Kelly, With my meager experience as a rookie VB/SQL programmer, I have to
agree with everything the others have written,
at least in spirit and mostly in word. However, the one thing I see that
everyone has neglected to mention is the quality of the
instruction. If you wanted to take a class, would you sign up for one with
a teacher who knew nothign abotu the subject matter?
That is essentially what you are doing if you try to teach yourself a programming
language, even if you already know a different language.
Why not check out the local community colleges?? The college here offers
C, C++, Java, and VB, and I can tell you from recent, firsthand experience
that the qulaity of the teacher had a direct impact on how easily and how
quickly I learned the language.
I took C from a guy who is a C/C++ programmer for a living for the last 15
years. He was excellent. The VB teacher has never made a living programming,
he just taught himself how to do VB.
It showed in the qulaity of his instruction, which was very poor. Fortunately,
I already had a "technique" if you will for learning and programming which
I
acquired from the excellent C instructor. So I was able to pick up the VB
stuff more quickly than the pother students. I am planning to take the Java
classses because the excellent teacher is
in charge of those. Cant pass up an opportunty to spend 90 minutes twice
a week with a guy who has been doign it for a living. I am certain I will
learn more about
quality Java programming from him than I could possiboly learn in my spare
time teaching myself from books and my laptop. I think the same would hold
true for you.
Find a good teacher at a local school, use your experience to get him to
waive any requirements for you, then milk the teacher for all he or she is
worth.
I cant believe the doors that are already opening for me here (Omaha area)
just because I have a few months of VB experience with SQL Server. When I
tell them I am
adding Java classes on top of it, they cant wait to lure me away from my
current employer! If you do manage to tack on C++ on top of yoru VB and Java
skills, you will be making
tons of money in about 3 years. Incidentally, the excellent teacher told
me there are a lot of programmers, there simply aren't very many GOOD ones.
A GOOD programmer can
go from $40K to $70K in about 5 years.......in the Omaha area. Adjust those
numbers according to yoru location and experience.
Gary