Treffer: Saddle Up, Aspiring Code Jockeys ; A koder with attitude, KV answers your questions. Miss Manners he ain’t.

Dear KV, I am an IT consultant/contractor. I work mainly on networks and Microsoft operating systems. I have been doing this work for more than eight years. Unfortunately, it is starting to bore me. My question is: How would I go about getting back into programming? I say getting back into because I have some experience. In high school I took two classes of programming in Applesoft BASIC. I loved it, aced everything, and was the best programming student the teacher ever saw. This boosted my interest in computer science, which I pursued in college. In college, I took classes in C++, Java, and Web development. I did great and had fun. For various reasons, I ended up leaving college and becoming a network administrator, and for the past eight years have been doing this and that and everything else IT-related. But I haven’t been programming. The extent of my programming work experience is with MS Excel macros and basic VB coding in Microsoft Access. So how could I start becoming a programmer? Visual Studio 2005? Java? Eclipse? I enjoy self-learning and have found that achieving certifications gets my foot in the door. Is there a particular suite that I could get certified in to get my newly desired career going?