The race for talent is on the minds of many leaders and professionals in Indiana’s growing tech ecosystem. Companies are eager to find the best and brightest who can help their teams excel, and earlier this month 11 of those companies participated in Xtern Spring Finalist Day.

The Xtern program works to place bright tech and business skilled college students with Indiana tech companies for full-time, 10-week summer internships. Students placed in the program are housed at no cost to them in Indianapolis, and participate in programming designed to show them how fun a place Indianapolis is to live, work and play for young professionals in tech. The Xtern program features a rigorous screening process for the nearly 2,000 applicants, with those making it to the finalist stage getting the chance to interview with Hoosier tech companies through one of two Xtern Finalist Days—one held annually in the fall and spring. 

Together with partners at Filo.co, the TechPoint team hosted Xtern Spring Finalist day completely virtually on Friday, March 4. 

The event gave 43 Xtern Finalists (students representing 15 universities and 7 home states) the opportunity to interview with 14 different hiring departments from 11 Indiana tech companies. 

“The experience I had with the Xtern Spring Finalist Day was amazing. Not only being able to interview multiple candidates in one day, but also interviewing the best of the best with such ease is something you cannot find anywhere else,” said Jared Hess, director of business intelligence at ShipSigma. “I can confidently say that thanks to the Xtern program, we found the perfect interns for our summer internship program.”

Following 70 interviews, the TechPoint team was able to make 22 candidate-and-company matches, bringing the size of the Xtern Class of 2022 to approximately 160 students.

“This class of Xterns puts us over 1,100 very talented tech- and business-skilled students that we’ve brought to central Indiana to work with local tech employers since we created Xtern,” said Mike Langellier, CEO of TechPoint. “I’m so proud of this program, the talent pipeline it’s created for our region and the pathways to work experience it’s provided for young people. Hundreds of individuals are living, working and serving in our communities as a result.”

Having led TechPoint since the Xtern program’s inception in 2014, this was Langellier’s final Xtern Finalist Day, as he plans to step down from his role in May 2022.

Xtern Spring Finalist Day 2022 marked the fourth ever Xtern Spring Finalist Day, with the first taking place in 2019. It also marked the fourth straight virtual Xtern Finalist Day event. 

In response to the COVID pandemic the TechPoint team conducted its first ever totally remote Xtern Finalist Day experience, with Filo.co’s support, in November 2020, and has conducted each Finalist Day since then virtually to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for candidates and Xtern employers.

To learn more about how TechPoint’s Xtern program can help you access and develop a pre-screened and turnkey tech-talent pipeline, please click here or contact Addy Monger, talent program operations coordinator for TechPoint.

Early investment in talent helps strengthen Indiana’s tech talent pipelines

TechPoint’s talent programs like Xtern, and others, aim to strengthen our state’s tech talent pipelines by helping employers establish and foster relationships with potential future employees. 

“With technology growing as rapidly as it does, having the ability to find and hire talent is even more important than it ever has been,” said ShipSigma’s Hess. “Building up a tech talent pipeline is something that all tech companies need to be doing if they wish to stay competitive in this rapidly growing industry. Everyday something new is being released or something old is becoming obsolete, and because of that, having a large tech talent pipeline which can help your company keep up is something that you cannot just ignore.”

Read more about Indiana’s race for tech talent, and the call for attracting and developing 230,000 Indiana tech workers by 2030, by clicking here.