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Data Driverby David Ramel

Trying to Become a Programmer

I'm as cynical as the next guy, but this note I just got really made me stop and think about things like the meaning of Thanksgiving, and the fact that there are real people behind that 10.2% unemployment rate statistic.

Here it is, presented raw and unedited -- kinda like life:

dear mr.ramel

forgive my lack of proper punctuation and caps and spelling.i never took typing and dont know how to use word. I was happy to see someone who taght themselves C languages. I have been doing that for about three years. up until recently i had been working 60 and 70 hours aweek at a hotel dining room bussing tables for about 15 years. most of the guests in this melourne florida hotel work for NASA,Grumman,Harris,Rockwell etc. over time i made friends with some of the IT people who work for these places. i decided to try to improve myself and asked some of them what it is they do and what should i learn to aim myself in their direction. one guy said"if you learn c you can go anywhere". so I started with c++.its been like trying to learn how to fly a martian spacecraft. being computer illiterate five years ago didnt help.stumbling around barnes and noble i have managed to pick up quite a few tiles on the subject of programming.At someone elses urging i have dipped my toe into sql but it seems to be quite a frigid subject.Another of my guests got me interested in cisco so i now have several books on telecommunications and internetworking.VB (or studio whatever) and java are a little in the mix.Ruby and php too. I'm far along enough now thatthe rules and sytax of these languages are starting to resemble each other. Now my goal is certification or a degree from whatever accredited institution I can get myself onboard with. I've been unemployed for several months now so I'm trying to take advantage of offerings the state of florida hasas far as scholarships and grants and whathaveya.Nothing definite yet.Not ruling anything out elseware as far as that is concerned. I can tell you one thing though. It's that I have been bitten by the IT bug and I'm gonna persue it and hopefully make it my career. I'll be happy to get involved with your blog or just contribut in some way as an IT neophyte. I like to just surf around and glean whatever flavor of IT is sittiing out there for free. It's guilty pleasure to register for some free webinar and type ":student" as my proffession just to get in. I'm just looking forward to getting paid for having so much fun. vty josh

Posted by David Ramel on 11/19/2009

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