After graduating in 1985 from Fayetteville High School (West Virginia), I
got my Bachelor's degree in 1989 from Virginia Tech in Computer Science,
with a double-major in Psychology and a Minor in Math.
I've been living in the Northern Virginia (D.C. metro) area since I finished at Virginia Tech, although I did go back to school a few years
ago, and finished a Master's in Information Systems in December 1998 from
George Mason University. I also
received a Certificate in Software Systems Engineering from GMU at the
same time.
I think that my education at Virginia Tech helped me the most, and is my biggest "educational" accomplishment (VT is a great school!). However, I'm also very proud of the fact that I received my M.S. degree with a perfect 4.0 GPA (a goal I'd set for myself early in the program).
In addition to formal "university" education, I've also taken a number of computer training courses, the more relevant of which are listed on my resume (and of course I've "self-educated" myself in other areas). Although I'm not a big fan of "computer professional certifications," I've recently started working on them again (Most people I've known that are "XYZ Certified" have very little practical knowledge of XYZ).
I read and studied a bit for the Networking Essentials exam for the MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) about a year ago, but never actually took the exam. I was told by co-workers that I could easily pass the first of the CSA (Certified Solaris Administrator - for Sun Microsystems) exams, so I took their word for it, and took it without studying. They were right - it was pretty basic.
That was a year ago, and I still haven't taken the second one - most of my Unix background is on NeXTStep (which is BSD-based) and Digital Unix, and from what I've seen and heard the second CSA test is very Solaris-specific. I've recently started "brushing up" on my Solaris so I can finally get that second test out of the way (I hope they'll still count my first one!).