My Frustration

Here's my situation:
   I'm 19.  I've been working with VBA/Excel and VB.NET for about 1.5 years now, and despite my age, I can say without ego that I am very skilled in what I do.  The company that I am currently employed by (a QSR), has the most horrid POS system ever.  So I decided to put my VBA/VB.NET skills to the test and build them a register system.  I have a budget of $10K to help me finish off the product and show it to my company.  This will all occur within the next month.

Here's my question:
   Has anyone out there attempted something like this?  And if so, can you give me any advice as to how to convince my company to convert to the .NET side?  And also, If everything goes down the crapper, and they just tell me to get out of their faces, what would the next step be?

   Granted, I really should get my MOS, MCSD, MCDBA, and MCSE certifications that I want first, but I'm hoping that the application itself should be enough to show them I ain't writin' no kids stuff.

Any advice would be helpful.

Why do you need money to build this thing?  Don't you have the compilers and stuff?  I think there is the VB Express for free...
Also, keep in mind a reality check.  How good are you?  Do you know large software design?  Design patterns?  Real OOP?

Well to show how good I am I'd have to have a portfolio.  There in lies the problem:  all of the work I've done, I've never finished.  See, I have this problem with constantly adding new functionality to the point that I never really get a product fully finished.

The money is because in order to actually construct this solution correctly i have to have the POS hardware to test on (a good $2000), along with about 2-3 week off of work to actually sit down and finish it off. (another $2K) the rest is for going out to show it off, and any other expenses involved.

Oh I know the never finishing thing just too well...

Update:  I've decided to just get my MOS, MCSD, MCDBA, and MCSE certifications first.  I'll worry about actually selling apps when i finish college.

i would suggest asking your cs dept if they have any projects you can work on...it would look better on your resume than pos software

pringles wrote:

Update:  I've decided to just get my MOS, MCSD, MCDBA, and MCSE certifications first.  I'll worry about actually selling apps when i finish college.

But you stated above that you rarely finish anything.  I would finish college first, and prove that you can actually finish something. Then finish your resume.  That's key.  Then aim for the certifications (assuming they don't change 500 times by the time you get done studying for them).

pringles wrote:

Well to show how good I am I'd have to have a portfolio.  There in lies the problem:  all of the work I've done, I've never finished.  See, I have this problem with constantly adding new functionality to the point that I never really get a product fully finished.

The money is because in order to actually construct this solution correctly i have to have the POS hardware to test on (a good $2000), along with about 2-3 week off of work to actually sit down and finish it off. (another $2K) the rest is for going out to show it off, and any other expenses involved.

There's more to being a good dev than just knowing how to make something work.  Your problem with feature-bloat and never finishing will definitely impact your value as a developer.  Smart management will reward you if you have good judgment in deciding what's worth your time to develop.

As programmers we have to fight the impulse to let our work follow our curiousity.  If you keep working on and adding what's fun or cool to program and figure out, you'll end up with a "product" with lots of "cool" features and functions that doesn't meet the needs of the end users.

I suggest reading some of Alan Cooper's work on this subject.

Knowing code gets you in the door, but being able to manage your own dev time as well as providing wise input during the design phase will make you invaluable.

nanite wrote:

VB and VB.NET are looked on as languages for people to lazy or stupid to learn real languages.  Plus they make you jump through hoops to do anything useful.

Circle of life. One dipsh!t leaves and another comes to take his place...