{"id":141497,"date":"2026-02-03T02:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141497\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T02:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:30:15","slug":"velocity-iq-and-spc-pave-the-way-to-good-jobs-st-petersburg-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141497\/","title":{"rendered":"Velocity IQ and SPC Pave the Way to Good Jobs || St. Petersburg College"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/brian-thomas-ceo-velocity-iq.jpg\" alt=\"Velocity IQ CEO Brian Thomas\"\/>Brian Thomas<\/p>\n<p>Not every small or medium-sized business has the budget for an in-house information technology department. That\u2019s where the white-glove approach of Velocity IQ \u2014 powered in part by talent from St. Petersburg College \u2014 comes in.<\/p>\n<p>Known as a managed service provider, Velocity IQ offers IT support for companies that need reliable technology services but don\u2019t have the resources to build these operations from scratch. Based in St. Petersburg, Velocity IQ not only puts out fires, but manages all technology for a company, from user experience and cybersecurity to system maintenance and IT strategy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe step into the role of an internal IT specialist or department so you can focus on keeping your business running smoothly,\u201d said Brian Thomas, who bought Velocity IQ in 2023. \u201cWe become part of your team \u2014 just without the office chair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That team includes SPC graduates Theo Varitimidis and Ian Crider, whose SPC education helped prepare them to support Velocity IQ\u2019s hands-on, full-service approach to IT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s new challenges every day, which I love,\u201d said Crider, who earned his Cybersecurity Certificate from SPC and has been with Velocity IQ for three years. &#8220;I really like solving problems, and that\u2019s a big component of what I do. I get to be kind of a detective, and that part I really enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Crider has been troubleshooting his own computers &#8220;forever&#8221; and is an avid computer gamer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ian-Crider.jpg\" alt=\"Velocity IQ employee Ian Crider\"\/>Ian Crider<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m always focused on learning things that will make me good at my job, like technical understanding,&#8221; Crider said. &#8220;I got a lot of those fundamental skills from SPC.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Varitimidis earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in cybersecurity and is working on his Security+ certification. He found the training and connections at SPC invaluable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEarning my bachelor\u2019s degree in cybersecurity gave me the confidence to pursue this opportunity,&#8221; Varitimidis said. &#8220;With support from TitanSec, SPC\u2019s cybersecurity club, I was able to position myself for success and land the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Thomas said he seeks employees and interns who can jump right in and is excited that SPC students are such an excellent fit for his company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal is for clients to not even know we\u2019re here, but if not, we\u2019re here for them on their worst days,\u201d said Thomas, who sits on SPC\u2019s President\u2019s Advisory Council and provides strategic direction in IT collegewide. \u201cWe are a customer service company before anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Thomas Not every small or medium-sized business has the budget for an in-house information technology department. That\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-141497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}