Programming as a career?

If you truly enjoy programming, you may enjoy it as a career but there are a lot of things to consider. I have been a programmer for 10 years now. I currently do .NET , and MS-SQL but I have also done Java, and VB, PHP and MySql and of course javascript. I see lots of messages talking about the virtues of one language over another. The bottom line is no one language can do everything well. (Despite what its proponents may say). What language you should use or would be appropriate depends on what you are trying to accomplish and the environment you are trying to accomplish it in. When you are starting out I would focus on learning good programming technique, many good techniques (and unfortunately bad ones as well) carryover into any programming language. After a while you start to realize that the programming language isn't a big deal, you can learn a new programming language fairly quickly, ONCE you know how to program. If you really want to have a career in programming then I would learn PHP MySQL and .NET and any other languages that have some traction in the marketplace. Also if you want to be a programmer, do yourself and your future clients a favor and learn how to design a good database, take a class or buy a good book on DB design. As a freelancer the more languages you can program in the more work you will be eligible for.

Just my 2cents.

Do you think there is enough money and job opportunities to base a lifetime career around programming?

I really only have one answer for that and that is yes. It is a misconception that job opportunities for programmers is not good at a moment. Every one thinks back to when the bubble burst in the .com era. The thing is there is a trend happening now. Most universities are downsizing there computer and information science areas whilst all the older people that learnt programming originally that may have been into mathematics or science previously are retiring. Demand for IT professionals is increasing whilst at the same time the amount of IT graduates each year is decreasing. According to statistics I have seen by around 2006 - 2008 jobs for programmers will be extremely easy to find and at higher salaries then the ones currently being offered.

Having to know so many languages and having to learn new each time one is upgraded is a huge turn off to me.

One of the things as a programmer you should be a good learner. Being able to find things out for yourself and learn new programming languages shouldn't be such a hard task when you know all the programming concepts. I hate to say it but I am more and more seeing php as a scripting language with it being quite easy. Most good c++/Java programmers would take about 2 or 3 weeks to master php. Of course if you are not in the web industry you then will have to keep get updated with the latest standards.

I think the biggest and most interesting changes to the world wide web and the internet as we know it today wont be done by php or asp programmers. Its the research and developers creating new technolgies and new things for the internet that will change the internet dramatically. I am finding that is perhaps what I would like to get into more these days.