A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

Then I found myself back in school for another six months. It was a strange time; because I had already learned at the EPA just about everything my school classes had to teach me—and more thoroughly. Finally I just took most of my remaining classes by examination. Now, the only thing left between me and my degree in Systems Science were two courses in Accounting, one in Statistics, and one in Calculus.

So, now, in September of 1979, I was living in an Alexandria, Virginia, apartment with Alex and Ray, while finishing up my fourth and final Co-operative Education term with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Each morning I would take the subway into town (Washington, DC). (It was usually more crowded than this, though!)

I worked as a co-operative education student at the EPA, as I said; we were housed in Waterside Mall, into which the EPA had moved in 1971. I usually worked in a bullpen office setting with 4 other people. But, one day at the end of August, a fellow came to teach a class in some advanced database design.

I asked a lot of questions, as I do. And after the class, the instructor pulled me aside and said, You ask good questions.

I hope you don't mind, I replied. I just figure, if we can't ask questions, why have a class instead of just a textbook?

Well, it turned out the guy owned a little consulting firm called Professional Micro Systems. Now, I didn't really know what consulting was at the time. But he explained it.

"In the computer field, a consultant is an independent professional with many years of experience and broad expertise in the industry, such as me. They are hired for big-picture objectives and often meet with a business to devise a plan and achieve the business's overarching goals in the most efficient manner. Consultants are problem-solvers focused on improving an organization's practices through expert advice.

Sometimes that advice can include bringing in temporary employees, called contractors, to do the actual work. I'm a consultant, and I have a few projects that I could use you on as a contractor.

Oh! I hadn't expected, nor been looking for, a job offer.

I can offer you the equivalent of $20,000 a year, he continued. Of course, as a contractor you would be paid by the hour, and I might not have constant work for you. But you can work anywhere else in between. And—this is key—once you've got a job for $20,000 annually on your resumé, no one will ever offer you less.

Okay, that was worth thinking over. $20,000 was a lot of money back then, and as a co-op student, I was making barely half that. (A salary of $20,000 in 1979 would be equivalent to almost $84,600 today, taking into account the average inflation rate of 3.33% per year between 1979 and 2023.) Of course, I hated to abandon my co-op position before the end of the term. Plus which, I would basically be dropping out of college before getting my BA in Systems Science.

But I loved programming, and I loved working in DC. And that kind of money would mean I could get Mary and the kids out of that trailer in Pensacola, and up here, somewhere—not Alexandria!—but somewhere nice, maybe in Virginia.

So I did it. I took PMS's job. (And what was he thinking when he picked a name with those initials?!) I didn't make any other major changes, like sending for the family, deciding to wait until I actually had made enough money to do that. But my new career in computers was definitely looking up!