Hello, everyone.I would like to hear some advice on my current career plan. I tried my best to map this out to the best of my ability. Please, allow me to start from the beginning. I graduated from college with a B.S in Computer Engineering in 2009. From that time, I was unsure of the career path to take. Mainly because I did not gain any internship experience (I blame no one but myself on this but I wish I would have had a mentor to guide me.) At any rate, I hit the job boards looking for work as "computer engineer". As I'm sure you all are aware, I was looking for something vague during a time of economic meltdown.

This, of course, did not create any good results. Fortunately, I was able to find work in a non-tech field but not gaining any relevant experience. Fast forward to the end of 2010, I discovered
Java from recruiter mentioning it in phone interview. I've been studying Java ever since (in college, we used C++ so the fundamentals were not difficult for me to pick up).
Now to my current plan: I have done some research on this forum (and others as well) and I have decided that I would like to enter the software development industry and possibly web development as an entry level programmer. I've also looked at tips on the best methods to gain valuable hands on experience to market my resume and this is the plan so far.
1) Currently, I'm studying Head First Java 2 by K&B to build fundamentals
2) Next, will study for Oracle Certified Professional (AKA -
SCJP) to continue to build foundation
3) After SCJP, I would like to contribute to open source projects to gain real-world experience while simultaneously marketing my resume with the SCJP. However, I seriously doubt that the SCJP will be enough without hands-on experience.
4) I would also like to contribute to non-profit organizations on java projects as well to gain more experience.
5) After gaining these experiences, I read on another forum that it would also be a good idea from a marketing standpoint to learn a web development language such as .NET, PHP, or C# Also, a relational database such as SQL. We used SQL in college so I have a little familiarity with it but I realize that more knowledge and experience is necessary to market it.
So, this is a quick overview of my plan. Basically, I would like to market Java to get my foot in the door as a entry-level Java programmer but I also understand that another language in the future could make the resume more attractive.
What do you all think? I understand that some of you here are hiring managers. Do you hiring managers think this is a good path to start? Also, what type of projects do you hiring managers look for on entry level work or does it matter?
I appreciate everyone's tips and advice. I apologize for the length of the message and I thank you all in advance.
P.S. I would like to have an entry-level position by the end of this year 2011. (Hopefully before, if it is possible because I try to study between 12-20 hours per week to get up to speed.)