NextGear Capital President Brian Geitner loves to say, “We’re a technology company that happens to loan money.” Our company prides itself on not only providing industry-leading technology products for our customers, but on attracting the top technology talent as well. In just over one year, NextGear Capital has added close to 100 employees to our Technology department, while also bringing our software development team in-house.
Attracting top talent is important, but NextGear Capital also puts an emphasis on helping mold future generations of talent. As a result, our technology team has had the opportunity this summer to mentor five software engineering interns:
 Lisa Campbell School: Purdue University Hometown: West Milford, NJ Major: Computer Science |
Jordan Field |
Kieran Groble |
Austen Lacy |
George Ruan |
From writing code for NextGear Capital’s internal software to performing logic analysis to assisting in the design of our title management system, these interns have gotten a first-hand look at how a true agile environment operates over the last two months. Here’s what a couple of them had to say about their experience:
Consistent collaboration is key for any agile environment to function efficiently. When you have a group of coworkers that make you feel welcome and part of the team, it makes the job more enjoyable. – Lisa Campbell
It’s been awesome that from day one, no one has made us feel like interns. I feel like our coworkers respect our opinions and want our input. – George Ruan
One key takeaway for myself has been the importance of adaptability. You need to be able to learn on the fly and understand that there is more than one way to complete a task. Understanding this concept has allowed me get the best learning experience from my time here. – Jordan Field
Additionally, four of the five students are participants in TechPoint’s Xtern program, which launched in 2014 to draw top university tech talent to Indianapolis. As part of the program, the students receive free housing and have the opportunity to attend various networking and learning events, such as TechPoint’s Mira Awards and Hackathons.
Our interns have also been immersed in NextGear Capital’s community relations efforts. Not only did they participate in our Drive Away Hunger CANstruction event, but a couple of them have taken time this summer to teach basic coding concepts to children at the Christamore House in downtown Indianapolis.