNY Mellon when she graduates: "I am hoping for a direct hire position. But if not, I made good networking and good connections with my teams and with my mentor."

Bouchat-Friedman, too, expressed appreciation for the positive relationships he cultivated during his time at the fintech company.

"My mentors did a good job adjusting to my needs, set me up with meetings with other industry professionals and gave me good advice on my career," he said. "I was also surprised by how genuinely team-oriented the firm is. There are so many people there who want you to succeed and will help you to do so if they see you are a serious candidate."

CCAC CIT faculty are invited to recommend students who are majoring in a CIT field and whose classroom performance has indicated that they could thrive in the fintech sector. In particular, BNY Mellon seeks participants who have demonstrated both technical hard skills and soft skills like tenacity and curiosity.

S.T.A.R.T.U.P. runs for eight weeks each fall and spring semester. Faculty can recommend students to apply for the mentorship program from August 29 to September 16, 2022. CIT instructors are invited to send recommendations to the Workforce & Job Readiness Department at jobready@ccac.edu. The department will reach out to students individually to inform them of the recommendation and to suggest that they apply for this opportunity. Participants who successfully complete a semester in S.T.A.R.T.U.P. may then apply to be considered for FTP's paid full-time summer internship.