My Life plan(if in wrong section pelase move)

Hi,

I was wondering if I can get some guidance on my future endeavors. I have a Bachelors in IT at Suny Albany, I have taken a lot of programming classes at the school, but like most graduates I was chasing the ladies. How silly that was in hindsight.

Well, I been spending my whole summer studying Java and have had a truth blast learning the language. I have bought books, been on youtube tutorials, Java Ranch, and now I found an intermediate class for programming that I do the homework assignments for. I am not registered but the public can view the work. I spend everyday on Java, but I know the road will be long lucky I am still semi young. I don't like putting all my eggs into one basket, so I have decided to study for my A+ cert. as well. I spend half my day on A+ cert, and the remainder of the day on Java. Yes, I cheat on occasion and spend more time on Java and It's truly a thrill working through a program and getting it to work as you imagined. I haven't had many natural euphoria's in my life, but when I am programming man it feels so good and it's natural. So I plan on passing my A+ cert and getting a job, so I can support myself better, and studying Java more and more. Just like the waiter who dreams of hitting it big in Hollywood, I will be the help desk guy dreaming of writing code. Lucky for me, I have a higher chance of being a programmer than being the next Brad Pitt.

Anyone out there offer words of encouragement and advice. I know there are a lot of variables that go into the question i am going to ask, but how long should it take me to free-lance work?

Thanks.

I

If you think you can find a job with the certification, by all means go for it.

And if you want to continue programming in your spare time, you might consider contributing to open source projects and putting together a portfolio of your work (I have mine set up at code.KevinWorkman.com, for example). That way you can have something to show people and talk about when you're trying to make your coding career more official. Think about it this way: you wouldn't hire an artist to paint you a portrait before you saw other paintings by him, right?

Thank you, that is a great analogy.