MetLife Mainframe Internships
With over 90 million customers in over 60 countries, MetLife is one of the world's largest insurance companies. They are also one of the best examples of a Fortune 500 company combining mainframe and other back-end technologies with agile born-on-the-web technologies and a culture hitherto only seen in smaller start-up companies.
As we wrote in a previous post on corporate-academic partnership, MetLife has a compelling vision of the future of Enterprise IT. In this vision, mainframe is the “bedrock of technology… and foundation on which innovation, technology, and business grows.” The key to success is therefore being able to effectively “bringing together Mainframe and Emerging Technology and taking those solutions to places never thought possible.” Examples of these efforts include a new Facebook-sounding application called “The Wall,” which uses MongoDB to integrate over 70 back-end systems into a single dashboard encompassing all customer transactions. The effort brought together mainframe and web technologists, and, by using agile methodologies, a prototype of the application was ready in two weeks. After three months, the application was rolled out internally to MetLife call centers, dramatically simplifying access to customer data spanning disparate databases and systems.
“In insurance… working in months, not years, is really a startup mentality.” – Gary Hoberman, MetLife CIO and SVP of Regional Application Development
Given that success in this sort of dynamic environment requires techies able to combine mainframe expertise with things like JSON and web services, it should be no surprise that MetLife is aggressively hiring college students to bring in a new generation of Millennial Mainframers. In order to attract such talent, MetLife recently created a program called MetLife Tech U to provide new hires a mix of education and hands-on training over the course of their first six months. Tech U participants spend half their time training in experiential learning activities and half their time working with a MetLife business unit. Tech U culminates with a capstone project that each participant presents to senior MetLife leadership.
For those completing the mainframe track of the Tech U, training also includes an online three course certificate program in z/OS systems programming or application development from Marist College. If you’re interested in reading more about the Marist College program, check out the Millennial Mainframer post by Keith Shaffer on his experiences with Marist College’s online mainframe education.
I personally know two Millennial Mainframers that have recently joined MetLife, and they both seem to be quite content with their jobs. The first is Natalie Chalco, a personal friend of mine that I’ve known for several years. The second is Dontrell Harris, a Millennial Mainframer blogger that previously wrote a post on his experience in the Master the Mainframe Contest.
In my opinion, MetLife is just about the best place for a millennial to start a career in mainframes. As an employee, you’d work on creative projects in an environment that blends the creativity and agility of a start-up with the scale and stability of a global organization.
The great news in all this is that MetLife is actively hiring college seniors and young Millennial Mainframers (up to three years out of college) for the next iteration of MetLife Tech U. The positions are based out of its Raleigh, NC and Clarks Summit, PA locations. If you’re interest in this fantastic opportunity, please click on one of the links below and fill out an application. Please also feel free to share this blog post with others that might be interested via the “Share This:” buttons at the bottom of the page.
Clarks Summit, PA Roles (Mainframe): http://jobs.metlife.com/pennsylvania/it/jobid4999448-technical-associate-jobs
Raleigh, NC Roles http://jobs.metlife.com/raleigh-durham/it/jobid4999447-technical-associate-jobs
For additional information about MetLife Tech U, please visit http://www.metlifegto.com/jobs/university
This post was originally hosted on the Millennial Mainframer blog