Recently I was asked to help find someone to do some computer programming. "No sweat," I thought. Just post the requirements on a few lists and we can choose the best candidate. There was not a single response so I looked into the subject a little bit.
There is in fact a tremendous shortage of computer programmers. Entry-level positions go for US $35,000 plus "signing bonuses." Once you have a job you will be regularly "head-hunted" and additional offers will pile up on your desk. The work is not hard and you can approach it as a contract worker from your own office or as an employee. It does require some training, attention to detail and the ability to concentrate on something that is relatively tedious.
To get started, look through a couple of books or look on the Internet. Here is an introductory site dealing with the C programming language. Try some of the links at the end rather than reading the technical discussion. It's probably the most useful in the long term but will take longer to learn. Over the next couple of years the older languages like COBOL and Fortran will be in demand because old programs written in these languages have to be updated to deal with the change to the year 2000. Here is a FAQ site dealing with Fortran and here is a book on how to learn COBOL in 21 days.
Note that other programmers are going to tell you about how tough it is, about long hours, stress, pressure etc. Oh yeah, and how they love it. You want to get started working from your home? This is something you can do.
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