mamaLove

Since Dana has asked, I will tell you all a little about my work. I am a Visual Basic Programmer for a state agency. Our office provides monetary compensation to victims of violent crime, sexual assault and domestic violence. Expenses we pay include medical bills, funeral bills in the case of a death, rape exams, lost wages, counseling, and relocation (usually for domestic violence cases). These aren’t the only things we pay, but are usually the majority. We have to keep track of all those claims somewhere. The agency uses a custom designed software program and that is where my job comes in.

I’m the only programmer in our office of about 30 people, so I’m the one that makes the programming changes tot the software when the needs of the agency change. I also do program enhancements, where I make changes that aren’t necessarily needed to get the job done, but will benefit the claim specialists and help them be more efficient in their work.

I code primarily in Visual Basic 6. We haven’t converted to .NET because of money issues. We use SQL Server as our backend database so I do a lot with stored procedures as well. Our reports are maintained in Crystal Reports, so I create reports as needed and add them to the software program if they will be used on a regular basis. If not, I whip them up in MS Access.

Because our agency is so small, as I mentioned above, our IT department is only me and my boss, who oversees my work and takes care of the administrative tasks. My main focus is the programming, but I do help him with other jobs as needed. And of course, when he is out of the office, I’m in charge of IT if there are any questions or problems. If I’m not sure about something, it either waits till he gets back into the office, or in the case of an emergency I call him at home. LOL! He is more knowledgable with system administration and I’m more knowledgable with programming.