I actively sought out a .NET/ SQL Server career about 12 years ago. I was in the mainframe (MVS) world writing COBOL on IMS and DB2 databases. I shudder at the thought now. I got some exposure doing some BI development work on ORACLE and enjoyed SQL programming a lot more than JCL and COBOL. I went with SQL Server because I found the integrated components compelling and easy to use as well underrated if not idiosyncratic. Now I prefer data work mostly. No regrets.