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Picking a Career...

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by steven rosson

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I'm having trouble determining which area of computers I want to persue as a career. I am 15 and have been working on computers for a while. I know Windows 95, 98, and ME inside-out including basic operations, registry, and security policies. I havea lot of experience in web design and development. I've been doing consulting for schools and individuals for a few years, but I know that there will not be jobs for Win9x gurus forever. And while web design is a fun way to make some money as a kid,it is not reasonable for me to believe that I can make an adequate living from it.

I am asking if anyone can give me some advice on what a profitable area to persue would be. I enjoy doing things that I can actually think about. I usually can notfocus on something unless it actually challenges me a bit. I was thinking that networking (software or hardware) or other types of consulting might be good choices. I would appreciate any suggestions.

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by road-dog

not to get a big head. You've come into a lot of valuable knowledge at a very young age. I'm not saying that you're arrogant, but a lot of young folks are, and you might be stereotyped as such. Be very careful to talk respectfully and listen a lot.

That being said, a healthy introspection is in order. you need to find a career that will provide you challenge. Many staff analyst positions do get very tedious to those hungry for action.

In order to keep things interesting, you might consider a road dog position where you will find yourself in over your head often enough to keep you on your toes. You might try to get into networking. I made my bones with a value added reseller installing networks in remote sites all over the US. Psychologically this appears to be suitable, but your age is prohibitive in the traveling arena. (rental cars & such). The VAR angle is still sound, though. Smaller companies provide flexibility due to lack of resources and rapid pace of business coupled with advancing technology.

I hope this helps, when I was your age all I knew about what I wanted to do was that I didn't want to install carpet like my dad!

Good luck, you are among friends here. Check in often and listen to career information. Time IS on your side. Gain general skills and your plum career might find you!

by garyrose

I don't have any career advice, but have a need for someone to write some software for my small business. I want to syncronize data uploaded from a PDA directly into specific places in a Word cocument "boilerplate" report. If it can be done, it would save me a lot of time since I wouldn't have to manually enter field data. Interested? Gary

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