Which skills to learn

Community
1

I am re-starting my programming career after 10 years spent in IT management. The last code I wrote extensively was FoxPro.

I am learning…

PHP5/MySQL
HTML
CSS
Javascript

Have already run into folks who only want Object Oriented PHP and only HTML5. What skills will serve me best as an independent consultant and web developer?

Thanks,

Mark

2

In the position I held there wasn’t an extreme amount of difference in the pay for a good developer and IT Management. Don’t get me wrong - I earned more - but for me I felt out of touch with technology and felt that I needed hard skills to bank on.

3

So, you don’t mind the pay cuts?

4

The skills you listed look like a good start. My two cents is that anyone doing Web Work should also study usability and search engine optimization. Not that you need to be an designer or seo expert, but its good to have the basics under your belt.

5

My background prior to becoming an IT Manager was all hands-on - writing code, installing systems, network management. I missed creating something and being involved in the process and was tired of the endless meetings and reports that go along with management.

6

Just out of curiosity, what you made you to change from management to technical engineer?