I will start out by saying that the best path to a high-paying career as a computer programmer is, of course, a college education with a degree in Computer Science or Engineering, but spending four years to get there is not the only way.

Back in 1983, I was working for a large government contractor as a secretary in the Engineering Department on the 1st floor of the building (think dreary, drab green metal desk, gray electric typewriter--in the basement). I hated my job. I dreaded going to work every single day. But as a single mother of a 2-year old daughter, I had no choice.

The only fun part of the job was mingling with the 2nd floor people in the Computer Sciences Department (now days, commonly referred to as the IT Department). They were always talking about their projects and seemed to love their work. Some of them drove fancy sports cars, so I was doubly envious. They were always trying to encourage me to go back to school, but I couldn't afford to quit my job or pay a babysitter to attend night school, much less pay for the courses.

One day, when I got back to my desk after lunch, my boss called me into his office. I thought I was in trouble for taking too long at lunch, but instead he said, "I couldn't help overhearing your conversation in the lunch room. If you really want to learn to program, you can do it right here at work--on the job."

He handed me a manual in a thick gray plastic binder with the words System 1022 Programming Guide handwritten in black marker and then another one that said System 1022 User's Guide. He gave me a brief description of what System 1022 was and told me that my work assignment was to build a database to catalog all of the classified documents that went in and out of the safe. I was to write a program to produce a report that would list all the documents that were checked in and out of the safe, who checked them in or out, and the day and time.

I admit is was a bit hard to understand at first, but I had all my 2nd floor friends to help answer questions, so after about a year, I became pretty good at it and had finished that project, plus a couple of others.

One of the managers on the 2nd floor came down to my office one day and told me how proud he was of me. Then with a smile, he said, "We're looking for a Jr. Programmer to help out on a large project. Interested?"

Then the smile was on me. "Yes, I would love it."

A week later I had doubled my salary and taken the first step toward what has turned out to be a very satisfying and lucrative career.

If you are working in a place where you might be able to do the same thing, just ask your boss. It never hurts to ask. Many companies offer training classes in computer programming and they are not restricted to only programmers.

If you don't work in a place where you are able to learn on the job, there are plenty of other ways to go about learning. There are hundreds of books on the subject of learning to program. Many of these books have assignments at the end of each chapter, so you can learn hands-on. If you don't have a computer, you can check with your library to see if they would allow you to use a computer to learn programming.

Java is a popular language (my favorite). The Java Developers Kit (JDK) from Sun Microsytems can be downloaded and used for free at http://java.sun.com. You can use any text editor to write the programs or you can download a popular Java editor such as Eclipse for free (there are books on using this tool also).

There are many different programming languages, but no matter which one you learn, the logic you use when you write the program is the same. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to be good at math to be a programmer (I am proof of that). You just need common sense and maybe a little patience.