I started my IT career in 1983 after graduating college and have been with the same insurance company ever since. Initially, I did mainframe development (IBM Assembler, COBOL, CICS, JCL, VSAM). I've done web development (ASP.net, VB.net, C#.net). I also taught programming (IBM Assembler, COBOL and C) at a local technical college for 9 years (at night) between the mid-80s and mid-90's. In 1992, I transitioned into DBA work for DB2 and moved into DBA work for SQL Server in 2006. I'm hoping to ride my current 'wave' into retirement, which is currently planned for May 2021 :)

Here's my favorite quote:

"I want to remind you that success in life is based on hard slogging. There will be periods when discouragement is great and upsetting, and the antidote for this is calmness and fortitude and a modest yet firm belief in your competence. Be sure that your priorities are in order so that you can proceed in a logical manner, and be ever mindful that nothing will take the place of persistence."

(Publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in a letter to his son.)