Alumni Spotlight: Hezron Perez

For Hezron Perez, CAST Tech ‘21, the path to starting his career has been more than just gaining experience and building his technical skills.

"The journey has looked like doing a lot of things outside my comfort zone,” Perez said, “forming deep friendships, and learning how to serve and love".

From landing his first internship, to jumping into college classes as a high school student, the support of his “incredible teachers” at CAST Tech and his own resilience and patience have all been instrumental in his journey.

Eager to learn, Perez excelled as a student at CAST Tech and he was able to secure an internship with Plus One Robotics at the age of 17. The internship provided him with valuable experience while also giving him the financial freedom to be independent and self-sufficient. Perez maintained this internship for nearly six years.

Perez believes that working at Plus One Robotics helped him develop skills beyond just coding. Communication skills, understanding people, foresight, flexibility, proactiveness, maturity, and consistency were all skills that became vital to his success. As a CAST Tech student, Perez participated in the “Early Bird” dual-credit program which allowed him to take classes at UTSA. This opportunity helped him to seamlessly transition into a full-time student while earning both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees by the time he was 22.

This past spring, as his degree program and internship were coming to a close, he began the job search–a grueling task in the current job market. But Perez had a strategy: focusing on applying for jobs listed directly on company websites. After months of applying and receiving rejections, he landed an initial interview. Expecting an additional round of interviews and bracing for a potential rejection, Perez was shocked when the next email came with an offer letter awaiting him instead.

With just five days to decide, Perez accepted the offer and moved his life to Massachusetts to begin working as a Software Engineer with HashiCorp, an IBM Company.

Perez says that he is grateful for this opportunity and credits his success to the friends, family, and mentors that have supported him as well as the adventures that have shaped him along the way. Recently, Perez shared his story on LinkedIn in hopes that it would help others. His story is important because it highlights a common experience that so many young people have when starting out their professional career. Thanks to his patience, resilience, and openness, Perez, like many CAST recent alumni, is off to a bright start.