RIT roots strong and growing at JPMorgan Chase

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A. Sue Weisler

Some of the RIT graduates at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Back row, from left: Stephen Hutsal, Russell Baker, Aaron St. John, Richard Dararaksmey and Daniel Martin. Front row, from left: Brian Call, Shane Osaki, Jessica Peters, Brittany Ray, Dina Muscanell, Alana Malina and Jeremy Edman.

Jeremy Edman ’02 (information technology) opened the RIT floodgates at JPMorgan Chase & Co. He was looking for a summer work opportunity in 2001 and applied for one online through the company’s Corporate Technology Analyst Program.

“I thought no one would read the website,” Edman says. “It turns out they read the website, so I got a call out of the blue.”

The call turned into a summer co-op, the first for an RIT student in this particular program. The co-op turned into a full-time job. And the job resulted in the opportunity to recruit other Tigers to the JPMorgan Chase policy analyst program.

Edman, now the RIT go-to guy at the company, keeps in touch with more than 30 graduates. “When I came in here there was no one from RIT so they looked to me to be the captain,” Edman says. “The alumni base at JPMorgan Chase from RIT is very strong.”

This summer, there are 19 interns in the Corporate Technology Analyst Program from RIT. That’s up from 10 in 2010.

And they all meet Edman.

Brittany Ray ’09 (industrial engineering) met him when she was looking for her fifth co-op. Her first four were at Delphi, Harris Communications, and two with Lockheed Martin.

“Even though my degree didn’t really line up with financial services, my industrial engineering courses promoted strategic thinking and problem solving skills,” she says. “So I applied.”

The co-op resulted in a full-time job offer as a business analyst within the private bank, says Ray, who was promoted to project manager associate in corporate client banking in 2010. She had to climb a steep learning curve (she knew little about alternative investments and investment banking products) but she likes the challenge the work provides and loves living in New York City.

Alana Malina’s four co-ops also helped her determine where she wanted to live and what she wanted to do. But in Malina’s case, her co-ops were more about figuring out what she didn’t want to do. Malina ’08 (electrical engineering) is now an analyst in asset management technology for JPMorgan Chase. Her team manages the private bank database. Although she learned a lot during two co-op blocks with Intel and one with Lutron as an undergraduate, she says, she realized working in those industries wasn’t for her.

She returned to RIT for graduate school in information technology and got the JPMorgan Chase co-op in the summer of 2009. That initially wasn’t the best fit either because she wanted to have more of an impact on customers. But the JPMorgan Chase opportunity allowed her to network with the private bank team, and that’s where she was placed when she was offered a full-time job.

“Each block was time well spent, an invaluable learning experience and helped me zero in on where I am today,” says Malina, who continues to work on her master’s degree.

Now Malina recruits with Edman at RIT, letting students know that there are jobs in technology available. Edman’s goal is to bring continuity to the recruiting process so the number of RIT graduates at JPMorgan Chase continues to grow. “Human resources staffing may come and go,” he says. “But we are always RIT alumni.”

Jeremy Edman '02 (information technology) recruits at RIT for JPMorgan Chase. More than 30 graduates work at the company. A. Sue Weisler