@stupid_programmer, @frob:

Thanks for your advice. I think the consensus is that I definitely should make my own complete game first before diving into industry. I will probably use the XNA Framework unless anyone else has a better suggestion. Looks like I might have to do some research on comp/sci too! Thanks again.

XNA is, if I recall correctly, completely unsupported at this point.

You would be much better off learning and using Unity, if you want to develop in a managed language.

MonoGame would be another option if you want to use C# and go a little lower level. But Unity is used more and more in the industry whereas finding a job that uses MonoGame is fairly slim.

Thanks guys!