Richard Brunner:  

Following high school I enrolled at Cal-State Long Beach. Showing the clearness of my goals, I changed my major four times and eventually emerged with a degree in Radio/Television Broadcasting. Unfortunately, the only careers that the major prepares you for are cameraman and vice president of a network. There being no jobs at the time for cameramen or vice presidents of networks, I did the next best thing and became a meter reader for Southern California Edison. I was about to be married and needed a job. I thought it would be OK until a "really good job" came along. In the years that followed several really good jobs DID come along, but they were all with Edison. There, I had rewarding careers as an industrial trainer (along the way picking up a Master's degree in Education at Cal-State Long Beach) and eventually as a computer systems analyst. After 25 years, Edison wanted to downsize and offered a retirement package that was "too good to refuse." However, I was not ready to retire for real, so I became a contract programmer for a "rent-a-tech" agency and completed assignments for Taco Bell and Hunt Wesson. After a year, I was hired full time by...Expand for more