"How did you gain experience and knowledge when starting out? "

I used to be an Airline pilot up until 1981 when they had the Air Traffic Controller Strike and was furloughed. I took a corporate pilot job for a major software consulting company and when we went to different sites I hung around in the computer room and sometimes attended JAD sessions, presentations and demos to kill time. I also learned COBOL at that time and did some small coding projects, testing and training (training was easy because I was also a Flight Instructor and had worked with all kinds of people and personalities).

About a year later, I was offered a job with the company as an entry level consultant and I took it......still flying some, but they sold the plane later. So, I was a consultant from day 1...working across the Project Life Cycle....and I am still a consultant today....working across the Project Life Cycle.

Before 1981 I had learned and done some Basic Programming on a Cormemco Z-1 System (S-100 Bus) and later on the Radio Shack TRS-80.