Hi, I decided about a month ago to do the ol’ career change and thought programming might be fun. It’s most convenient to leave my current job at the end of the summer, and my aim is make it this summer. That gives me 5 months to be up to speed (6 months total including last month). (Can I do it?) Let me give you more information: I’m doing this on my own (no classes), I have no formal computer science education, just a BA (in patristic of all things), and very little professional experience with computers. Though, I’m at what most of the books call the intermediate level and feel up to the challenge.
What I ask of the pros and the more experienced is for direction. Most of the programming ads in my area (NYC) call for java, c++, vb, and xml. This is the, naïve perhaps, timeline I came up with so far:
February through April, c++;
May, windows c++
June though July, java
½ August, html (just to put my resume online)
What do you think? Should I nix java for vb? Will things get easier or harder as I progress? I’d be happy and grateful to take any and all advice and criticisms. Book and web site recommendations are appreciated. Thanks in advance, I hope I’ll be reading from you quite a bit in the next half year