As previously mentioned, I am seeking employment in the programming world. However, my background is not programming; instead it is Science and Engineering.

My Education:

• Master of Science in Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering [MSEE/MSTE] from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA {I am just one year away from a phd...}
  
• Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering [BSEE] from Bradley University in Peoria, IL
• Associate in Physics and Math [AS] from H.L.S. Community College in Tortola, BVI (Note that CC in the BVI follows a curriculum set forth by Cambridge, England Advanced Level studies, so contrary to what some people may think, CC for me was not easy like CC in the USA)

First off, let me say that programming was not quite my forte. In the BVI, when doing your AS, you can only choose 3 subjects to major in and I choose Physics, Math and Chemistry. Programming was not really a big area in that part of the world at that time. I took one Quick Basic programming class.

During my undergraduate studies, we have to take two C++ classes. As far as I can tell, everyone in my class knew how to program and have written code in the past except me. I suppose at that stage the professors were not concerned with teaching anyone the basics of programming, or not even how to use the tools. That made it difficult for me. In addition, unlike most of my classmates who had personal computers or lived in dorms that had computers, I had none. So again, another blockade. This impeded my learning process and pushed me further away from programming. In addition, I was learning it the wrong way. I spent time reading the books, barely understanding anything and not actually writing any code. Bad. Bad. Bad. Let me put it this way, nothing scared me more than a for loop and I was ready to jump out of a window when I saw nested for loops. It was that bad. So I did my best to avoid coding and one professor told me that software was the wave of the future. Since I couldn't do software, that means I was left with hardware. For my senior project, my lab partner and I ended up doing a software project demonstrating OFDM using Matlab. Again, he did most of the programming while I dealt with the hardware aspects of the project.

Fast forward to graduate school and trying to get professors to sponsor you. That was tough. Finally, a professor gave me a chance. The only catch was that it was a software programming project. I had to write C++ code for PDAs. Given my pathetic background with programming and C++, I did the only thing, I began to teach myself programming from scratch.

The PDA project was the start of my programming path. As I developed the skills for that project, I discovered that I wanted to know more and more. My passion for the subject continues to grow and mature. Everything I have done, I did so because I am interested in it and I learned how to do it on my own. I am an independent learner and I will continue to learn on my own, whether it's for a job or just for my personal development.