Jansen Holmes

In 2014, Jansen Holmes began pursuing education at St Johns River State College (SJR State). After working outside the United State for several years, he returned to Northeast Florida and obtained his Associates Degree in Computer Network Engineering. He has also completed the Cisco Networking Academy and is currently a Network Engineer at Bank of America through Select Group.

Jansen was always interested in dissembling and assembling computers. While working overseas, he spoke to many in the IT field and was intrigued. Upon returning to the States, enrolled at SJR State. After observing the other students, Jansen felt like he needed to take additional classes to supplement his knowledge. Professor Bell encouraged him to stick with it and just ask questions. Jansen found he put in many late nights to persist, but he was motivated to succeed and determined to feel comfortable in IT. He flourished in the hands-on classroom environment fixing equipment and learned to manage his expectations about the industry from hands-on, real-world examples. He said, “I didn’t realize how far I had come in a year until I was able to help other people. You have to have a passion for it.”

Jansen shares helpful advice with young professionals entering the IT field, saying, “You get your foundation in school but it’s a totally different world at work. You will be nervous at the beginning, but people will help you. Be sure to run things past people but try to solve the problem first.” Jansen finds he is constantly learning and communicating best practices with his team.

“If you like fixing it, it’s fun. There will be long nights when something goes wrong. There will be pressure to perform, but the satisfaction in fixing a problem is great.” He advises that IT professionals hone the skills of paying attention to detail, becoming calm to think under pressure, multi-task, make decisions and think for yourself. Jansen also sees merit in taking advantage of internship opportunities and avoid discouragement when looking for an entry-level job.