The art and science of employment

For most of NTID’s 50-year history, the Center on Employment, or NCE, has worked with students and alumni to assist them with their job search, and has developed and enhanced relationships with employers to encourage and aid them in hiring students for cooperative
work experiences (co-ops) and permanent employment.

“Our goal is to help employers see the upside of bringing qualified deaf and hard-of-hearing employees into their workplace,” NCE Director John Macko says. “We use a ‘can do’ approach, and mentor students to do the same.”

Macko and his team of employment advisors use a variety of strategies with employers and students to achieve their goals.

With Students:
Talent + Positivity = Success

NCE staff works with students to prepare them for the interview process through mock interviews. Faculty and staff volunteers serve as “hiring managers,” reviewing student portfolios and asking questions. These sessions are recorded and reviewed with the student along with written feedback.

“Teaching students how to be resilient, advocate for themselves, and view the inevitable barriers they face as deaf people in a hearing world as challenges to be overcome is key to helping them succeed,” Macko says. “It’s a source of pride for us when we have a student come back from a successful job interview and tell us they used the information they learned to answer questions and get their dream job.”

With Employers:
Diversity Delivers Value

NCE staff has presented their “Working Together: Deaf and Hearing People” workshop more than 1,000 times over the past 30 years to companies large and small. NCE professionals visit companies to provide practical information and solutions they can implement in their workplace immediately, often at little to no cost. They frequent industry conferences and fairs to share the stories of talented RIT/NTID students, and invite recruiters from public, private, and government entities to attend the college’s annual career fair. Often, RIT/NTID alumni working for these companies come back to campus to recruit.

“That’s when it comes full circle,” Macko says. “We find that once an employer hires one of our students for co-op or permanent employment, they become ‘evangelists’ of RIT/NTID. They realize our students bring new perspectives, energy, and ideas to their workplace, and they find benefits that are far beyond the original filling of an open position.”

Students and alumni tell us how working with NCE prepared them for success:

From Fremont, California, Bui majors in mobile application development and completed a co-op at Lockheed Martin. “NCE has supported me and allowed me to step into the real world, and I finally conquered my fears and succeeded. My co-op was an opportunity to gain knowledge and have new experiences.”

A supply chain management major from Raytown, Missouri, Kelly completed a co-op with Dow Chemical  in Midland, Michigan. Of his experience at RIT/NTID, Kelly says, “There is a culture here that supports and prepares future deaf and hard-of-hearing professionals to strive in their careers.”

A 2018 computer engineering master’s degree recipient from Richardson, Texas, Bempong now works for Texas Instruments and was a recruiter at the 2019 NTID Career Fair. “Being a recruiter at the fair this fall, I was staggered by the sheer number of diverse students with potential. I was able to leave knowing that, without a doubt, the number of deaf people becoming professionals in this hearing-dominated world is going to escalate in the near future.”

A networking and systems administration major from St. Louis, Missouri, Brodack credits NCE for helping him secure a permanent position at The Dow Chemical Company. “NCE has helped me develop a professional and unique resume, and they helped me land a job as an ITS connectivity specialist at Dow right after graduation.”