>Yeah, I'd agree. But the questioner must be a dumb-ass to spend that much time trying to transition and not having done it.

naaaa.... your spoiled John if thats what you think. If the questioner is stuck in a lousy job market like me, transition can be extremely tough no matter how good you are. I know successful IT folks up here who wanted to move from the COBOL world into the M$ world and never did pull it off, in fact all of them ended up switching fields completely after 5 or 6 years of not being able to make the switch without sacrificing to a big salary drop (as in starting over at entry level). SO IMHO it was a good question AND good advice.