A number of well-known companies are consistently recruiting students from programs at N.C. State.

Leslie Rand-Pickett, a career counselor at N.C. State, said companies from the Triangle area, as well as nationally-recognized companies, are recruiting more students from N.C. State compared with previous years.

“Companies from the West Coast also recruit from N.C. State, such as Microsoft, Google and Intel, even though they aren’t located in the Triangle,” Rand-Pickett said. 

Rand-Pickett also said companies such as IBM, Cisco and SAS have locations in the Triangle area and have historically recruited from N.C. State.

According to Rand-Pickett, after the engineering career fair earlier this semester the N.C. State interview suite exceeded capacity during almost the entire month of October.

“Overall, I would say that it’s not a new concept for high-profile tech companies to come to N.C. State,” Rand-Pickett said. “It’s been a tradition because of the high quality of the technical students our university produces.” However, more companies from the Triangle area are beginning to participate in career and job fairs at N.C. State.

MaxPoint, a digital advertising company, recently began recruiting N.C. State students.

Dewey Tran, director of business analytics at MaxPoint, said his department hires consistently from the graduates of N.C. State’s Master of Science in Analytics program.

“One of the recent programs that has provided a lot of strong value for local employers is the Master of Science in Analytics program,” Tran said. “What N.C. State is doing a very good job of is staying on top of the current trends in terms of the market.”

Tran said the program is relatively new and is one of the first advanced-degree programs in data analytics.

“That’s an example of a program where they’ve combined the aspects of data and business and the benefits of the program are very far reaching,” Tran said.

According to Tran, programs such as the Master of Science in Analytics at N.C. State have conditioned students to find suitable job opportunities.

“Our goal is to recruit people that have academic talents and be able to deal with technical problems, and what N.C. State provides is smart folks that can complete their tasks because they are well-rounded,” Tran said.

Michael Rappa, founder and executive director of N.C. State’s Institute for Advanced Analytics, said that training in the field can bring about a rewarding and lucrative career. 

The Institute for Advanced Analytics, founded in 2007, is preparing a new generation of data-savvy professionals for leadership in a digital world. In 2012, graduates of the Institute had a job placement rate of more than 90 percent by graduation for the fifth year in a row giving the program an esteemed reputation across the country.

The degree, a M.S. in Analytics, is a 10-month program designed to teach students how to master extrapolating large amounts of data and make relevant, insightful conclusions from vast amounts of information. While originally enrolling 40 students in its first year, it now hosts 80 students, and applications for the program continue to rise.

A critical component of the program is the practicum, which is analogous to a capstone project in other degree programs. The practicum is a team-based learning experience giving students the opportunity to conduct real-world analytics projects using data from sponsoring organizations. 

Students work in teams of four-to-five members to understand some type of business problem, and they then work to clean and analyze the data.

The practicum spans a length of seven months, culminating in a report and presentation to their respective sponsors. 

The teams perform their work under a confidentiality agreement, and the results remain the sole property of the sponsor. Current sponsors include a wide variety of sources including private companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Proctor & Gamble, GE Energy, as well as governmental agencies including the Federal Communications Commission, the United States Postal Service, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Even the Houston Astros, a Major League Baseball team, is a sponsor.

Software companies such as Red Hat, whose Raleigh location was previously located on Centennial Campus, have recruited an increasing number of students from N.C. State after expanding to larger buildings. 

Red Hat currently has more than 5,900 employees worldwide, with more than 900 in downtown Raleigh at the Red Hat Tower.

Kim Jokisch, the director of employment branding and media at Red Hat, said that the company is always looking at the talent coming out of N.C. State.

“We have had a long history for recruiting from N.C. State for internships and recent graduate students. We have always enjoyed a good relationship with N.C. State,” Jokisch said.