I have an MBA and over two years of finance related experience, currently I'm doing a Visual Basic 5 and Oracle 8i course. What are the skills required to work in VB field? I am concerned about the level of C and C++ skills that I will need. What will be the salary range for a junior/beginner in this field? - Vatkeh
With an MBA and Finance background I think VB5 and Oracle 8I are a great combination for e-commerce programming. I would also suggest learning SQL. Since Visual Basic is a language like C or C++, you should be able to find jobs that require just VB and don't require C or C++. Salary ranges vary widely depending on whether you are full-time or contract and which area of the country you are in. There are many salary surveys available on-line, such as http://jobsmart.org/tools/salary that can be used to find this information.

I'm working in the Silicon Valley in a non-technical field. I have decided to get an a+ certification and then move on to network+ certification and later i-net+ certification. I want to reassure myself that I'm on the right track and if these courses would eventually payoff. - Neeraj

If you want to get a networking certification, the hottest thing currently is the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) program. Salaries are excellent for those coming out of the program.

The ASP (Applications Service Provider) space is also very hot. These are companies like Exodus Communications that host web sites and other software applications for companies. This is an emerging field so there are no certifications but you should take courses to get basic knowledge of networking, databases, network security and firewalls. Knowledge of Visual Basic, Java/Javascript and HTML are also useful.