As some of you may know, I quit a stable job at Tillica to take on a contract at SRK Consulting back in September. Although there was more risk involved (my contract ends on Friday, and I have no job when I get back from South America) I have learned a lot, and my resume has gotten dramatically better. Part of my commitment to myself (and to my boss Mike) when I took this contract was that I would get my MCSE 2003 in an attempt to make myself more valuable to potential employers. Today I passed my last test, and am now an MCSE 2003! All in all I am extremely happy that I took the risk and went the contract route. It's good to switch jobs once in a while, it helped to motivate me when I was stuck in a rut. I also would not have been able to take 6 weeks off if I was still working as an employee. Now I just have to hope that I can find a job or some more contracts when I get back. If you're in the IT industry and know of someone who needs a Windows guy (who still remembers a little Linux) drop me a line.