True Programming Skills
Anyone can take a VB class and write a simple program according to a set of input and output parameters provided by the instructor. Some (including programmers and their managers) consider this sufficient to get started as a programmer. Unfortunately, this notion is responsible for hard to use, buggy, unsecured, over deadline and over budget software projects.
The syntax of any particular programming language is the least important skill a software programmer must have.
The most valuable skill a programmer needs is the ability to manage the complexity of software interfaces and the code behind them – designing software that is a joy to use, read, and extend. The most important trait of a programmer is a life-long commitment to self-improvement and education.
This guy is really dead on. I took this quote from an amazon list of great .net software development books. Go ahead and take a look here.