TSTC alumnus motivated by career choice in Austin

(WACO, Texas) – Jacob Johnson’s career is in the fast lane.

Johnson, 20, of Austin graduated in August from Texas State Technical College with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Cloud and Data Center Management. He is an associate systems engineer at Austin-based Accruent, a worldwide physical resources management and planning company.

“This is the start of a great career and life for me,” Johnson said. “Besides, I genuinely find my job fun. I leave work and I go home and study AWS (Amazon Web Services), which I also find super enjoyable. I would not be this motivated if I did not enjoy what I was doing.”

Johnson’s job involves using the company’s ticketing system to ensure that software websites and servers are functional.

“I also do a fair amount of troubleshooting of our websites when customers find issues that our support team cannot figure out,” he said.

Johnson said what he learned at TSTC has been beneficial to his job.

“The thing I am most knowledgeable about is cloud providers,” Johnson said. “What my work gives me is the ability to expand my knowledge greatly on the actual server side of technology. I just love learning more about it.”

Rus Teston, an instructor in TSTC’s Cloud and Data Center Management program, said he could see early on how eager Johnson was to learn.

“During the AWS Solutions Architect course, it was apparent to everyone when things aligned for Jacob and his torch of knowledge was lit,” Teston said. “Even after graduation while looking for employment, Jacob continued to pursue knowledge, and AWS certificate after certificate were quickly claimed as his own.”

Workers will be needed to fill an increase in information technology positions predicted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency has estimated more than 24,000 network and computer systems administrators and 10,500 more computer network architects will be needed by 2026.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.