Bridging Talent and Opportunity with Emily Kitterman

In this episode of See Yourself IN host Casey Harrison sits down with Emily Kitterman, Senior Manager of Careers in Tech at TechPoint, to explore the burgeoning tech industry in Indiana and the opportunities it presents for students and early-career professionals. Emily shares her unique journey from a small town in Illinois to becoming a key player in Indiana's tech ecosystem, emphasizing the importance of community, adaptability, and continuous learning. They delve into TechPoint's role in fostering digital innovation, the evolution of Indiana's tech economy, and practical ways to break into the tech field, even without a traditional coding background. Emily also highlights TechPoint's Xtern program, a 10-week paid internship that offers valuable experience and community building.

Key Takeaways:
Diverse Tech Opportunities: The tech industry is much broader than coding. Roles like project management, business development, and marketing are also integral and tech-enabled. Digital literacy is essential across all industries, making tech skills valuable in any career path.   

Community and Connection: Indiana offers a unique blend of big-city opportunities with a small-town, community-focused feel. Programs like Xtern emphasize community building and networking, providing valuable support and connections.

Continuous Learning: The tech industry is constantly evolving, requiring a commitment to ongoing learning and adaptability. Resources like TechPoint's Careers in Tech platform offer free, asynchronous learning modules to help individuals develop necessary skills.

Openness to Opportunities: Be open to unexpected career paths and opportunities, even if they seem outside your comfort zone. Embracing challenges and stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to significant personal and professional growth.

TechPoint's Role in Indiana's Tech Growth: TechPoint is instrumental in nurturing Indiana's digital innovation economy by connecting talent with industry needs. They provide resources and programs that help individuals navigate and succeed in the tech industry.   

For more resources on the jobs, companies, and opportunities in Indiana, visit

https://www.cicpindiana.com/syi/  

Transcript

[00:00:00] Casey Harrison: Welcome to today's episode of See Yourself In where you will learn about cool jobs, people and companies in Indiana. Today you'll hear about skills that will help you find success and most importantly, we hope we inspire you to dream big. I'm Kasey Harrison, your host. See Yourself In is presented by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership to help you discover all of the opportunities within Indiana's advanced industries.

We'll discuss career paths, job training programs, and ways to develop and apply those skills to begin exploring these great opportunities. In this episode, we're joined by Emily Kitterman, the Senior Manager of Careers in Tech at TechPoint. Emily is a dynamic professional who works to help young people find career pathways and jobs within the tech industry.

She's got strong ties to community development and excels in a fast paced environment. Keep listening to get to know Emily.

Emily, welcome to See Yourself In. Hi, 

[00:01:02] Emily Kitterman: good afternoon. It's great to be here. 

[00:01:04] Casey Harrison: We're excited that you're here. Before we dive into the full episode and what you're doing now and all the ways that students can connect, let's start at the beginning. Are you from Indiana? 

[00:01:13] Emily Kitterman: No, I'm not originally from Indiana. I'm originally from Northern Illinois, about 60 miles west of Chicago in a small town called DeKalb, Illinois.

Okay, so what brought you to Indiana? Honestly, it was a job that brought me here. So it was at a time in my life I was looking for a new opportunity. I was a nonprofit professional as a district executive with the Boy Scouts of America in the Northern Illinois, kind of DuPage County, uh, Western Chicago suburbs was our service territory and growing up in the shadow of Chicago.

It was enough that I knew that I didn't want to live in a city that big. Great to go and visit. I love that I had a lot of friends from college that were there and it very early on established for me that it's like, this is just too big of a city. It's not where I want to be. And for anybody who's essentially done a job search in the nonprofit field, it's a pretty small pool at any given point in time.

And so after I'd been kind of searching for a while, also coming up against a cost of living piece of it as well, I expanded out my search to Indianapolis. I had some ties to Indiana. My mom grew up in Evansville, Indiana, and had recently moved back in, what was it, late 2015. So I had been to Indianapolis, so I was from some family that had been in the area, and so just kind of on a whim, expanded out the search and found a role that was specifically in the fundraising realm for a youth development organization called Playworks.

And really took a chance and just threw it all to the wind of like, all right, let's pick up and move. To a city where I have no connections, really, and no deeper anchor point at that point in time and just sort of see how it goes. And that was in 2017. 

[00:02:47] Casey Harrison: I think that perspective is so important because we often have guests on that in their, you know, whether it was their childhood or as they were in college, in early 20s, mid career, they were thinking, I can't wait to get to a larger city.

And you were thinking, actually, there might be more opportunities in a less large city. 

[00:03:03] Emily Kitterman: Yeah, I think it was kind of just the perfect storm of it. I mean, the town that I grew up in, it was a relatively small town. So I had that just small town, small community feel that had been such an anchor point of my childhood and the life leading up to that.

I went even farther west to the quad cities for my undergraduate to a small liberal arts college. So again, kind of fostering across the campus, there was maybe 2, 500 total students and I was very involved. So it was an environment where. going around doing different things was kind of coming up with people that I had either deep relationships with or an acquaintance with.

So that was really where my niche was. I knew that I wasn't getting that from that big city feel. And I feel like from day one, coming into Indianapolis, immediately felt that it's like, this has that small town feel that like two degrees of separation was honestly one of the first things I experienced coming here.

It was week one on the job. I had a meeting. downtown that I had to go with. And I was wearing the organization t shirt. So it had the logo on it. And as I was walking back to my car, somebody stopped me on the street and just points at my shirt and is like, play works. And I was like, yes, it's like I'm on the board.

And I'm like, I'm new. I just joined the team. And we just hadn't had a chance yet to meet. And I feel like that has been my experience ever since of there really is this ability to have that deep connectivity. to others and it has sort of that fostering of a small town feel while still having the major offerings of a big city and with a lot to do kind of that neighborhood identity and independence as well in areas where you can get more deeply embedded into specific areas if that's what you're looking for.

[00:04:42] Casey Harrison: It's really special 

[00:04:43] Emily Kitterman: here. 

[00:04:44] Casey Harrison: Okay. So spoiler alerted a little bit that you ended up at a liberal arts college, but was college always the plan after graduation? 

[00:04:50] Emily Kitterman: Yeah. So I was always in high school was always on kind of a post secondary track. Um, and essentially it was just kind of what that looked like. It was for me in high school, like many high school students have to do.

They are tasked with what do you want to do with your life? And having to pick a pretty, uh, daunting task is to identify a career field. Most high school students do is you pick familiar fields, ideally something that our job prospect that aligns with something that you're familiar with, or you have embeddedness with your family.

For me, at that point in time, I was really good at math and science, particularly biology in my anatomy classes. So I was like, I want to be a doctor. That's what aligns well with what I was really engaged with it and excited with at that point in my life. And, of course, that led to a post secondary track.

So that was something that was pretty early identified and went through all of the sort of proper streams as far as applying for the FAFSA and doing the campus tours and things of that nature. So it really was never kind of out of the question. I think the biggest piece at that point, it was, where was I going to go?

Growing up in DeKalb, Illinois. For those who aren't familiar is where Northern Illinois University is located. So that was always sort of that knee jerk of like, well, I could save a lot of money and I could live at home and I could keep the same job that I had throughout high school and be able to come out of a four year education with pretty minimal debt.

So that was always kind of the quote unquote plan for a pretty significant period of time. And then didn't want to essentially put all my eggs in one basket, as I feel like many high school students, if you're looking at a college track, it's encouraged to apply to multiple schools. Um, why wouldn't you particularly at that point, I think there were automatically, if you took the ACT, it was going to send it to X number of schools with no charge.

So applied to a handful of others, just to see what was available. And ended up getting a pretty attractive financial package from where I ended up going, which was Augustana ended up being essentially kind of a net zero between the two. So even though I was not going to be living at home anymore, was not going to have that high school job same, it was going to end up being the same sort of cost analysis.

So for us, that's really what it all came down to. It was a financial decision as a family in order of like, what were we going to be able to make possible? And so that's what worked. 

[00:07:08] Casey Harrison: And I know everyone listening is thinking, how does someone who's thinking life sciences track land in a liberal arts college?

[00:07:16] Emily Kitterman: With the Augustana College is at that point in time, and I would say still does have a very strong biology program. And that was part of that campus tour. So because I had sort of self identified already what this career trajectory was going to look like part of that campus tour included meeting with the head of the biology department.

So I got to sit down with him and do a Q& A with, honestly, my entire family was with me. It was my parents, my grandparents. That worked along for the ride and that at that point in time did further solidify that decision piece of it. It really, I mean, they did a great job as far as really selling a sense of belonging with that school.

I remember thinking back to making that decision in high school. That's what it came down to between not only the financial piece of it is that because I got two schools essentially that came pretty neck and neck. And the difference maker with it was with Augustana is that they fostered that sense of belonging right away from that campus tour and really putting that investment in me as a potential student onto their campus.

And I feel like that held true in the four years that I was there, really fostering a sense of community there. 

[00:08:24] Casey Harrison: It's nice to have community at that point in your life where you're just discovering so many things and doing it sometimes on your own. I want to transition a little bit past your education and maybe into your career now because today Emily is the Senior Manager of Careers in Tech at TechPoint.

For those unfamiliar, TechPoint is the growth initiative for Indiana's digital innovation economy, focusing specifically on expanding the talent pipeline, enhancing connectivity, and elevating the industry. How would you describe TechPoint? TechPoint. 

[00:08:52] Emily Kitterman: I mean, I think that does a pretty good job of sort of describing it, but there are a lot of buzzwords definition often when I am with, uh, particularly student audiences.

So whether that's in the higher ed space or giving presentation in the K 12 space or even with adult learners, I'll throw out of, have you ever heard of Tech Point? Majority have not heard of us as an organization, so I give our mission statement and all of that. And then usually caveated of like the best way to think of us.

is we are very similar to a chamber of commerce. That is essentially our organizational structure in that we are membership based nonprofit organization, not dissimilar from those chamber entities, where the difference lies is that we're industry specific. So whereas chamber of commerce is tends to be locale specific, and then it's all industry that come in to make up that membership base.

With TechPoint and with all of the CICP initiatives, it's focused specifically on the needs of that industry. And so who makes up that membership base and really allowing us to be industry led and industry guided is that it is the pulse of Indiana's tech industry. So we are getting a lot of information from them on the team that I sit on, which is a workforce development team.

So looking at how do we solve our talent needs and also solve the talent needs for our industry partners. in the state of Indiana is that we're looking at both state information. So thinking about workforce, Department of Workforce Development. We're also looking at U. S. labor statistics, but then also getting the pulse from industry specifically of like, those are large aggregate data sources that are telling us one version of the story.

Often those are sources that come Months down the line. Whereas what we get from industry is like, what are your pain points right now? Where are the areas that you are seeing potential growth and that what you're going to be hiring for? What are the skills gap that you're seeing in your early talent pipelines that maybe we can potentially solve for?

Can we? Create responsive programming to ensure that those coming into the workforce are getting the skills and education that they need to be Responsive and be able to filter into those roles that are of the highest demand 

[00:10:59] Casey Harrison: And I'd love for you to maybe talk a little bit before we go specifically into what you do and all of the opportunities that are available to people listening.

But I want to hone into the evolution of Indiana's digital economy in the last decade, five years. It's been tremendous. 

[00:11:16] Emily Kitterman: Yeah, it really has. And that's been something. So I came again, my career background has all been in nonprofit coming into it. So I didn't come from tech. This was something when I started at TechPoint in the beginning of 2023.

really had to kind of learn on my feet and learn very quickly about what are all these kind of buzzwords? What's going on with this sort of like elusive tech industry that we all know about and are deeply immersed in? But I think the majority of people just kind of leave it over there of like, Oh, I'm not tech, so I just don't really think about it too much.

But it's everything. It is now deeply embedded into every single thing that we do, which means from a job seeker perspective is that that anchoring of digital skills is going to be needed across the board. And for me, I've really started to think about it as I've. Grown my education in this space. What that looks like is that it's really a spectrum.

It's everything from that base level of being competent and using your mobile device to the very high advanced sort of competencies of being able to write the code to make sure that these machines can work and then everything in between and the ability to stack it through. As far as the story from TechPoint and in Indiana specifically, TechPoint was honestly founded as an organization under CICP to begin and nurture a tech economy in the state of Indiana because there really wasn't one.

And that over the course of 25 years of its organization existence they have successfully done that. And now we're looking to that next iteration piece of it was what does that digital transformation look like? How are you effectively embedding tech systems to better operationalize what you're trying to do, but then also be able to communicate that yes, you might be a manufacturing entity, but that you are highly reliant on those tech systems and then therefore you need a talent base that has high tech competencies that maybe isn't something that somebody say in high school is thinking of when they're just pulling a career out of a hat.

So, I really think about it, particularly in my role, kind of straddling this industry growth accelerator organization, but then also kind of having to put on a career advisor hat often is to sort of reverse engineer the career search process. Think about it first from skills and talents of what are the things that excite you, particularly because within the technology field, you're talking about an area that requires continuous And agile learning.

The technology is evolving at such a rapid pace that those who have been integrated in it for so long, it's because they had such a hunger for learning. They wanted to figure out how things worked, how could they make things work better, how could they use then the systems that were around them or the tools that were around them to make it work the way that they wanted to.

So I always really start with young people with that of like, what is it that excites you? Because if it excites you and it's something you enjoy doing, that's going to inspire that learning long term and be able to help sort of drive you into those interest areas. And you can build upon that in a lot of different ways and then be able to figure out how to pull in some of that information on the pieces that are going to help advance you into the things that are most responsive.

So it's always that sort of both and piece of it of you can use Titles and industries as a way to guide that decision making piece of it, but always anchor it back into that skills piece of it. 

[00:14:31] Casey Harrison: I love the both and approach. I mean, I just think it's so important and I love that you aren't necessarily someone who's doing the coding, but you've still found a fulfilling career in the tech space.

I mean, maybe could you talk a little bit about just the fact that you don't have to be exceptional at coding to find opportunities in this industry? 

[00:14:48] Emily Kitterman: I think it is again, it's that spectrum of it of recognizing that within any role, there's going to be a requirement that that digital literacy piece of it, of what tech tools are you going to be using in that job, first and foremost, across pretty much every job, it's going to be some sort of email based system.

Or an operating system that you're going to be using it and so it's building skills within those different operating systems so that you have that base level competency from there, then I think the most sort of transferable area with it. You've got then project management. So then what are those different project management tools that you can use?

And there's a myriad of different softwares that are available out there that you can learn and can really start to pick that up. And grow out those skill sets. There are certification pathways towards that as well. If you're looking to have that competency attached to it. And I feel like that's really been, I've pieced it together.

Honestly, a tribute that I work in tech, because again, I'm a part of an entity that is about supporting and creating. the supportive infrastructure needed to build a collaborative ecosystem. So it's really pulling more on my nonprofit background as a relationship builder, relationship manager, and where I've had to kind of piece together more as building a knowledge base and becoming more of a generalist of what are these tech professionals needing to do?

How can they, those that are interested in this pathway get. armed with the information that they need and start to develop a responsive education pathway to where their interests are, as well as something that they can really customize. It is everything from a post secondary or advanced degree pathway to something that you can piece together on your own through asynchronous learning.

Some self guided learnings, different boot camps, things of that nature. And that's really how the tech industry was really built. And it's something that is still, I think, very much celebrated when it comes to building those talent pipelines, as well as now we're seeing more of this embeddedness, uh, particularly in Indiana.

They have invested in computer science education across the K 12 space. As a base level requirement and we're seeing it a greater emphasis on a learning paths in our higher universities as well. And then those more kind of certification, continuing learning avenues for adult learners. If they're not looking for that just book learning kind of piece of it, they want to apply it.

They want to learn while doing and so seeing a lot of adaptable education coming out. Because of such a high demand for it. 

[00:17:16] Casey Harrison: Oh, such a high demand. I feel like everywhere I go, some form of tech ends up coming into the conversation. For the people listening who are thinking, I didn't really know how to get plugged into this industry, or I've heard of TechPoint, but I didn't really know what they did.

What are some of the best ways to start building a tech way as a student or as someone who's early in their career? 

[00:17:36] Emily Kitterman: That's honestly what my whole job is. So the platform that we have, it's a web-based asset that we've built, is called Careers in Tech that you can access through our website. And we have a, uh, vanity URL, it's Careers in Tech Info and that's where we've housed the information that we've gathered from our industry partner, as well as free learning pathway.

There's a built-in resource directory in there. We have video testimonials that are available of like, what do Indiana's career professionals do right now? How did they come into that pathway, whether it was through a traditional education and advanced degree path or through an adult apprenticeship program?

So being able to just start to gather some of that information, I think the biggest asset of TechSite is we have developed out career pages for the top 25 careers in the state of Indiana. Each of them outlining a brief description of what the role is, what a future pathway looks like, how do you develop the different technical skills that you need, and then directly tying it to asynchronous, free module based learning.

[00:18:36] Casey Harrison: Asynchronous free module based learning. So if you're listening and you're like, this resonates with me, I want to work in tech or I'm passionate about tech or I'm just interested in tech, go learn the information is there. Exactly. Brilliant, brilliant. Okay, you work and have worked at the intersection of a few different advanced industries.

I mean, what is it about this work that you're so passionate about? 

[00:18:59] Emily Kitterman: For me, what brought me into nonprofits specifically because I pivoted, honestly, my education pathway originally was going to be go into medicine. That was where I got my degree is in biology, and I've spent now close to 10 years in the nonprofit sector and as a nonprofit professional, pretty far from health.

And honestly, it was just being. open to opportunities that were presented and just kind of leaning into challenging my own comfort zone. And I think with that is that initial sort of knee jerk of like, this feels kind of scary. And recognizing that that kind of a fear is something that is really informing you and leaning into that as a chance to really expand and grow.

And see what you're going to get from it. And that's really been how I've kind of crafted a pretty non traditional career journey that now looking back, it's like it is what really tapped into natural skill sets as a strategic thinker, as a systems wide thinker, ultimately anchored in a strong desire to help people going back to that.

campus interview with the head of the biology department. That's what he initially asked of, like, what did I want to do? And it was a very simple answer of, I wanted to help people. And he immediately fired back of, how do you want to do that? And have essentially spent from my undergrad years into now of figuring out what does that look like in creating a professional trajectory to try to tap into filling that cup in that way, in a way that applies to natural strengths and skill sets, and then just being open to the opportunities as they have presented themselves and trying to sort of anchor it back into that piece.

And that's really in the role that I have with TechPoint. That's where I find the greatest fulfillment is that it's people that have questions and it's navigating an area that It has been pretty exclusionary for a pretty long time. And I think a lot of that is because it exists in this sphere that seems unattainable because it's such a specific knowledge base and we all have the capability to learn something even if right away it doesn't necessarily seem attainable and that it's a language necessarily that you don't speak and it's about breaking it down into those sort of smaller pieces and chunks that make sense.

And then putting it through a lens of how do you learn most effectively and then being able to apply it that way, because we all have figured out how to use and work alongside technology as it has become more integrated into our lives to the point in which that we really don't think about it. And I think particularly about our newest generation kind of coming into it, it's become this piece of their life that they sort of take advantage of.

And to the sense of like, it doesn't even seem like it's there. And so how can we help sort of break that down a little bit more into the, well, how do these things work that you've sort of just have always been available to you and start to help that make a little bit more sense so that they can see what does a future look like into the roles that are in most demand and are available so that they can leverage themselves to be an asset and be able to design their own path and things that actually excite them.

Perfectly 

[00:22:11] Casey Harrison: said. We're coming down to our last question, but before we do that, I want to ask you, we've recently had Sam Huser on who participated in the X TURN program. Could you talk just a little bit about that program? 

[00:22:21] Emily Kitterman: So X TURN is honestly, it's TechPoint's like tried and true program. It's how a number of students and people just within our kind of our larger community know us.

I mean, a lot of it is just because it has been so successful now. This was just our 11th summer running that program. So it's got some staying power. It has a pretty robust alumni network attached to it. And our extern program, it is a 10 week full time paid summer internship program, particularly in like tech and tech enabled roles.

So think about your project managers or your business development specialists are really reliant on tech. So it's not just. The coding and software dev roles. There are quite a lot of those in the majority of our externs have fallen into that professional sphere of it, but it is really expanding out more into those business functions as well, including things like marketing and communications that we're starting to really recruit for the biggest benefits and what has made extern such a popular program.

is because by going through us, we are covering your housing for the summer. So for that 10 weeks, uh, so it's a residential style program. So not too dissimilar from a residential college model. So it's something that's very familiar for college students as a way, again, kind of circling it back to where we started.

building community because we bring in this cohort. So we're not the ones that are employing them. We're just sort of serving as the facilitators to get them connected with companies. The companies are the ones that are employing them for that internship. But over the course of that 10 weeks, we bring all of those externs together.

For three weeks worth of programming where they're doing professional development, network building in really sort of fostering that community feel of it. Ultimately, it's kind of a bait and switch for us because we're selling Indiana. We're trying to plant that seed that there is a tech community here available to them, to these professionals that are interested in those field.

As they continue and finish out their education journey, but also that there's a lot of vibrancy here that there's, we do social and community engagement programming. So as a way to really get them connected and not only foster those bonds within their cohort and sort of provide that. wrap around support that you don't always get at an internship.

Sometimes you show up for a professional internship and you are there to do a specific job within a period of time and that's it, which you get really valuable skills out of that. That's something that you get to add to your resume. But I think a lot of us really do crave that community building piece of it.

We want that extra piece of it. And we know that that has a direct transferability as far as developing those soft skills, those interpersonal skills that you need to be able to bring into a professional environment as you engage with different audiences, whether at senior level, peer level, whatever that looks like.

Those are the things that you need. And really, What we hear from industry as far as what the biggest gaps are, when we talk about talent shortages, it's those foundational skill sets. So that's really where we put our greatest emphasis on through this very intentional programming. And I think, I mean, you spoke to Sam and it's like, I think what we hear most from our externs is that it's, So much more than just that professional internship opportunity, what we really serve as is helping open those doors, make those connections, but then provide that really deep, holistic support to them so that they are successful and that they have something that they think back on fondly, ideally as a way to come back to Indiana and really invest a future here.

Even if they go somewhere else immediately after graduation, and we've seen a lot of that, whether right after they graduate, they accept an opportunity here in Indiana, or they go away for a little bit, and then they come back, and that's been true through what we have seen with our alumni network, which has grown from the success of that extern program of how can we continue to foster that really healthy community with people that have gone through our programs are big champions of it and then can continue to support each other long term.

[00:26:12] Casey Harrison: Well, and just ripple upon ripple of impact from individual all the way out to community and industry level to have those colleagues that that you go through the program with that then become what co workers and peers and mentors and that's absolutely beautiful. Okay, at the end of every episode, we ask our guest to share three things that you've learned on your career journey that you might suggest others learn from.

[00:26:35] Emily Kitterman: I feel like we've touched on it a little bit, but just really just sort of distill it down. I'd say it's having that openness to that really anything that comes your way can be an opportunity. And so it's just having a little bit of foresight, but I think more than anything, it's just having an open mind to those opportunities when they present themselves, which I think kind of leads into the second piece of it, just being willing to go outside of your comfort zone.

To take those risks when you can and be willing to just jump into kind of an element of fear a little bit because that's really when I think some kind of magic happens is when you challenge that comfort zone, you'd be willing to accept. That little uneasiness that you're like, this is something I haven't seen before.

I'm not necessarily equipped. And I think that's really when you go into that with your full intention and with your full heart is really when honestly so much magic happens and so many additional doors open things that you weren't expecting because that's really when you do start to lean on those natural talents, those natural skill sets.

And you start to just meet different people. You explore different areas. You start to expand your thinking even more. And I think that's really the last piece of it is cultivate a life of continuous learning. Always look for things that you can learn new, learn from others, learn by doing, just gather as much information as you can from the world around you and then seek that information as often and regularly as possible.

Fantastic advice. Thank you so 

[00:28:12] Casey Harrison: much for sharing your story with us today. Yeah, thank you for having me. We're so glad that you were able to join us to learn about Indiana's advanced industries and how you can start or enhance your career journey. Until next time, we hope that you'll be able to see yourself in the unlimited opportunities in Indiana.