Retired Mainframe Pros Lured Back Into Workforce 223
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
from the come-back-so-we-can-fire-you-again dept.
from the come-back-so-we-can-fire-you-again dept.
itwbennett writes "Businesses that cut experienced mainframe administrators in an effort to cut costs inadvertently created a skills shortage that is coming back to bite them. Chris O'Malley, CA's mainframe business executive VP, says that mainframe workers were let go because 'it had no immediate effect and the organizations didn't expect to keep mainframes around.' But businesses have kept mainframes around and now they are struggling to find engineers. Prycroft Six managing director Greg Price, a mainframe veteran of some 45 years, put it this way: 'Mainframes are expensive, ergo businesses want to go to cheaper platforms, but [those platforms] have a lot of packaged overheads. If you do a total cost of ownership, the mainframe comes out cheaper, but since the costs of a mainframe are immediately obvious, it is hard to get it past the bean-counters of an organization.'"
Re:Not a new phenomenon (Score:1, Funny)
Web "programmer"... Hahaha, good one!
I wonder... (Score:4, Funny)
Oblig. Ref. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Not a new phenomenon (Score:5, Funny)
But bloody hell, if I can make six figures writing cobol, I'll grab myself a cobol book and quit this programming job. A sucky day job isn't so bad when it means you can retire a decade earlier than otherwise.
My advice for new programmers has been exactly this: learn COBOL, study mainframes, move to large cities, make big bucks. Sure, you'll want to gouge your eyes out with a fork, but then you'll be able to afford to have robotic eyes grafted back in!
As a second, I recommend that they learn Unix skills, c, and databases. Still lots of money there, and your original eyeballs will last longer. (It's the path I chose, and I do quite well for myself)
Re:Not a new phenomenon (Score:3, Funny)
What would the advantage be in highering a coder? It would be more difficult to reach the keyboard for a start.
Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
"Sam? Sam, this is Frank, CIO back at Engulf and Devour. How is the transition away from the mainframe going? Well, listen. That's what I'm calling about. Yes, yes, I know you're retired, but the cloud isn't working out quite as we'd planned, what with the economy and all, and the kids are having a bit of trouble keeping ol' Betsy going. Yes, I did read that memo you wrote, and it turns out you had some good points. Listen, would you be up for a bit of consulting? Say, $100/hr, 100 hours minimum? Oh. That much? And a car and driver? Well, I'm afraid my budget won't quite stretch that far...No! Please don't hang up! Let me talk to the CEO and get back to you, ok? Please?"
Obligatory Followup (Score:2, Funny)
Some years later, sure enough he wakes up. Asking the nearest person what year it is, they reply, "It's the year 9999 and we need a COBOL programmer to help with this Y10K problem!"
Yeah, it's an old joke. Now GOML!
Re:Not a new phenomenon (Score:5, Funny)
> Why would you higher a "Cobol" coder to program Cobol
Because most "web programmers" we know of do not know how to spell. Our COBOL programming interface (terminal based) doesn't have auto-completion or auto-correction features so misspelled words cause errors only when the programmer hits the compile key.
Compiler errors are cryptic and it takes a lot of time to find and fix the misspellings. So even if the logic of the code was flawless (for which we also have doubts), simple spelling errors cost us too much money thus making HIRING web developers a non viable alternative for us.
Re:Cobol vs. Data Entry (Score:3, Funny)
There's this new language on the horizon, though - it "basically" makes programming a snap for non-programmers, and is likely to eliminate the job of programmers entirely except for a few high-level system engineering projects.
Re:Here is to.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cobol vs. Data Entry (Score:4, Funny)
Hey!
***
I quite enjoyed TSO
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Oh wait
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That was ISPF that I enjoyed.
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Re:Not a new phenomenon (Score:3, Funny)
... simple spelling errors cost us too much money thus making HIRING web developers a non viable alternative for us.
Did you mean "non-viable"? Syntax is important too.
Re:i hear that linux users... (Score:3, Funny)
Mr. Balmer go back to bed, you can count your stock options tomorrow to feel better.