Hello everybody, sorry about the hello world title. ASP.NET and VB.NET trains us with that line in every new lesson. I am a newbie here and feel pretty ignorant compared to a few others on here. Aside from ASP & VB I am also currently studying XHTML, which is break time from .NET HAHA. A big time computer nerd but switching it up next year for polymer science. Both exciting to me, not sure which I would rather pursue for career.

Really happy this site is up and running, as well as gaining popularity. This is a great change compared to Brittney’s latest mis-hap or Paris going to prison. Those are things I believe my daughter can live with out being exposed to. Its NerdGirls all the way for her, thank you ladies for bringing out a group of beautiful, ambitious, intellegent women. Hope to meet interesting people throughout my posts here.

Welcome. I am a little biased here, but I feel everyone is entitled to my opinion. LOL

Polymer Science - My husband has been in tool & die, plastic injection molding, and mold making for 14 years. He was laid off from his good job making $80k per year 1 month before we got married. The next job he found 4 months (and way behind on bills) later he was only able to get $40k per year. The problem was, the industry was hemorrhaging so badly with NAFTA kicking in and sending all the work to Mexico at the same time Chinese companies have been picking up the industry and car makers were now all buying parts made in China or Mexico because the economy was going to crap here and they wanted cheap parts. You think this didn’t effect the number of engineers who were able to stay employed? All of a sudden every job in the industry went from having 4 interviewees per available job to 400-1200 per available job, and they were able to pay dirt cheap wages to fill it. It was a downward spiral from there. Mark, my husband, went to 20 hrs/week, to 8hrs/week, to laid off, to the company shutting down in the face of countries producing at 1/3 the cost. You could definitely learn about this for hobbiest interests, but I wouldn’t plan on getting a high paying job in it and instead plan to have tough competition to get the job. There’s only so many available positions at the large companies like 3M ...one department? I’m not saying you’re not the capable one to win that job, it’s just going to be tough getting there.

Programming - Lots of jobs. Everyone needs an IT guy. The longest I have been without work is 2 weeks; only because they interviewed me on day 4 of my “vacation” and I didn’t start until the following Wednesday. I was one of 3 candidates. My pay significantly increases with each new job. I’d guess two years is the average turnover rate. Gives me lots of opportunity to try new things and learn new skills.

We ended up moving to Texas and restructuring our finances. He now builds custom hot rods for a living and I’m working as a contractor doing Software Requirements Analyst/Tech Writer work.

(I hear Linux sys admins can earn $100k/year without a college degree.)

Thank you for your insight. Although your opinion may be biased, it is true. The University likes to tell you the jobs are in high demand. They wanted me to pursue the research/development end of polymers. Honestly, I think I am staying in IT. I absolutely love coding VB, VB.NET, HTML, XHTML, ASP.NET, and many more to come. I just started looking at PHP with an instructor at my current school. I know jobs will always be here. My grandfather was a programmer back in the command line days. APL was the first language I was shown at about the age of 5. Polymers science was a consideration, but I was misinformed. At first I was told my bachelors in the field was free, then it turned out I had to pay for bachelors then my doctorate would be free. For me to change fields though, I would have had to gotten the bachelors free. I am already paying around 12,000 for associates in CIS, so to switch to polymers and pay another 50,000 seemed pointless.

So now I am in the position, which languages to study. I have been told that DBA in VB.NET can make 75K to 90K. I have also been told Oracle and Linux based languages are also very good to know. So as I am sure of the field i wish to further my education in, don’t know which languages to focus on. .NET is nice, easy but I have heard a lot of companies don’t like paying Microsoft’s high costs. I suppose I will just continue then figure the rest out after graduation. Thanks again for your insight, I didn’t even realize outsourcing was hitting that industry so hard. And if it is any consolation I voted for Kerry. Hopefully we get it right this year. LOL.

I wouldn’t advertise that you voted for Kerry. :)
The cause of the economic turmoil is from NAFTA (signed in by Clinton) and the outrageous demands of the UAW.

Your a Bush supporter?? I’m shocked considering the republicans giving huge tax deductions to corporations for outsourcing seems more of a cause for the down fall of our economy. Not counting the whole war for oil. The billions a day spent, for a ‘war on terror’. Which we have seemed to have given up on finding Osama, in hopes for ‘WMDs’ in Iraq? I’m not too into politics, but I am pretty sure Bush Sr. signed NAFTA, Clinton just added to it. But all in all, or economy is still falling, middle class is still disappearing, and gas is still rising. Being a middle class citizen I tend to lean more Democratic, because I don’t fall in the $12 million a year income category. Everyone is entitled to their opinion though. I just don’t like having a president whose company {or corporate ties} profit from a war that is killing thousands of my friends. If we were still in Afghanistan looking for Bin Laden, I’d be all for it. Don’t get me wrong I support the troops, but enough is enough. I am happy that the Iraqis are now liberated from their tyrant dictator, but the insurgents won’t stop. In my eyes, we need to bring it all home troops, jobs, energy. Over half the world hates us anyways. So why should we do all this? I would have rather seen Kerry over Bush any day.

Eh, you’re right. Getting into politics today isn’t a good idea. (Mostly because I don’t want to hurt any feelings pointing out what’s wrong with your facts. :) )

The war has only been a positive influence on companies like the one that closed on my husband. Their last contract that kept him employed was for the body-armor plates lining the hummers and other vehicles. They shut down after the contract got pulled because the steel supplier (China, because you don’t just get steel from industrial America anymore) couldn’t provide unwarped steel plates and other quality raw materials.

Sorry to bounce back at you on this one, it’s not my style to have to have the last word, but I do feel the need to stick up for my husband’s former industry as I have a lot of personal demons about it.

Like stated earlier, politics not my thing. I know most facts were right. Now discuss coding with me thats another story. Love the stuff. Rich greedy old guys, that are supposed to be for the people, not for their pockets, not as much of an interest. I am truly sorry about your husbands job, but honestly think about it. If we spent the billions a day here, how much better our economy would be. Has he thought of going to school? taking on a new field? Just an idea. And my apologies, opinions are opinions though. Republican or Democrat, we all need to focus on the improvement of the over all living conditions of Americans. Not who’s right or wrong. Maybe after this next depression things will change for the better…