My question pertains to my younger brother and originally he was thinking in terms of being a small-business independent programmer/consultant in which case I had him started on VFP (BTW, IMHO I think this is where VFP will "exist" in the foreseeable future).

Since he changed his mind and now wants to become a "corporate" programmer I immedately switched his focus to VB/MSSQL and probably ASP once he becomes comfortable with VB/MSSQL.

As far as .Net, although I haven't even had time to install the beta on any of my machines yet (I got "real" work and slipping deadlines), I though perhaps he should bite the bullet and go straight to .Net but...

>.Net at this point is vapor. Even if released today, it will still be 2 years before there is widespread adoption. There simply is no payback for being on the bleeding edge..
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>As for what to learn today, VB/SQL. I know you posted this in a VFP forum. Still, somebody fresh to the programming ranks, in good conscience, cannot be told to take up VFP. There are only so many hours in the day to learn. One has to make a choice. VB has the biggest upside with respect to finding opportunities..
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>I can't wait for the enlightened responses to this post...< s >....
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>< JVP >
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>>If someone wants to change profession and get a job as a programmer within next 6-12 months, what should he study? Should he study VFP/VB/MSSQL now and work his way up to .NET or should he go straight to .NET (although still in early beta but functional and stable) and MSSQL?