I started as an Associate Consultant at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) on October 2nd, 2000. There were a number of summer jobs  before this but this was my first job after graduating and what I consider the start of my career. Before I get into what I did at CSC a little history on how I ended up here.
I went to Boston College and majored in Economics with a minor in Information Systems. In addition to my classes, I also did a lot of computer work outside of school. I built computers in my dorm room, developed a small business website, launched superwebmen.com with my roomates, and was a computer consultant to a BC alum in the hedge fund business.
I started my job search in the fall of my senior year at BC. The dot com frenzy was in full force and it was an amazing time to be graduating with technology skills. CSC was recruiting on campus and I met with some of the team including Pam Wall a BC alum and the lead recruiter. I liked Pam and the team and was impressed with the training program they offered. In February of 2000 I accepted the offer from CSC.
As part of my acceptance, CSC gave me the option of starting any time between June and October. I jumped at the opportunity to delay my start date so I could enjoy the summer after graduation!
When I signed the offer in February and started in October the entire world had changed as the dot com bubble burst in May of 2000 and as a result my time at CSC was going to be short lived.
One of the primary reasons I joined CSC was they offered an intensive 8 week Associate Training Program (ATP) in eBusiness Technologies. The thinking here was to take a bunch of recent college grads from a diverse set of majors and train them to be technology consultants and programmers. A week after I started at CSC I headed to Downers Grove, IL to meet up with my fellow ATP classmates
During the ATP we worked on projects and implemented systems using object oriented design, Java, Servlets, JSP, XML, HTML, and SQL. While the training program was very intense overall it was a great experience! I learned some great technologies that helped lay the foundation for my career! Unfortunately while I was on the training program CSC announced major layoffs as the entire technology industry suffered a major contraction in 2000.
Luckily I was not part of that first round but as an associate sitting on the bench with no inbound projects I could see the writing on the wall. I updated my resume and started a job search in early 2001 to find my next opportunity.
