A Shameless beginner wanting to learn all that I can

Question

Salutations, Much ado, and Hello,

 

 

         My name is Xavier, and despite my flamboyant header, I have many questions on how to begin a career in programming, design, and/or development.

 

         A little Background, I am a current Chemical Engineering student, age 21, and I have  stumbled upon the world of IT/software. I well say that I was one of those hot shot high school students who thought the world was his by getting into a good school. Needless to say, partying and not going to class is not a good mix. I am learning from my failures and am repairing my gpa at a local Community College. I recently discovered my interest in not only coding, but also DevOps, IT, and all around "computers". I have done Code Academy lessons for many languages such as: HTML, Python(favorite), Java, Ruby, and SQL. This has lead me to many forums about Computer Science and the importance of an objective-C language, which leads me here.

 

         I have been using online manuals to learn the basics of C#. I have written a couple of question and answer programs, downloaded Github, learn the fun that is algorithms, and am still am not deterred(promise I'm off the crazy pills).

 

My questions are:

 

1. How did you learn C#, and get into the field?

2. What are the main focuses/uses of C#, and which ones should I focus in on?

 

3. How do I market myself to one day get a job as a developer?

 

4. Can you explain the .Net Framework, and how to get acclimated to Windows Servers, SQL Servers, Windows clients, Active Directory, and so on?

 

5. Also how do I access/learn C# stacks, libraries/algorithms?

 

6. Any General Advice for a baby faced newbie?

 

7. I am currently using Visual Studio to run programs, is that a good IDE?

 

Sorry for the long letter, but I wanted to effectively communicate everything so you all can understand my situation!

 

Thanks in Advance,

 

Xavier T.