(MARSHALL, Texas) – Jason Merritt grew tired of having to meet ever-increasing sales quotas in his former career.
“That’s when I decided I wanted something away from it,” he said. “I tried for several years (but) never had good luck in making good money. I needed something new, so that’s when I decided I needed to go back to school.”
Merritt enrolled in Texas State Technical College’s Automation and Controls Technology program, which is exclusive to the Marshall campus. When he heard that his instructors were looking for a lab assistant, he applied for the position.
“I knew that being around my teachers and being able to work in the labs more, setting up labs for the students, just being around it more and getting more used to it would help me learn more and help my resume look better,” Merritt said.
Troy Powledge, an Automation and Controls Technology instructor, said he and his fellow instructor, Douglas Clark, are grateful for Merritt’s work as a lab assistant.
“Jason has been a real asset with our enrollment being as high as it is,” Powledge said. “He has enabled us to focus on classes and the students because he has helped to prepare our labs for the coming weeks. All the tasks he is given are done thoroughly and in an expedient manner.”
Merritt has set his sights on finding an internship in the near future. But he is currently focused on learning as much as possible from both his classes and his role as a lab assistant.
“I know the further I go in classes, the more I’ll be able to do to help (my instructors),” Merritt said. “TSTC is a very good technical college that’s teaching things that are needed in the U.S. right now.”
According to onetonline.org, automation technicians earn a median salary of $59,940 in Texas, where the number of these jobs was projected to grow 12% between 2020 and 2030.
Registration for TSTC’s summer and fall semesters is underway. For more information, go to tstc.edu.
