For new college graduates, finding a job after earning your degree can take months. And, if the labor market is struggling with inflation, employment opportunities can be scarce. Being patient, staying positive, and exploring your options is often good advice.

After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin in 2023 with his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, Code@TACC camp alumnus Jan Carlos Rubio was in this exact position. After an extensive search for employment that lasted 13 months, Rubio was hired as an Engineering Scientist Associate at the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) at UT Austin. In this role, he supports traffic and transportation research, working on programming tasks that require production-level deployment.

“I spent the time after graduation learning new skills and staying ready,” Rubio said. “My mother always says (in Spanish) ponerse trucha — ‘stay on top of your game.’ CTR keeps me on my toes, from troubleshooting coding issues to vast research projects, and I love it.”

After his 2018 Code@TACC Cybersecurity camp experience during high school, Rubio realized he wanted to pursue a career in computer science. He enrolled at UT Austin in Fall 2019 and served as a volunteer leader for Code@TACC Robotics, Connected, and Cybersecurity camps from 2020-2022. Camp leaders provide program participants with support and guidance on their projects.

“With hard work, I was accepted into UT, admitted into the electrical engineering program, and earned an automatic tuition exemption for being at the top of my high school class,” Rubio said. “My goal was to help humanity in some way, whether through writing code that does something cool or inspiring a student who wants to be an engineer to follow their dreams.”

“When working in research and dealing with embedded technologies, one must be versatile and wear a lot of different hats. I’ve been quite thrilled with Jan’s versatility and personability,” Perrine said. “During Jan’s interview process, things that stood out about him were his experience in areas like visualization services, his technological accomplishments, and his glowing references. Hiring him was a no-brainer, and we’re happy he’s here,” said Rubio’s supervisor and CTR Senior Engineering Scientist Ken Perrine.

Recently, Rubio worked on a collaboration with the Texas Department of Transportation. The project consisted of a web application to automate the calculation and analysis of different metrics relating to sections of I-35 (in Austin and San Antonio). This assignment allowed him to gain insight into civil engineering concepts and become a better developer with the R programming language.

Since its inception in 2015, TACC’s signature camps have served more than 600 students, the majority of whom are women and students who historically have been underrepresented in STEM. Hundreds of these campers have pursued postsecondary education in STEM fields.

Rubio applied for the 2017 Robotics camp but wasn’t selected. The following summer, he applied again and was selected for the 2018 Cybersecurity camp. He learned of Code@TACC camps from a computer science teacher at C.C. Winn High School in Eagle Pass, Texas, a small town on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I’m glad I didn’t give up because the Cybersecurity camp put me on a path that defined my college education and my new career,” Rubio said.

Fellow Code@TACC alum Jayla House fondly remembers her time alongside Rubio. House also was an attendee of the 2018 Cybersecurity camp and, subsequently, joined Rubio as a camp leader during the 2022 summer camps. “Serving alongside Jan was delightful,” said House, a Code@TACC alumna who relocated to North Carolina in 2022 to start her career in cybersecurity. “It’s not every day I meet someone who is passionate and driven while also being compassionate and having such a positive attitude.”

This article was first published by TACC and is reproduced here with the authors permission. Damian Hopkins is a Communications Specialist at TACC.

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is part of the Office of the Vice President for Research at The University of Texas at Austin. Since its founding in 2001, TACC has been committed to facilitating open science research across a robust ecosystem of advanced computing resources, powering discoveries that change the world.