I'm a qualified CompTIA A+ Hardware technician, with lots of other qualifications I won't bore you with now. But as with most jobs, paper credentials don't mean a lot if you haven't had the practical experience to back it up - and use that theory in a real life situation.

I thought I knew it all after taking 3 or 4 courses - one of which was a full time 2 year course (BTEC OND Computer Studies) which I now consider a "jack of all trades, master of none" type qualification. I got a taster for various programming languages including Basic, Pascal, Cobol, C++ and even a little assembly machine code. But you learn just enough to pass that module and move on to the next subject. One of the other projects was making a video, which could have been more fun if it didn't have to be about the data protection act! We were split into 4 groups and my lot won, thanks to me writing the entire script the night before mostly. So maybe I have an alternative career waiting for me?

Where was I? Oh yeah, extolling the virtues of practical rather than theory. So here I am fresh out of college, thinking I'm the next Bill Gates or something - when reality bites, hard! I learnt more in 6 months in a computer shop, than I ever did in 5 years of college.
Mind you, we did have a boss who had the annoying habit of telling us he needed 10,15 or even 20 PC's built before closing time. And this was usually late or very late in the afternoon. I learnt some good tricks, that I still use today, and I also taught them a few tricks they didn't know, so it was a good working environment with mutual respect and camaraderie - not to mention the silly tricks we played on each other.

I also did a stint in another computer shop, where he was rushed off his feet and needed help. The first day he tested my knowledge
and gave me a PC to build, then made an excuse to be gone for ten minutes. OK I thought, let's do it. He was a bit longer than ten minutes, but I was already installing Windows when he came back, so that was the start of a good working relationship too.

Then of course, branching out on my own. I started well and managed to be self disciplined, but the longer you do it, the idler you get with no boss glaring at you, and I've never been a craver of shiny new toys, or given much thought to a retirement nest egg.
I still don't rest until the jobs done, and always give value for money - too much value sometimes, but that's just me.

I do a very good and thorough job and get lots of repeat work from satisfied customers, even after a few years. I did one today actually for a former client, but not before she had tried half of her neighbours and the local 'thinks-he's-a-tech" down at the pub.
She promised me double pay if I could crack it, so that was a challenge I couldn't turn down. Turned out to be fairly simple with logical diagnostics finding the problem quickly, but that only comes from experience and I could see why the rest had failed - they just didn't think it through.... And I got my double pay ;o)