I have Bach in Fine Arts, AA in CS

It's the HR departments that need some measurement. What else do you want them to use as qualifiers? Say, the color of your skin? I don't think so. HR generally couldn't tell a good piece of code from a bad. There's no reason why they should.

I took an absolute sh*t paying job for impossible hours for 4 years to build my credentials since I didn't have a 4 year degree. That was the trade off I decided to make. I'm glad I did. I value education--it's not dirty word to me at all, but I knew in the case of CS nothing would be better than a "real" job.

When I interview people I _definately_ look for some college. Doesn't have to be CS--my prejudice is towards Liberal Arts. College is valuable, but not for passive students and not for everyone, I know. It's NOT the place to learn the nuts and bolts of a language. But it IS a place to learn to organize thoughts and develop ideas and test hypotheses. And how to KEEP learning--which we are doing constantly in our business. It IS a place to learn how to communicate what you do and to listen to others communicate (usually poorly) what they do. This is also-known-as, oh, "needs assessment" or "system design planning," right? It IS a place to learn that there are a lot of different solutions to most problems. Sounds like our profession again, doesn't it?

When I sit down with a client, they don't give a rat's a*s about oop or activeX. But I have to be able to get far enough into their heads and business to understand what they need from me. That's what education can do. There are other ways: travel, different work experience, certification, authoring books.

You've gotten some good suggestions. But I think it's unrealistic -- and a touch insulting -- to think that you can skip college and not expect to have to substitute _some_ kind of credentials to replace it. Even if someone gave me a brilliant piece of code in an interview, if they couldn't explain why it was brilliant and why I should care, they'd be useless to me. But, then, they wouldn't be happy in a consulting environment.

Oh, and the comment about how would your agent like to work for less money than a man? Well, now, I can feel my sarcasm welling up, so I apologize in advance...But, sweetheart, you DO NOT want to go there. It is not even close to being analogous.

Wow. This is a much touchier subject than I thought at first and I _knew_ I was troubled by the posting.

P.S. Lesser salary? Compared to whom? Do you do EXACTLY the same job in the same way? Document it with your supervisor and have 'em set goals and objectives for you that look like this:

"If I do (this) by (sometime), then I will receive (this) promotion."

> I have been programming in various versions of FoxPro since 1994. I’m ...snip