The Edge for February 2026
Young professionals are already making a measurable impact in New Jersey workplaces – bringing fresh ideas, technological fluency and new ways of thinking that help businesses grow. To capture how companies are tapping into that energy, we asked young professionals what they look for in companies and we asked managers how they motivate, empower and retain them. Read their insights below.
They hire you because they like your ideas
One thing that attracted me to Fiserv specifically was their strong investment in hiring and developing young talent. It made me feel like that this is a company where I could grow. This was a place where I would have peers around my age who are also trying to develop their careers. Having that community has helped me be happy at Fiserv and want to stay there. Still, coming in as a young professional, one of the biggest challenges was impostor syndrome. Sort of feeling like I don't necessarily belong in this office. These people have been here for years. I just got here. But it's important for any young professional to remember that you're in this space for a reason. They hired you because they like your ideas. They want to hear from you.
– Scottie Germain, Senior, Professional, Corporate Citizenship, Fiserv
Where Change Starts: Young Professionals Step Up
At Prager Metis, we have annual excellence awards. One of the awards is our innovation award, and as far back as I can remember, the innovation award has gone to young professionals – and most of their ideas have involved the use of technology. When it comes to technology that is helpful for our organization or even in execution and adoption of new technology, there is often a young professional that takes the lead and makes sure people understand the change, and understand the benefits.
– Sheila Kurman, Chief Human Resources Officer, Prager Metis CPAs
Don’t just have an idea, show how it works
When I first came to the NJ Sharing Network, my role as community services specialist was to get out into the community and raise awareness. And to the Sharing Network, when I came in, that looked like giving presentations at high schools, giving presentations at nursing schools, getting into the community. I came in with the idea of expanding the networking to the corporate world. They were hesitant. I found a couple of (corporate) events and came back and said, ‘I made this connection. I was in the room with this person. This person's coming in for a tour. I got this speaking event out of it.’ They saw what I was doing and I earned their support.
– Chris Lowicki, Community Services Specialist, NJ Sharing Network
We incentivize our young employees to go out and network
At Withum, we have a formal process for encouraging team members to network – and this includes the young team members. It's called our business development program. We actually give our team members points. If you go to a networking event, you get 15 points. If you're speaking at an event, you get 80 points. We actually write checks to everybody at the end of the cycle – you collect points and then get a payout at the end. Through this process, what we learn is we've got some really good natural business developers – and we have to allow them to spend more time networking because they're good at it – and they like it. So not only has it allowed us to grow from a revenue standpoint, but it's allowed us to retain talent. We have a leadership award too and we break it out by experience level because we want to make sure we're recognizing those team members that are just coming out of college that have fresh ideas. We want to encourage them to share their ideas. We have team members that start and they say, "Oh, did you ever think to do it this way? And I'm thinking, ‘No, but that's genius.’"
– Fatema Raza, Partner, Withum
