My son got his master's degree yesterday

[PlaynInPeoria]

and I am kinda exploding with pride.  He was a pain in the ass as a teenager, but is a fine young man now. He starts at Cat in IT (I work at Cat Electronics) deploying SAP making killer money, so there's another thing to be proud of. The funny thing is, a long time ago, I told him Cat was a great place to work, good money, good benefits, challenging work and they are an understanding employer (if your kid gets sick, you just tell your boss and leave, no paperwork or need to take vacation time). I didn't realize it until he told me, but at that point (I think he was a freshman or so in college?), he made it his goal to work there and found out what Cat was looking for and started taking classes and leaning his undergrad and master's in a direction that would get him a job there.

I met some of his friends, one of them is a 3D printer guy, so I got some pictures of the guy, the printer and his creations (lots of that in the news now with 3D printed guns etc). Also, at the reception for the masters degree candidates and their families, a military mom came out and surprised her son, he thought she was still in Korea and couldn't make it.  I got something in my eye at that point, so did everybody else.  That made the paper, very cool.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpsmith58/sets/72157633462955649/

[Son of Pappy]

Congrats!!

[Strawboss]

When I was a kid I wanted to work at Ford like my dad. When I graduated in 1979, Ford was almost going out of business as was all the U.S. car companies. I realized manufacturing in NE Ohio was on its way out as a way to earn a living as was the rest of the country, see a pattern here? I went to school, got my needed certificates and became a firefighter/paramedic. Ford is doing pretty good now. I'm ok with that, so is my dad. Good luck to your son. He's earned it.

[VirginiaJim]

    Excellent!  Deploying SAP eh?  What platform?  SAP is one of those applications that can bring down companies when the implementation goes south.  Anyway, good for the resume as it's all over the place.

[ZG]

Very cool, congrats PIP! 

[PlaynInPeoria]

   Excellent!  Deploying SAP eh?  What platform?  SAP is one of those applications that can bring down companies when the implementation goes south.  Anyway, good for the resume as it's all over the place.

The Cat implementation is called Mach 1, which I suspect is just an internal project name.  I know nothing of SAP other than it's a license to print money if you have 5 years technical experience with it.  The bottom line is, unless he screws this up, he's sorta set for life.  This I consider awesome.  There was a couple things I didn't accomplish in life and I wanted my kids to do better than me.  They have both far exceeded the goals I set for them.

He's a real sharp kid and his reviews at every job have always been over the top and he always has his bosses and professors pulling strings for him, so he must be doing something right.  I could not be prouder.

[twowheeladdict]

Congrats!  It is a nice feeling knowing you don't have to support your adult children.  One of mine was self sufficient at 18 and the other at 19.  Left me plenty of money for big boy toys and my wife money for her pets (horses, cats, bunnies).

[Locksmith]

Congrats.  My son graduates at the end of the month with a Bachelors degree in chemistry and microbiology.  Hope he finds something he likes.

[wally_games]

My daughter graduated Friday night with her Masters. Pretty good feat for a married school teacher with two small children.

VERY proud of her. 

[booger]

The only thing to top a Bachelors or Masters in employment immediately afterwards

[Conrad]

 

[tweeter55]

   Every one of them. Congrats and good luck in the future.

[Scaffolder]

Congrats