Intro: what tech skills to acquire

I'm a 2 year computer engineering student. I'm age 41 and female. I have been searching for which programming skills to acquire. There are way too many languages to learn! In the corporate world and at home, I learned HTML but not enough to make a shopping cart. I took the classes in C, C++, Assembly and Java that my degree requires. There are no other languages in the curriculum, unless they are tools used in a higher class. So I'm thinking of my future job, and wondering what languages and programs should I focus my time on. I keep looking at the jobs posted on Monster for what languages are required in programming jobs. I've come up with a long list. I mean a LONG list.

I started this blog because I bet there are other people out there with this same question. We only have so much time in the day, and it would take a really long time, or a huge block of time to learn all there is to know in the programming world.

Training site: I'm a member of ACM.org, Association of Computing Machinery, which is one of the engineering organizations tauted at universities across America. They give you all kinds of free training, not just in programming and software but in soft skills too. I'm concentrating there for my training right now.

As the blog progresses, I will explore other methods for acquiring tech skills.

Java: I have been told by professors in computer engineering, "If you learn nothing else, learn Java." But it would be very hard to find a job just knowing Java, even if you knew it inside and out. In our Java class we don't learn Java inside and out, just enough to get our feet wet and scratch our heads about in later classes. To the unfamiliar person, let me clarify that Java is not the same as JavaScript. JavaScript is code you might include with HTML to make a webpage. Java is a more general purpose programming language like C++. You can make entire applications with Java, whereas JavaScript, not so much. Not at all, I'm thinking, but you will notice the amount of What I Know things is pretty small.

C++ / C: These are the basis for the computer you are using. Many of your programs are written in a C of some sort. In school, just like with Java, we didn't learn C or C++(pronounced see-plus-plus) inside or out. Just some of the squishy middle. We did not learn C# (pronounced see-sharp) and I hear there may be a new one called C! but this lands outside of my What I Know box.

So we can start by adding C# to the list, since I see that on alot of the job ads. And add "a whole frickin lot more of Java and C than I already know."

Assembly: skip it unless you are an electrical engineer focused on making computer chips. My assembly professor actually told us to write stuff in C and then use the logs from the Visual C++ compiler to gather the assembly code.

Inklings: No, inklings is not a programming language. This is where I will list "I think I might need this one." The top of the inklings list is .NET. I get the impression it is also known as Asp.NET. You will also see just Asp. So color me confused - my usual color actually. Anyway, .NET (spoken dot net) is everywhere, just everywhere, and definitely not nowhere. Less strong inklings, but still poking me in my shin, trying to get my attention: SQL, PHP, CGI Python and Perl. Periphery things, not poking me but definitely ground-hogging over my cubicle wall: web based stuff like HTML, XML, JavaScript, DHTML - graphics and multimedia, like every last bit of Adobe (Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, PhotoShop, Acrobat, it never ends apparently, and outrageously expensive, can't figure out why I need to spend two months rent on just one of the Adobe applications), Coldfusion, Macromedia Flash (not sure difference between this and Adobe Flash).

Be safe out in computer world - It's a virtual jungle out there.