re: I'm starting a new career path in computer languages

SQL is probably more useful for your goals, but knowing a bit of scripting and coding wouldn't hurt either. The posters are absolutely right - Python and C++ are excellent languages for getting started. Be sure that you focus not only on learning how to write code in those specific languages, but also learning about the concepts and constructs behind the languages. Once you get the general concepts down, they translate to pretty much any other language. For example, once you understand the concept of iteration and looping, you should be able to write loops in pretty much any language you might be using at the time.