Sharon Ginsburg began working in the market research field even before graduating from college. She has worked her way up through the ranks: from interviewer, monitor, supervisor, and editor to her current profession, computer programmer.

Sharon grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and attended George Washington High School. A graduate of Temple University, she majored not in computers but in human resources, taking Fortran programming as her only computer class.

While attending Temple, Sharon worked for another market research company, Intersearch Corporation, and was responsible for their biggest project, an IBM computer job that lasted for 2 years. Just before Sharon graduated, the company offered her a position as either a project director or data processor. She chose data processing, learned to program in BASIC, and, from that point forward, concentrated solely on computers, taking an additional course in COBOL programming.

Sharon knew Dave McGinley, president of Research America, Inc., from Dave’s days with Intersearch. In 1992, Dave offered Sharon the computer programming position with the new market research company he was opening. She has been with Research America, Inc. ever since.

A typical day of work for Sharon includes but is not limited to: (1) checking e-mail from clients, (2) sending collected data to the appropriate clients, (3) programming upcoming jobs on the computer, and (4) maintaining a working computer system and network. She has succeeded in accomplishing one of her most important tasks: making Research America, Inc. and its computer hardware and software Y2k compliant. Though Sharon has a degree in human resources and is proficient in all areas of computers, her interaction with various Research America, Inc. clients requires her to be skilled in communications as well.

Because the computer field is ever changing, Sharon must keep up-to-date with the additions and revisions to all software and programming available in the field. Just recently, she has begun class at a Microsoft Certified Training Center to receive her Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) degree.