I graduated college right in 2001 and needed Visa sponsorship. A complete no go. I was unemployed for all practical purposes for 3 years until May 2004. I reme

I graduated college right in 2001 and needed Visa sponsorship. A complete no go. I was unemployed for all practical purposes for 3 years until May 2004. I remember job requirements turned absolutely bonkers with every acronym under the sun and 20 years of experience required to boot. I took the opportunity to go to grad school and spent hours every day building projects with technologies I thought worth while. It paid off. When the economy picked up again I had an awesome portfolio and a huge variety of skills. I had even published a book on MySQL while unemployed for wrox press. Ironically I was making the biggest money in my life in tech 2008-2009