Data warehousing involves the collection, processing and storage of a large amount of data e.g. the records of all clothes made in a garment factory. Corporate success in modern times depends a lot on effective uses of business data for decision making. Large organisations use a humongous amount of data and so the power of computer is used for collection, analysis, storage, and retrieval of data. As a result of this, data warehousing technologies are one of the most sought after technologies by the corporate.

Almost all the companies involved in IT software development and services have a team of people who are experts in data warehousing technologies. But as of now, the business scenario in the IT sector is going through a slump. Job opportunities are limited as a result of the slump. Industry experts feel that the business will again start growing in the later part of 2002. So one can expect that when the industry again returns to the organic growth it experienced in the late nineties, job opportunities in all the IT sector will increase. But till that happens, job opportunities are very limited.

To be into data warehousing, you should have knowledge of Solaris/ Linux/ Unix, Informix, AIX, Oracle, SQL Server, LAN/WAN-NT/ Novell, CISCO, Sybase, UDB, C, C++, VC++, Visual Basic, Power Builder; RMI Middleware & Applications Servers like Tuxedo/ Tibco/ Websphere/ Weblogic; Mainframes like VSAM/ JCL/ COBOL/ DB2/ AS400/RPG.

You will learn most of these technologies on-the-job in an IT company. As you will be an M. Sc in Computers, getting a job as a trainee with a IT software development company will be the ideal next step. But if you insist on learning the data warehousing beforehand, then you should better learn the basics, i.e., C, C+, VC++, Visual Basic, Oracle, SQL, etc.