Help please..where to start?

First of all i'm new here so id like to say hello to everyone. Secondly , i was hoping to get some help with a dillema i'm in at the moment. I'm trying to get a job in programming (particularly c#) but apparently everyone is looking for people with at least some experience in the field.

Now i have programmed before but got sidetracked with different projects of my own and kind of left that behind for a few years. I started picking up C# recently but i think in order to really get to learn it as i should a book isn't going to cut it.

Do you guys have any sugestions for small projects i could start with a moderate knowledge in C# or , if not can you sugest any books that actually teach you while you build a project? Thank you in advance and i'm sorry for any spelling mistakes if there are any.

As a suggestion I have always thought that a calculator is a great project to use to learn a new language. Everything is well defined as far scope goes, and it requires the use of some simple data structures and classes.

How about this for a project: Start with a winform that is used for data entry. All data goes into a one table database without any lookup tables to keep it simple. Then build on that. On a later revison one of the fields will come from a lookup table so then you can add another control to your form which adds to the complexity. Not much more though. Then add the update, delete capabilities to the app. Then if you're using buttons to execute these tasks you can call that code from a toolbar that you will add eventually, also add menus later on or before the toolbar and drop the buttons. Then add a report where you simply display all the data. Then add another report or modify the first one so that you can filter it on your chosen criteria. Once all that is done display the data on a graph. So this little project will expose you to database, Graphics(GDI+) from the graph parth. The graph will also expose you to alot of the building blocks of programming including flow control, collections, arrays and so on.

ook at codeplex.com, its an open source community. or windowsclient.net - it has developer guides\free programs for all levels . Its one of the best source. You can download some and then see through the code, if you develop something useful like a small DB using XML and C#, then you can also use it always. :) If I had the time, I'd like to build a error log management program using XML :)