INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 26, 2022) — For more than two decades, Indiana’s entrepreneurial and tech community has relied on Orr Fellowship and TechPoint’s Xtern program to find and develop young talent. For the first time, those initiatives will come together Friday, November 18, 2022, at Lucas Oil Stadium to make it easier for more than 100 Indiana companies to find their newest matches.
During the first Orr Fellowship-Xtern Finalist Day, participating companies are expected to conduct thousands of interviews with prospective new hires.
“Finalist Day is a rite of passage for each of our programs. It’s a tremendous amount of work to match employers to prospective talent and, of course, there is an equal amount of preparation and work for the young people and hiring managers who will participate in these job interviews,” said TechPoint’s Executive Vice President of Talent Dennis Trinkle. “By bringing them together, we’ll increase exposure and opportunity. It’s going to be epic.”
Orr Fellowship President Steven Emch agreed.
“We see Finalist Day as an important first step toward our Fellows’ development into community and business leaders, and this year’s combined event brings together the best of both organizations. It’s a terrific collaboration at a time when the business sector needs it most,” he said.
The deadline for employers to take part is October 14. To register, employers will need to fill out the Orr Fellowship form to seek Orr Fellows or the Xtern form to seek Xterns. Employers may seek both Fellows and Xterns.
The deadlines for students are rapidly approaching as well. Students will need to register by filling out the Orr Fellowship application form to apply for Orr Fellowship by September 28 and the Xtern application form to apply for the Xtern program by October 10.
The Orr Fellowship was created in 2001 to help attract, retain and develop young entrepreneurial talent and has resulted in more than 700 Hoosier-based workers, many in leadership roles across the state. The Xtern program was created in 2014 to attract, retain and develop young talent in tech roles, and has graduated more than 1,300 young leaders, who consistently report they are more likely to remain in Indiana as a result of the program.
Thousands of students apply for each program annually. Orr Fellowship’s cohorts are graduates who vie for about 100, two-year full-time positions at Indiana companies. Xtern cohorts are comprised of about 200 rising college juniors and seniors who secure 10-week positions over the summer.
Alumni from the programs can be found in leadership roles in hundreds of Indiana companies, providing a large network for Xterns and Fellows to grow their careers in Indiana. Katie Noble, who is in her second year as an Orr Fellow and works in business development at BlackInk IT, said her company has hired “very talented young professionals from both these programs over the years.”
“Each offers a variety of experiences and skillsets for the different needs we have,” she said. “Even Lucas Oil Stadium might not be able to contain the level of talent we expect to see.”
Trinkle said the collaboration is another example of how state business and community leaders are embracing TechPoint’s Mission41K, a movement designed to address the largest problem tech employers are facing today: finding, hiring and retaining qualified tech talent. Though the organizations are different in form, they are the same in purpose: both aim to attract the next generation of talent to Indiana and keep students in the state.
“Much of Mission41K is focused on prioritizing skills-based hiring and providing more inclusive pathways into tech roles for significantly more people, but we’re also strengthening traditional pipelines from stellar colleges and universities,” Trinkle said.
About TechPoint: TechPoint is the nonprofit, industry-led growth initiative for Indiana’s technology companies and overall tech ecosystem. The team is focused on attracting talent, accelerating scale-up companies, activating the community and amplifying stories of success. For more information, please visit www.techpoint.org.
About Orr Fellowship: Dedicated to matching exceptional, high-achieving college seniors to full-time, paid jobs at dynamic companies and organizations of all types and sizes in the Indianapolis area since its first cohort in 2002, Orr Fellowship’s Fellows receive two years of extensive programming and networking opportunities by night as they devote themselves to their careers by day. Learn more information about Orr Fellowship at https://orrfellowship.org/.
