DACA Recipient Overcomes Challenges to Become Salesforce Account Director

The moment things shifted

Tania Thomlison became a DACA recipient in 2012, a designation that came with both opportunity and constraint. Born in Mexico and raised in Texas, she had already begun thinking about her future in ways her family had not. She was the first in her family to pursue higher education—a path that required navigating not only the academic demands of college but also the particular barriers that came with her immigration status.

The timing of DACA's establishment meant that Thomlison could legally work and study, but it also meant she carried a different kind of uncertainty than her peers. Language barriers compounded the challenge. Yet rather than treating these obstacles as endpoints, she treated them as conditions she would have to work around.

What they tried

Thomlison pursued higher education despite the complications of her status. She attended college, working to build the foundation for a career in technology—a field that would eventually offer her both stability and advancement. After completing her undergraduate studies, she moved into the technology sector itself, taking positions at IBM and Oracle. These were substantial companies with established career pathways, and she used them to gain real experience in how technology operated at scale.

But she didn't stop there. While working in the industry, she pursued an MBA from Louisiana State University, adding formal credentials to the practical knowledge she was accumulating. This combination—hands-on experience at major technology firms paired with advanced education—became her strategy for building a career that could withstand the specific uncertainties she faced.

What worked, what didn't

The strategy of combining work experience with education proved effective. In January 2021, Thomlison joined Salesforce, one of the world's largest cloud computing and customer relationship management companies. By 2023, she had advanced to the role of Account Director, a position that reflects both technical competence and the ability to manage complex client relationships.

What worked was persistence across multiple domains simultaneously. She didn't choose between working and studying; she did both. She didn't choose between staying in one company or moving when better opportunities arose; she moved from IBM to Oracle to Salesforce, each transition building on the last. Her father's example shaped this approach.

My dad came to the United States with nothing but his skills as a mechanic, work ethic, and hopes of providing opportunities for his family. He really showed me what it means to have grit and keep moving forward.

This wasn't abstract inspiration—it was a model of how to move through difficult circumstances without waiting for them to resolve themselves.

What they'd tell someone else

Thomlison's path from DACA recipient to Account Director at a major technology company demonstrates that professional advancement is possible despite systemic barriers, but it requires specific choices. The first is to treat education as an ongoing commitment, not a one-time event. She completed her undergraduate degree, then worked in the industry, then pursued an MBA. Each stage built on the previous one.

The second is to seek out companies and roles that offer real responsibility and growth. IBM, Oracle, and Salesforce are not small operations; they are places where work is visible and progress is measurable. Moving between them allowed her to develop expertise that was portable and valuable.

The third is to acknowledge where you come from without being defined by it. Thomlison was born in Mexico, raised in Texas, and became a DACA recipient. These facts shaped her circumstances, but they did not determine her options. She found ways to work within the constraints while building toward something larger.

Her story is not about overcoming obstacles through sheer willpower alone. It is about making deliberate choices—pursuing education, gaining experience at established companies, advancing her credentials—while understanding that the obstacles were real and required sustained effort to navigate. By January 2021, when she joined Salesforce, she had already spent years building the foundation. By 2023, when she became an Account Director, that foundation had become a career.