Tuesday 25 August 2015

Decisions decisions....AKA What do you want to be when you grow up? IT Ninja Monkey please...

I believe that the all-important 'Final Decision' has been made.

(Yeah, somewhat prematurely, given that I haven't actually started TM354 yet - I know - but it's SO nice having a plan that I just wanted a plan..for at least something somewhere..)

So the final OU course in my journey after TM354 Software Engineering will be TM351 - Data Management and Analysis.

In a few of my recent forays into job hunting in the IT-world, it is becoming evident that the particular gap in my knowledge is that regarding databases.  I've got bits and pieces from working with Access in old jobs, and from some of the OU Visual Basic course, but that's it.  And it does seem to be a skill in demand by employers.

So there you have it - the final decision in the long series of decisions.  And a clear path to the end of the convoluted OU journey.

Just a matter of passing my current module and the next one first of course....

It's been a roller-coaster, emotionally, physically, 'workly' (dunno the real word for the impact my studies have had on my career path).  It's helping to cement finally in my head the real answer to the question posed when I was 10 or 12 -- what do you want to be when you grow up?  Back then there were many answers to that question:


  • Married to David Soul (Hutch from Starsky & Hutch)
  • A teacher (till I discovered I had no patience)
  • A policewoman (till I stopped growing and remained an inch and a half below the height restrictions as they were then)
  • An accountant - till I discovered that the only universities offering the kind of courses I wanted were what felt like a billion miles away from home and I couldn't live with that idea at the time.
Now, and for a few years solid, there has only been one answer - "IT Ninja Monkey please".  I want to program for a living - and if I ever get the chance of a real foot in the door, I may figure out in what capacity I want to do that.  But I know that when I do 'grow up', it will be with the help of this mad journey that has been my OU studies.

Wow - that was a long post!!  I'd better shut up and give you time to read it then....


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