Now I work for the parish assessor's office (we don't have counties in Louisiana) doing GIS (geographic information systems) work. I am the only person I have met or networked with so far that "fell" into a GIS career despite having ZERO experience.
Even though I had no experience, I started working really hard to learn as much as I could on my own since there was no one in my office who knew what to do. I took free online courses, bought and worked through a used textbook for the software I use, joined a local chapter of professionals who work in my field, enrolled in a course at my local university, and now I really feel like I know what I am doing. Still plenty to learn, but it's always cool to see how far I have come in such a short time.
Yup, degree in English here about 20 yrs ago and have been in high tech for 15 yrs...business is business and to put myself through college, I started my own and also waited tables where you learn a lot about business, politics, management, capacity planning, leadership, etc. I had to hustle my way through college. I majored in English because the business classes at the time were so slow compared to what I had already learned and I was bored to death. I got a job in Big Corp - lots of folks mistakenly believe that you have to specialized in college to make big bucks and that's just not true. Big Corps need all kinds of people, especially those that are highly adaptive and fast learners. My real education happened long before college and long after. I have had leadership roles in Sales, Finance, Operations, Marketing, IT, and HR. Just about every department. The degrees get you in, what you do there is up to you.
What are your stories?
[/quote]