Wow! Now that was a reply! Rather than defending VFP (like many die-hards), you really gave some objective advice on things to consider. I must say this is some meat to chew on.

In my case, I am a one-man IT department at Jordan, and at 40 years old, and being a principal, it seems like I'll work out my career there; but in any case, it's all up to me to decide where to take our in-house job-tracking app. On the one hand, there's no justifiable reason to move it to VS, except that I want to be current with developer trends, I like learning new things, and I can do it if I want and when I want to (a really nice perk).

Anyway, you still get 1st place on the best reply I've ever had to a message here. Hopefully, other will chew on this as well.





>Matt,
>
>I agree it can seem alarming.
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>Seriously, though: are you employed? Is your job at risk? IMHO the first task is to STAY PRODUCTIVE. If your position looks shaky, of course you need to be preparing for the worst, hopefully with several options to offer prospective employers. If your position is secure, widen your sights to include more than just a change of tool.
>
>IMHO it's worth the time to take a helicopter view of your career. For example: if you decide to pursue a transfer to (say) NET, what are the barriers to outsourcing of your job to Mumbai? You don't want to spend your weekends learning a new tool only to watch the opportunities transferred away from you regardless. IME some of the people advocating a jump to NET seem reluctant to engage this issue and some become very angry if it is suggested that people may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Only you really know how Jordan Machine Co works (assuming that's where you want to stay) or whether promoting a move to NET might even cause outsourcing.
>
>So, how about DBA skills, project management, scoping expertise, domain expertise? Do you have a special skill that Jordan Machine Co values for business rather than IT reasons? Can you convert that into a management/oversight role? Maybe the best way to secure your future is to promote yourself as the expert providing business guidance to programmers who may be in the next room or across the world but don't understand the business as you do.
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>If you do decide to learn NET, it's not so difficult. These days it's widely recognized that you can leverage your VFP skills into NET by focusing on some key data principles beyond which it's mostly syntax. Some VFP people are productive within days using ASP.NET.
>
>Anyway, good luck! BTW, I was in Birmingham in June and had some perty good barbeque. ;-)