Paul Coleman's IT career
by
Rhodie Coleman

In 1979, Paul was a 31-year-old mason whose back and knees were beginning to give out. He decided to go back to school and had testing that indicated he would be a good candidate for an electrical engineering
degree. He planned to go to a community college for two years and then matriculate to a major university. One of his curriculum's prerequisites was a chemistry class. The class utilized a mainframe computer for some of its projects. Paul got "bit" by the computer bug and switched to an IT curriculum. He decided that an Associates of Science in Information Systems would be sufficient to get a good job. While in school, he bought his first computer, a Radio Shack TRS80 Model 1 and began self-teaching himself everything possible about programming and hardware of personal computers.  He earned his degree in 1981 and got a job at Travelers Insurance Company as a Programmer Trainee in early 1982. He enjoyed the more technical side of
computers and worked on programs for the mainframe operation systems using Basic Assembly Language. 

He had several promotions during his ten-year tenure at Travelers and worked his way up to Software Engineer. During this time he continued with his hobby to learn and improve his PC hardware and software knowledge.  He became ill and left Travelers in 1992.

In 1993, Paul decided that he wanted to pursue his interest in PCs full-time. Since his business background was in mainframes, his only PC opportunities were entry-level positions because companies didn't want to
hire him without a proven track record. Paul knew he had more to offer and decided to go into consulting. Since then, Paul has worked on PC applications for companies ranging from large organizations such as the
State of Connecticut, Millstone Nuclear Power Plant, and CIGNA, to very small companies with two to three people in the entire company. Companies appreciate that they can also call upon him for his PC hardware and mainframe experiences.

Paul likes the consulting environment where the job is always changing and he is always meeting new people. He's kept pace with new technologies and languages as he makes a career of his hobby.

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Rhodie Coleman