Entry Level - 2 yrs Exp. Required (F#$% My Life!)

Lost my job last week. Sucks, I know. I had just caught up when this happened so it feels like I am right back where I started. Losing your job can make you feel like you are losing your independence. It can make you feel worthless and devalue you as a person.

I am glad I started school two years ago. School is one of the things that has kept me moving forward over the last few years. Thank God for the stimulus and the fact that I was able to get Pell Grants to help me through Broward College debt-free.

Once I finish this semester, I will have my AA. An AA is about as useless as a high school diploma, so I am still focused on completing my Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science (hopefully at Nova Southeastern University).

Even if I finish school though, what chance is there that I will ever find a job in my field? My sister has everything a corporation could want. She is detail-oriented, project-driven, geared for success -and- flexible. To top it off, she doesn't even drink AND has good credit!

She has her AA in Accounting. She has eight years of experience; it just happens not to be in Accounting. So, she invests all of this time and energy into learning how to become an accountant, but to get a job she has to have experience being an accountant.

How in the hell does one break into the industry if they have to have experience before they can? This gives me absolutely no confidence that I will ever be able to find the right job and makes me fearful that after I get my Bachelor's, I might end up still being a bartender.

Ivy League schooling.. for FREE?!!?!

So... My sister just called me and told me about something she had heard online in a TED talk by Daphne Koller. She said that there was a website out there that was a collaboration of Ivy League schools that partnered together to offer free (Yes, you heard me right.. free) online classes ranging from biology and mathematics, to computer science and business.

The school is called Coursera ( www.coursera.com ). I went through the listings and found classes ranging from Game Design to Computational Nueroscience to Fantasy and Science Fiction. I went through the list, wanting to pick out tons of different classes, but I stuck with just one. I chose to enroll in the Game Theory course. I would also have picked the Science Fiction an Fantasy course, but I am already enrolled full-time at Broward College and I did not want to over extend myself.

I hope this ends up being as good as it sounds. The class syllabuses looked very thorough and the website itself looks amazing. The Game Theory class only requires about five hours a week of work so hopefully it won't interfere to much with my school.

Anyways, wish me luck!