Sure, I wouldn't be surprised one bit. You are one of the five or ten monks here with that very special something. I may have misstated my thoughts, though. Once you get one position as a senior programmer at a respectable place, the second one should be easier. What I think is rare, as this guy has done, as well as you and probably several other monks here, is that he started as a lead after his second year in college, never having worked before. I would just guess that it is rare for an 18 year old who has never worked before to start as a senior programmer at IBM, say. Cheers.