[squire777]

I studied Computer Science in university and started off mostly doing software development in languages such as VB, C++ and Java. After working with software development for a few years I kind of got sick of it mostly because of some negative situations. For example, working in teams where the other members weren't pulling their weight, clients drastically changing specs at the last minute and my managers allowing it (causing a lot of code to be rewritten), having to take home work, etc

I ended up changing pace and got an IT job that didn't require me to do any programming. So for a few years I have barely done any programming but now I am thinking of maybe getting back into programming but instead going into web development. My current job is good, but the money isn't as good as it could be and there isn't much room to move up. I have friends who work in companies doing front end web development and they say it is a lot more stress free than doing application development.

The only issue is that my programming is a bit rusty, and in all my years doing programming I neglected learning web programming. I know HTML and bits of CSS but never really worked on any projects on my own.

So my question is that how long do you think it would take to learn enough CSS, Javascript, and AJAX on my own?

My friends tell me that I should be good to go after a month of hard work but then again they are natural when it comes to programming and I am a bit slower at picking up programming concepts than they are.

[Pete]

Buy the relevant Dummy's guides and run through the examples and see how much you pick up. Doing that should give you a fairly good self assessment on your abilities and whether you want to continue down that route.

[azcruz]

If you still have the passion, it should all come back.

Like you, I was in software development for years as a programmer- from assembler to K&R C. Spent 14 years with Unix and various other operating system with really cool API. I did voice processing systems, application generators, report writer, document coversion, etc. Then, C was "bastartized" (opinion) and I had to move to a position where I have hundreds of developers and become the head of consulting. I disliked Visual Basic, never touched Visual Studio until 2012 that I am now forcing myself to re-learn C# and the framework.

We are now prisoners of the tools, i.e., Blend, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc. and learning the tool is also a factor.

I'd say watch the available tutorials on the web, in addition to the books as suggested. And good luck (to us) :D

[pseudoware]

I have friends who work in companies doing front end web development and they say it is a lot more stress free than doing application development.

I would be careful making that generalization. It depends on many factors.

So my question is that how long do you think it would take to learn enough CSS, Javascript, and AJAX on my own?

I wouldn't put a time frame on it because nobody can learn "enough" in a short period of time. Just assume you need to put in as much time & effort as you can with what free time is available. You can stop after a month, 2 months, or whatever, and there will always be something else to learn (i.e. something that can come up in an interview that you haven't prepared for).

One other thing, for your non-programming job(s) on your resume, I would list bullets for any programming or script-related tasks you can think of, no matter how remote or if it's a bit of a stretch. As much as possible, you want to convey that you've consistently been in a "coding" mindset over time.

Good luck.