Which Programming Language Should I learn?

Normally what I come across is that people see there is a boom in programming jobs, go to some friend who is a programmer, ask him/her and he/she would either tell them the language that they are currently working in or the one that’s more in these days. Sometimes people come to me and tell me that they want to be a PHP developer or .NET developer. I always ask them, WHY????? Why PHP or why .NET. And so many times the reply is:

“My brother/uncle/cousin or someone is in some company and sometimes in some other country. He told me to do this. Or I searched on the internet which is the highly paid job in some specific country and it said PHP so that’s why I want to learn PHP and then I’ll go there and get highly paid”.

I recently read in an article that nursing is a very highly paid job (both male and female). So that doesn’t mean that I should go and take admission in nursing school. I am a programmer, so if I am not good in one language, I should go and learn some other language. If there is a boom in jobs for PHP, I should go and learn PHP. I would try my best to do everything to survive but within programming.
Obviously the field of IT attracts everyone as the salaries are higher and due to the dynamic and ever-growing nature of this field, there is always scope and potential of growth.
For people who have no IT/Programming background, this all looks very attractive but IT is not all about programming. There is Computer Networking, Hardware and Software Support, and even in programming there are different technologies. For non-IT people, it won’t be easy to start from say Java or .NET.
In general we can say that:

• If you have some programming knowledge of C/C++/VB or anything similar, you can choose any programming language based on your interest and market situation.
• If you have no-programming knowledge whatsoever and you are not planning to do a BS in near future, then its better that before taking any language, you take some introductory course on programming. A course with some C/C++/C#/Java (any one of them), some HTML, and a bit of CSS. This would help you identify your limitations and help you in deciding which road to take.
• If you feel that you are more of a do-by-hand person then I would suggest Network Support would be more appropriate. Going into Networking doesn’t always mean doing Cisco Certifications. There a lot more to Networking then Cisico.

So don’t just choose something because someone told you so or see everyone else doing so. Go to different institutes in your city and do some counseling with them. Search over the internet, check on different programming forums, ask questions to as many people as you can and be open minded. Don’t just get stuck on one thing, only because there are so many highly paid jobs for that. Anything you do would pay well if you do it according to your own potential and whilst putting hard work and dedication into it and doing so consistently.