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Last Sunday was a very exciting day for me. Becoming a CSWP was a goal that I had been chasing for several months already, so you bet it was exhilarating to finally achieve it. However, now that the euphoria of the moment is almost gone, I’m finding myself back in the same place I was a few years ago, that afternoon at the top of El Tepozteco mountain, just taking it in for a moment, before it’s time to move on to whatever is next.

And what is next? Well, I’m not exactly sure. Because it was taking so long, I thought I would be sure by the time I got this certification, but it just didn’t happen that way. I thought I would feel confident and ready to take on the world, but I don’t. However, even though as an engineer I still don’t feel as confident in my knowledge and skills as I would like to, I’m itching to put all that I’ve learned about SolidWorks so far to good use and gain some experience/ build a little portfolio in the process. How? Well, I don’t know yet, but one thing I know is that I need a flexible schedule. Perhaps, I could work through a staffing firm or work for a reseller. I have even considered going into education, teaching SolidWorks at a technological institute or community college, if the opportunity ever shows up. I know I haven’t learned all there is to know about SolidWorks yet. There is still so much ground to cover! In my “to learn” list you’ll find COSMOS, DriveWorks Express, sheet metal, routing and piping, macros, among others… and you’ll read all about that learning process in the following months. There are very exciting things coming up too:  the entire buzz about SW2009 beta this month, the round table with the SW R&D group at the next Tri-Valley SWUG meeting and of course the official launch of SW2009 in Barcelona. You can be sure you’ll also read about all that here really soon. That won’t change. As always, I’ll try to share here as I go on, and hope that the account of my learning experience can be useful to someone out there.

One more thing I’ve been thinking about ever since I ran into those pirates is blogging about SolidWorks in Spanish. This is more an idea than a plan right now, because I would actually need to start a new blog for that purpose (without mentioning finding out what the official name of each command and feature is in Spanish), and that sounds a bit daunting. At first I thought I could simply add a page to my blog and then post everything in Spanish on that page and everything in English on the other, but I quickly realized that Typepad doesn’t work that way. I really don’t know if there is a version of the “SW Blog Squad” for every language SolidWorks is released in, but what I did notice among the Spanish speaking users was a great need for reliable information and tutorials, preferably in Spanish, that’s why I thought perhaps I could help a bit.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to what the future may bring. I’m sure whatever it is, it will be a great opportunity to learn something new. I’m done “taking it all in”, and ready to hike back down to the valley, to search for my next mountain to climb.

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