San Jose State Alums Beat Out Elite School Grads For Tech Jobs
SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – San Jose State University has a new stat to boast. Spartan grads are beating out grads from other top schools, including UC Berkeley and Stanford, when it comes to landing tech jobs.
"We're getting all the good jobs," said Matthew Carlis, a computer engineering student at SJSU. Carlis has worked at Cisco and now has a paid internship at a Silicon Valley startup.
"When I look around at my peers and where I work, there's a lot of people from State that, you know, kick butt. And they are really good at what they do," Carlis said.
San Jose State tops Stanford and Cal for the most alums now working at Apple, according to LinkedIn's new education search utility.
"Our top three are Cisco, Apple and Hewlett Packard," Newell said.
Jobvite, a recruiting platform, found Silicon Valley companies hire more San Jose State alums than any other college or university in the country.
"We have over 20,000 recruiters registered with us, who are competing for our talent," said Daniel Newell of the San Jose State Career Center.
Why San Jose State? Companies cite work ethic and work experience.
"One of the things San Jose State Students are really known for is how their students roll up their sleeves and just get to work," said Thereza Chatmon of the Slingshot Connections temp agency.
San Jose State partners with Slingshot Connections to plug students into jobs while they are still in school.
"They are not just going to school. You're also working on the side," said Ajay Dhillon, a recent San Jose State University graduate.
Dhillon graduated with a degree in human resources last May and went right to work fulltime at Slingshot.
"I think there's an urgency to get out in the workforce, especially in Silicon Valley. We have all these high-tech companies local, so it makes a difference," Dhillon said.
