{"id":3452,"date":"2018-10-03T17:15:57","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T17:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3452"},"modified":"2019-04-24T07:47:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T13:47:02","slug":"tstc-alumnus-stays-in-region-for-technology-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3452","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Alumnus Stays in Region for Technology Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(WACO) \u2013 Sheldon Burney points to his experiences at Eden High School in Concho County for influencing his career decision.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Eden Independent School District\u2019s information technology director guided Burney in learning how to maintain networks while still a high school student. Burney started fixing technical issues for teachers during class periods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt was a lot of fun doing that,\u201d said Burney, a Texas State Technical College alumnus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burney has been working since August in Corsicana as a field PC\/network technician at Switch Technologies. A lot of his work involves traveling to clients\u2019 locations to diagnose technical problems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe support the information technology in companies in cities ranging from China Spring to Ennis,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burney said weekly conference calls help to keep himself and his co-workers updated on hardware and software changes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe use an app called Slack, and we will send each other articles to read and webinars to show how technology is changing,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Texas has more than 32,600 network and computer systems administrators with an annual mean wage of more than $91,300, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connie Standridge, Corsicana\u2019s city manager, said there is a need for information technology workers in the city, especially for individualized services. Corsicana has more than 23,600 residents, according to 2017 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think first you have to have good internet and high-speed access and good, affordable buildings and offices,\u201d Standridge said. \u201cA lot of people are now working from home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burney was raised in Grape Creek and grew up during his middle and high school years in Eden. He graduated in 2013 from Eden High School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He discovered TSTC from a friend who was studying Automotive Technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI only wanted to attend a school that could further my experiences with technology hands-on instead of taking it from more of a logical standpoint,\u201d Burney said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burney graduated from TSTC in 2015 with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Computer Maintenance Technology and in 2018 with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Computer Networking and Systems Administration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI never really expected to enjoy going to class that much because I jumped into college after high school,\u201d Burney said. \u201cTSTC has made me more confident with technology. They have been accommodating in helping me find a job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He plans to return in the spring to finish classes for associate degrees in Cyber Security and Cloud and Data Center Management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSheldon is one of those students who proves that perseverance will win out,\u201d said John Washington, a TSTC instructor in the Computer Networking and Systems Administration program. \u201cHis dedication to understanding the foundational skills required to work in the information technology field will ensure that his employer will be rewarded for giving him an opportunity to showcase what he has learned during his time at TSTC.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tstc.edu\" target=\"_blank\" alt=\"Texas State Technical College Website link\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.tstc.edu<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sheldon-Burney-photo.jpg\" alt=\"TSTC Alumnus Stays in Region for Technology Job\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3453\" src=\"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sheldon-Burney-photo-272x300.jpg\" alt=\"TSTC Alumnus Stays in Region for Technology Job\" width=\"272\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sheldon-Burney-photo-272x300.jpg 272w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sheldon-Burney-photo-624x688.jpg 624w, https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sheldon-Burney-photo.jpg 657w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 272px) 100vw, 272px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(WACO) \u2013 Sheldon Burney points to his experiences at Eden High School in Concho County for influencing his career decision. The Eden Independent School District\u2019s information technology director guided Burney in learning how to maintain networks while still a high school student. Burney started fixing technical issues for teachers during class periods. \u201cIt was a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4244,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452\/revisions\/4244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}