Hello everyone at VB Forums,

I just turned 30 and I have had a life altering idea. I have over 12 years of customer service and 4 years of Help Desk experience and am stuck in a rut as far as job advancement. So I decided it was time to advance my career and possibly make more money doing so.

I've decided to become a developer. I've started reading this book:

Visual Basic 2005 Step by Step
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/7653.aspx

and have gotten to Chapter 5. I'm learning a lot and it's very exciting, but I am well aware that it's just the tip of the iceberg.

I am here to ask for suggestions on what book or what direction I should go next. I really don't have an idea, I know that I probably don't want to do game programming. I kind of want to stick with Windows/Web programming and possibly branch out into other languages. Right now I just want to learn the basics. I just don't have a goal of where I want to be or what I want to do since this is so new to me.

I guess I shouldn't say that, my goal is to get a better paying job than Customer/Tech Support. I currently have the MCDST certification but it's done nothing for me job wise. I want a job programming.

I live in Washington state near Seattle so I would imagine my job prospects would be good here. I just need to know what book I should read next.

I apologize since I know that's not much to go on for suggestions but I hope someone out there has some ideas for me.

Thank you for reading my post.

Jason