I didn't show up inexperienced and undecided.

No, but the lady in the article did, and I'm talking about her.

It's rough competing with an alum of the Bronx High School of Science in anything; it's rough competing with a pre-existing programmer in CS.

Absolutely -- which is why, even if that's where you[general you, not Betsy you]'re going to make up your mind, there isn't some mechanism in place to make sure you're not out of your depth.

I was told, for Oxford, to not bother taking the Comp Sci A Level. I'm assuming their course material would reflect that. If the course material in the US doesn't, then someone's falling down on the job.

I've always found database stuff to be interesting and fun.

What position were you initially hired into?

Shrift -- you're in sysadmin?

Heh. Not so much. I mean, sort of, but not really. I'm sort of but not really a database administrator, too. I'm sort of like Files & Records, with added tech-fu and a minor in graphic arts.

Most of my jobs have fallen under the "tech monkey" blanket. I've never been in a position where programming was necessary. I've done break/fix, PC support, software support, technical writing, project management on tech rollouts... I've debugged and implemented code, but never written it for a job.

Sorry I got touchy, ita. I shouldn't have.

I see one of the strengths of the U.S. educational system (at its best) as being late decision-making: you aren't strapped in to the concentration you picked at age 16. Hell, I knew a woman who got a college degree in English, realized she really wanted to be a doctor, took the medical-science core in night school, and then did med school. More power to her.

What position were you initially hired into?

My first database experience came as one of my responsibilities at a company that sold mail-order stuff. I was always digging into our mailing list to pull the most likely prospects and get them into the proper format for them to be printed, and producing sales reports and projections (that were not built into our commercial mail-order software program) by digging into the dBase tables.

When I was in SF I was hired as a temp for my Excel skills. Then our data got too big for Excel so I had to put it into Access. I did a lot of Access stuff for that job, along with a little programming. That led to my job here, which initially was all Access and programming. Then we moved into SQL Server and web database stuff.

I'm such a chickenshit. I've been in my niche of the field (content management) since 1993. I've done different things in the niche (from code to hardware to analysis and project management), but it's all been CM. But when I look at the sideways movements (especially of the un-CS-degreed) I realise I don't need to be here forever. But something as straightforward as your progression and refinement of niche, tommy, still feels scary and naked-making.

I wonder if it's the rest of the UK educational system that makes showing up at university with your degree chosen viable there. Or maybe it's broken ... but my classmates seemed fine with it (except for Rachel, who did English Lit, French, Math and Further Math A Levels, because she couldn't decide -- she's now a reporter for The Telegraph). Even though the N.American way seems slow for impatient little me, I guess it works for here. But I really have no familiarity with the high school system that feeds it (except my sister got to take typing for credit, which made my snotty self shake my head).

I'm pretty good at taking a product, correctly interpreting its language and function, and then bending that product to suit my will.

I was going to say that I only seem to be truly creative with words, except that's not exactly true anymore.

Wow. I just depressed myself.

I was going to say that I only seem to be truly creative with words, except that's not exactly true anymore.

Wow. I just depressed myself.

Why? Or am I being naive in assuming that you struck the word "only" from the sentence, and not something more disparaging?

Thing is, once I graduated university, I realised I didn't love programming, not like those who really love it love it. Just a punter. My strengths lie in abstraction and design, not the small details. In fact, I swore I'd never code for money again (but went back on that about a week after graduation).

Still, I'm so glad I have book learning in it. It makes my job a lot easier.

I realised I didn't love programming, not like those who really love it love it.

Still, I'm so glad I have book learning in it. It makes my job a lot easier

ita is me. Except that I could only kill people with my pinkie if I painted it with cyanide.

I was just thinking - years ago when I was first working in computers (for money) I used to tell myself that I wasn't a computer geek. I'd say things like, "A real computer geek works in hexidecimal," or, "A real computer geek gets excited by an OS," or (back when I was only doing Access stuff), "a real computer geek uses SQL."

Now all those things can describe me.

Heh. My work experience is remarkably similar to Tommyrot's. Except once I got to a particular level with Access and understanding databases, I found a niche in HR where I'm the person that pulls the data together from all the different systems and makes it into reports. Or just runs Access databases for tracking things.

Oddest thing I saw on my way to work today: half a rabbit, on the lawn of a univeristy building.

From my previous career as a groundskeeper at Kenyon College, I can state with some authority that half-a-rabbit is a fairly common side effect of using big tractor lawn mowers.