Hot & Useful software skills for novice converts?
davidw: Languages: start with one of (Ruby, Python).  At some point learn: C, Java.  Also fool around with Erlang/Scala.  That's the short version.The economics guy could probably do well with R and some stats stuff... there's apparently beginning to be a big market for that kind of thing.I think web stuff has a lot of jobs, and there's lots of room to get in at an entry level and work your way up.  Something like mobile probably requires more skills at the get-go.