Even though today is Christmas day, the city of Troy got its Christmas present months earlier — 90 days, to be exact.

With the announcement of CGI, the city’s newest industry, coming to Troy, Mayor Jimmy Lunsford said Pike County had found its “missing link.”

But, with CGI’s new home in Park Lane still under construction, many residents may wonder just when this “missing link” will make its mark.

Just because the company’s not quite settled, though, doesn’t mean its employees haven’t begun working in Troy.

“We’ve been fairly busy behind the scenes,” said Mark Eschle, vice president. “Since September, we’ve completed plans for the new facility, and construction is proceeding right on schedule.”

CGI’s building will be completed in stages, the first done by the middle of January, as scheduled.

Eventually, the building will be open to accommodate more than 300 employees.

Though CGI has plans to hire these 300 by the end of 2012, Eschle said hiring is already ahead of schedule.

“We actually have exceeded our targets for 2009. We were not planning on doing any hiring until after the first of the year, but we have 12 hires on site at the Airport (CGI’s temporary workspace),” Eschle said. “We’re expecting another four starting January 4.”

Eschle said CGI has consolidated some of its human resources and financing department for the company to the Troy site, and those hired now have begun working in that capacity.

When CGI moves into Park Lane in January, he said there will be around 15 to 20 people with it.

By the end of 2011, Eschle said the company has committed to hire at least 150 employees and the remaining 300 staff members by the end of 2012.

“That’s still our longer term plan, and we’re building the building to support that plan,” Eschle said.

Aside from hiring human resources, Eschle said the company will begin hiring business process outsourcing groups, which will include collections representatives for CGI’s clients.

The company will also hire supervisors and senior management roles.

Other major roles the company will hire are programmer analysts, software testers and technical writers.

CGI has already held a career fair in Troy, and through that, have received more than 200 applicants.

“We are very pleased with the quality of people we have talked to,” Eschle said.

“We will continue to screen and make more recruiting plans, which will include on site interviews.”

For more information about hiring, visit www.cgi.com or call Katie Booher at 678-443-1128 or 404-889-5183.