-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Kudart [mailto:kudart@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 5:26 PM
To: Vetter, Ron
Subject: post grad

Dr. Vetter,

     At graduation you asked for us to drop you an email to let you know what we were up to, so here's my current situation.  About 3 days after graduation I packed everything up and moved down to Pensacola FL because of some leads I had for employment.  Unfortunately nothing worked out, but last week I got a job offer over in Foley, AL (on the FL/AL border) as a programmer SOLELY due to the fact that in CSC450, our group chose to do our project in JSP to work with mySQL, rather than PHP.  Once they knew what the project was about, they said it was exactly what they needed for now and that they will train me if needed for anything else here on out.  The company offers high speed internet, video on demand, telephone, etc. service to major hotels throughout the world.  Basically our system does everything directly through the TV in each hotel room.  Right now I'm leading a group of 4 programmers cod ing mySQL and JSP setting up the video databases and on-screen display.  The best part of the job is that within the next year or two, I will be going to Jamaica, Cost Rica, Hawaii, Mexico, and London to help set up the system and any other random programming.  Not bad for a first job with no experience.  Anyway, just like any other post-graduation emails I've read, THE most beneficial course to me was CSC 450 and I recommend to future students to take the risk of doing their project in a language that hasn't been taught in other classrooms because employers are looking for diverse programming skills.

Chris