<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1543" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY style="MARGIN: 4px 4px 1px; FONT: 10pt Tahoma">Just a word of advice on Principal: If you have two small children, this is not a good company to work as a developer for. I worked there as a programmer about a year an a half ago, and they expect everyone to put in a lot of time (60+ hours a week is common) and the amount of work or effort you put in has no bearing on this. I have two small children as well, and it really cut into the time I could spend with them. <BR><BR>>>> On 5/1/2006 at 5:47 pm, in message <20060501224704.66861.qmail@web53104.mail.yahoo.com>, matthewaburch@yahoo.com wrote:<BR>
<DIV style="PADDING-LEFT: 7px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 15px; BORDER-LEFT: #050505 1px solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f3f3f3">Hello,<BR>Pardon for the verbosity of this email.<BR>I have been a board leech for a few months now, but I was wondering if the members might mind<BR>giving some professional advice.<BR>First, some background to set the stage. I am the bread winner of a family of four. At night when<BR>I get time from my 4yr old and autistic 3yr old, I have been teaching myself various technologies<BR>such as PHP and ASP and programming languages such as C++, Visual Basic and now the .NET framework<BR>and some ADO. I have yet to find a distribution of Linux that I really like to get to know well. I<BR>have been using computers since 1984 so I am not technically challenged. I started my career with<BR>networking and administration about 10 years ago, but have always enjoyed the little bits of<BR>programming that I have done and its challenges. I did have my MCSE back in 1999 with Windows NT4.<BR>I taught myself enough to pass all of the tests on my first attempt in a 4 week span, though I<BR>have never been an administrator in an Enterprise environment. I have zero experience with working<BR>in a team programming environment or as a professional developer. I have read numerous website<BR>tutorials, and started a decent sized library of various books. The major downside to all this<BR>unstructured self education is that most tutorials on the Internet and from books are small and<BR>uncomplicated. They teach ideas but not how they are often implemented with real world<BR>applications. I taught myself C++ and went to take a night course at DMACC here in Des Moines to<BR>try to learn more, but they don't go beyond a 2 semester offering. Unfortunately I was unable to<BR>get much from the class as I had already taught myself most of what the class contained and am<BR>unable to attend college full time to get a degree. <BR>My questions are as follows:<BR><BR>.How possible is it to get a programming job at such places as Principal without a programming<BR>degree or any certifications?<BR>.What suggestions would you offer to help prove to a possible employer that I can do the job?<BR>.Do you know of any companies that offer Internships or would consider hiring someone cheaply<BR>just to get more experience?<BR><BR>Thank you in advance for any and all responses.<BR><BR>Matthew Burch<BR><BR><BR>__________________________________________________<BR>Do You Yahoo!?<BR>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around <BR>http://mail.yahoo.com <BR>_______________________________________________<BR>ciapug mailing list<BR>ciapug@cialug.org<BR>http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/ciapug<BR></DIV>
<BR><BR>
"CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication, including any attachments, may contain confidential information and is intended only for the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. Any review, dissemination, or copying of this communication by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and delete and destroy all copies of the original message."</BODY></HTML>