hi everyone,
i noticed your graciousness in lending directions to others' lives, so here's mine:
i'm feeling very indecisive of late. will turn 29 this month. after graduating w/ an English major in '95, i began my career writing for newspapers, then moved to editor of a trade magazine and its website. in '00 i jumped on the dot-com bandwagon and worked for a startup, hecklers.com, as a concept writer. when the ship started going down, i began really plunging into the technical side and learning everything -- Flash, Photoshop, HTML, PHP, JavaScript.
When it sank, I was able to keep myself afloat w/ freelance writing and some low-level web development. (I also went through CIW training, but have not yet taken the exams.) Currently, I'm finishing up a 6-month web development contract w/ a major health care provider, which has been disappointing since this company uses very little that could be considered cutting edge.
AND HERE I GET TO MY PROBLEM: While I do have a good variety of experience, I don't really have the "hard-core" experience called for in the current marketplace. I plan on moving back home to Alabama to take 2
JAVA course at a local university (each one week long). I've considered also enrolling in a program the university has which grooms you for Technical Writing, since I'm told it's a solid industry, and it somewhat appeals to me considering my background and what others say is a talent. This would give me a Masters in English w/ Tech Writing emphasis (don't know what this would mean to the Tech World, but I'd kind of like to keep one foot in the more creative Literary World without ruling myself out of either.) Obviously, I would lose time and some income, which at 29 [teeth gritting]. But at least I don't have a wife and family.
Anyway, here are my questions:
1) would a masters in english in this case be a waste of time? if i could also pursue knowledge of java, how effective a combo would that be? (I have heard from some recruiters that it's not uncommon for English majors to make the hop.)
2) if not a Masters, should i consider instead going back and getting a BS in Computer Science?
3) how do i aim myself for the better programmer jobs w/ no experience per se w/ in-demand things such as webspere, oracle, .net, PowerBuilder, etc. do i buckup and pay the costs at a technical institution for Oracle or something when I'm not even sure what that sort of job description entails?
Any response or insight would be helpful.