“Back to school…back to school…”

Get ready for a shocker.

Are you ready?

I don’t think you are.

Okay! Okay…If you didn’t already gather from the title of this post, I jumped in with both feet and went back to school. I’m currently a student of American Sentinel University in the Masters’ of Science in Computer Science (MSCS).

I told you that you would be shocked. “Daniel, studying computers? Can what you are saying possibly be true?” Yeah, it is.

This is actually a bit of an academic stretch for me, historically speaking. My first degree was a BA in Advertising from Harding University. We were more concerned with how to sell computers than how to operate one. Of course, I have been “in to” computers my whole life. I’ve been doing websites, programming, video editing and digital graphics “for fun” for quite awhile. Yeah. I’m a big nerd, I’ll wait for you to catch your breath … … all right now? Good. But the direction my career has taken is one that I would never have predicted.

Straight out of school (May 2005) I went to work for Fox Television in Memphis, TN. While I was there I did everything from sweeping the floor to operating million-dollar microwave transceivers. While I was still working for Fox, I also gained employment for Apple Computer, Inc., working at their Germantown, TN retail store. I began as what they like to call a “Mac Specialist”…a moniker that is misapplied more often than cheap makeup. Not in my case of course, but upon returning to the store in my post-Apple days, I cringe at the, what I like to call, “burger-joint-caliber” fresh-faced teenagers that mill about in black shirts asking, “Hi! Welcome to the Apple Store! How can we help you today! *smile*” and then just stare blankly when you ask a question that any 10 year-old with an iMac could answer. *sigh* I digress. I did that for about 6 months when a new position opened up called “Creative”. What do you think a creative might do? “Oh, Daniel, I don’t know … CREATE ????” Yeah, that’s what I thought. Actually, what we did was help other people create. Not quite as glamorous, but still pretty cool. Basically, a customer comes in with a project, let’s say some video footage that they want to turn into a DVD, and we direct them in accomplishing said task. 90% of the time it was a whole lot of fun, the other 10% was excruciating … I’ll let you figure out why :-)

During my “Creative” days, someone (I won’t name any names … Ken Finzer :-) clued me in as to what a real job pays and I sought a position and gained one with FedEx (thanks again to the unnamed one!) At this point in my professional exploits is where the computer science aspect really comes into focus. My title at FedEx is “Customer Integration Consultant” (sounds impressive, I know!) My function is to integrate customers’ systems with our Automated Shipping Devices. For instance, enabling a customer to eliminate redundant data entry by allowing them to pull in address/package information from their database … boring stuff like that. All of this “automating” requires special programming. I happen to like this programming and I want to pursue it further, hence … MSCS at American Sentinel University.

I’ve only been attending “classes” (everything is online) for a few days now, and the prerequisite class I’m taking right now I could do in my sleep, but I think I will be able to stick with it and in a couple of years be able to add some letters to the end of my name. Of course I won’t stop there, I want to continue and get (at least) an MBA and possibly a doctorate in something.

Dr. Mullins … yeah, I’ll take that. :-)