Combining His Peirce Education With External Internships, Jason Zacconi Is Ready For His IT Career
Combining His Peirce Education With External Internships, Jason Zacconi Is Ready For His IT Career
Jason Zacconi, a current Peirce College Information Technology student, knows the benefit of combining his degree with outside-the-classroom experience to land the career he deserves.
After starting his journey with Delaware County Community College (DCCC), Jason moved from his original healthcare path to his true calling in the information technology field. “I took some core classes at DCCC that could be applied to anything. I was originally leaning towards nursing, but then I found my passion with IT,” said Jason.
Jason said he always liked looking at things a bit differently to see how they worked from the inside out rather than how they appeared at first glance, but he never stopped to realize how he could combine this interest with a life-long career. Once he discovered that the field of information technology would take his interests and expand them even further, he was sold. “I like working with networks and I really enjoy troubleshooting. As a kid, I used to take things apart just to see how they worked. This all led to me getting into IT.”
Once Jason found his niche with IT, he started to connect with the IT department at DCCC and quickly learned of Peirce College. “The IT department at DCCC mentioned Peirce College having an excellent transfer program after completing my associate degree. Additionally, a few of the employees within the department are current Peirce students or alumni who had personal experience to add,” explained Jason. “After these conversations, I decided I was going to get my bachelor’s degree and Peirce College was where I was going to get it.”
In spring of 2016, Jason officially enrolled and joined the Peirce community eagerly chasing his Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. Once Jason began this next educational step, he decided it was time to combine his degree with experience, so he would be highly marketable once applying for full-time positions.
Jason started searching for internships around the area and was able to land one fairly quickly. He started with Research for Action for a few months where he learned valuable professional lessons.
This internship was made possible from his previous education with DCCC and his current pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at Peirce. “Pursuing my bachelor’s has really helped me. The more education, the better, in my opinion. I knew four years would be more impressive than two years and I also knew I could do it,” said Jason. “When you’re competing against others who have bachelor’s degrees and you don’t have one, you won’t have the advantage. I wanted the advantage.”
Jason said in addition to becoming more marketable, the internship allowed for him to solidify his decision to pursue an information technology career. “It gave me the hands-on experience necessary to figure out my passion.”
Despite balancing school and a full-time internship, Jason was able to make it work thanks to Peirce Fit®. Jason said, “When I was working full-time, Peirce Fit was the perfect option. I took advantage of it as I would try to go to class as much as possible and preferred that option, but if I couldn’t, I knew I had the online option, which was comforting.”
Now, as Jason continues chasing his degree, he is also continuing to look for more internships and experience. He is currently working with Peirce’s Career Development Services team to learn of new opportunities and work on his career skills so he is well-rounded in his classroom and out-of-classroom skills.
As Jason moves forward with his career, he would just like to give a special shout-out to all those who are assisting him reach his dreams, “Thank you to everyone who has helped me get my foot in the door so far. It has been a pleasure to work with everyone at Peirce College and Research for Action. You all have helped me continue to move forward and progress!”
Congratulations to Jason on all of his accomplishments so far! We wish him nothing but success as he continues landing internships, networking with his new skills and pursuing his dream degree.
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