Here's what I did back in 2001. I already knew my way around the Unix command line, so if you don't, that's obviously a first step. I learned the following te

Here's what I did back in 2001. I already knew my way around the Unix command line, so if you don't, that's obviously a first step. I learned the following technologies in order: 1. HTML (basics, you won't need to know every tag) 2. CSS (basics again, you can fill in the holes as you come across them on projects) 3. JavaScript (bare bones, no frameworks, you'll learn them later for actual projects) 4. Servlets (you'll need to also learn a servlet container at the same time, I recommend Tomcat. You can use JBoss when you understand the basics of Java web app deployment and configuration.) 5. JSPs (since they are shorthand servlets at runtime) 6. Basic database administration and SQL (I chose MySQL here) 7. JDBC (the core of all database access in Java) At this point, I started to branch out. There's an endless number of web frameworks out there, I don't know which is the most popular now for Java, but pick something you like. You'll also want to learn an ORM like Hiberenate. You will need to know some supporting technologies and some alternatives. For example, you'll need to know Ant as most Java projects are built using it. Velocity is a popular alternative to JSPs. Just make sure you don't ever stop learning new things. One last bit of warning: If you ever find yourself bored or frustrated with enterprise Java development (especially if you end up on an enterprise portal project), don't think you have to stick with it. Always invest some time in something outside of the technologies you use everyday. That way you'll always have options.