As I mentioned at the end of the last chapter, I had gotten a job peripherally associated with computers. It was at the New York Stock Exchange, and I was pretty much doing what I did at the Computer Center at school. We would take printouts from their computer; perform certain validation steps, etc. It was the second shift, so we were mainly reconciling what went on during the day. It was not exactly what I had hoped for, but it involved computers and there was some room for advancement.

    Meanwhile, I saw an ad regarding taking a Civil Service exam for programmers. I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I took the exam. Nothing happened for a while. And then I got a notice that I was accepted, and I needed to go to a building in downtown Manhattan to get myself a programmer job.

    On the appointed day (and this was probably one of the most important days of my life), I took the subway to the address I was given. I walked into this vast room containing dozens of tables with people sitting at them. A large chalkboard stood at the front, with the names of just about every civil service agency in NYC.

    The deal was, I was one of many people who had been accepted to receive a Civil Service job. It was now my responsibility to go from table to table, sit with the people at each one and eventually, when there was a “match”, I'd have a job. Each agency was required to hire one person. Then they could get their names taken off the chalkboard.

    I sat at a number of tables, and the two gentlemen sitting at the Hunter College table (both of them so influential in my life), said they were interested, but I should walk around and speak to other people. Which I did. Ultimately, the Board of Higher Education (BHE) said they wanted me, so I agreed. We went up to the front to erase their name from the chalkboard.

    At that point, the manager from Hunter (As I said earlier, I have decided not to use names in here, but I will use just his first one. Bernie, I am forever grateful to you), walked up to me and said. “What are you doing?” I told him that BHE gave me an offer so I took it.

    He then said to me, “You don’t want to work for them.” There was another person he had spoken with and he went and negotiated with the BHE people. I was basically “traded” to Hunter College.

    After that, I went on to work at Hunter for the next four years. I met people there who would take me on so many forks in my future. My life was changed forever. After my last two unhappy forks, this was an amazingly good one.