I feel like I am up against a wall in the development field with only an Associates Degree that has some CIS classes attached to it (VB6). Each of the classes I took were basically entry level classes.

Currently, I am a project assistant on a systems team for a large healthcare organization(so basically I am at the bottom of the totem pole) and was originally hired for frontline support and getting access to websites for the office staff. However, since they hired another pa, I transferred most of those duties to another person and moved to report production and development with Crystal and scripting (Windows, Web, and Term Emulators) with a program that utilizes VBA on the backend.

I have designed a few scripts with this application(Boston Workstation) one of which has been rolled out to our office to pull scanned documents after gathering data from our billing system and is estimated to save up to 3 FTE/month for our office. I have also automated reporting processes that used to take several hours and have it down to 10 to 15 min a piece.

I know my ticket to higher places will likely be through experience as I don't have time or money to get a BS. Due to my title, I don't get the tools that our lead developer has and therefore I have a ceiling that I will eventually hit.

So basically, what I was hoping to gather from all of you is some guidance and if someone with very little education(pretty much self taught) in development can move up. I know that I have the ability to be a pretty good developer, but just need the opportunity to prove my worth.


Thank you in advance,


Garrett