Needs some practical answers

As some of you may know, I am a CIS major in college. I am looking for a mentor in the programming field. Could anyone provide information on how to go about looking for one?

Here are some of the things that I'm in need of answering.

1. I want to start working for myself once I get out of college. what are some suggestions on the best ways to go about this?

2. What language would be a good idea to use for contract work?

3. Is it better to work for another company, or to go out on my own? I would prefer to go out on my own and be my own boss. That's part of the reason I got into this field.

4. What should I know starting out, that you wish you had known when you were starting out.

I can't think of anymore questions at the moment, but if college is like any other area of life I've been in, it seems that you don't really learn a lot until you are out in the field and doing the actual work. I would like to get a head start on that part.

Thanks a lot for any input!!

Going out on your own right off could be very difficult especially so if you do not have a pretty good chunk of money set aside. Would be much easier if you have made some good contacts especially the type that will give you repeat buisness.

C# is a good choice, I use VB and VB.Net but if I were just starting now I would go C# and Java but it really depends on what your target market is. For example C# doesn't help much if you plan to focus on iPhone.

I think it may be better to work for someone else first then consider setting off on your own after you have some experience and made some contacts.

Some of the most important things I can think of is know your target market, manage your money well income will be very irratic especially at first. You'll need to know a bit of everything if you plan to go it alone, coding, debugging, design, as well as how to manage a buisness.

I have been on my own now for a little over 11 years. I worked for another company for a bit over 3 years then went on my own. At that point I had several contacts including some sales people who I still work with today. They sell the projects, I code them and we share the profits. This has been a big help to me as I do not care to do sales myself.

It is nice being on my own but it does have its drawbacks. Would be nice if I knew I would be getting a check for $X at the end of the week each week but of course that is not the case.

Thanks DataMiser. I appreciate the info. I'm actually looking at C# for windows phone 7 dev. I've created a small game and an app, for learning purposes, but am trying to think a quality app to introduce to the market now.