What's wrong with Access?

[ButtonMoon]

Having complete control and doing it all myself, from an initial idea for solving the problem all the way to debugging the program, I have complete control to get something out to my company in a very short amount of time.

I can see how some projects can require a full team of experts, but for the programs I’m creating, one person with Access is way better than paying one million for a team of people to do the same thing.

If you are just starting out to build a technology-based career then I would recommend you try to do the opposite though. Definitely try to work in a development team rather than as a one man operation. You'll learn more that way from fellow team members. The most rewarding parts of my career have been when I have worked alongside people who were smarter, more knowledgeable and more experienced than myself and who I could learn from and bounce ideas off. I'm in my third decade in IT and I still always try to work with people who know more than I do. Learning needs to be a continuous process if you are to stand any chance of keeping up with the pace of technology change. However attractive it may seem, learning just by doing it yourself alone is generally the most expensive and least reliable form of education.

Secondly, if you work in a team you'll get to work on bigger, more complex projects with more innovative technology and more exciting applications. Except in small organisations, the business critical, high value and cutting edge projects are seldom entrusted to just one person. Even if one person can deliver in an acceptable timeframe, it will often be unacceptably risky to create too much of a key dependency on one person. Besides, the really interesting projects are usually too big and/or require too many different skills for one person to tackle in a sensible period of time. So I would humbly suggest that the breadth and depth of your knowledge and ultimately your whole career will benefit from working in teams, particularly if you don't have a lot of experience behind you already.

Good luck, anyway.

 

[aaronb50]

So I would humbly suggest that the breadth and depth of your knowledge and ultimately your whole career will benefit from working in teams, particularly if you don't have a lot of experience behind you already.

I agree with everything you said 100%!!

Unfortunately, I have not as of yet, been given any other opportunities. I would love to be working with a full scale team of people with tons of experience that could teach me. I have learned a ton in the last year but I know under the right circumstances I could have learned twice as much.

The plan is to one day be part of something like that, if not, own my own something. I'm just not there yet and I'm making the best of what I have been offered.

I have already come to the conclusion that if and when I do get my next job, there is still going to be a major learning curve.

Not sure when I will land that major job, but till then I have my foot in the door with nothing to really complain about. Just going to keep on going as is while I finish up that Masters in Software Engineering and hopefully have the experience needed when that major job presents itself.

The company I'm with now has a huge enterprise IT division. I'm hoping with just two of my ten programs saving the company 1.75 million, I can at least be taken serious when I start to apply for jobs at that level. But again, I'm not in to much a hurry. I'm good to sit where I'm at at least another year and a half while I finish my degree. But if something comes up, I'll take it!!!