A few thoughts on the Information Week article.... I was a little disappointed that the article didn't attempt to separate the various labor market forces at work, and so the end result seems a bit confused. For example, offshoring and outsourcing is a global IT phenomenon. That's going on with C++ and Java programming work, too. Improvements in global data communications facilitate that trend. But all signs are that COBOL and PL/I programmers are in higher demand (relative to supply), globally, than, say, C++ programmers. Does that mean that offshoring/outsourcing doesn't affect COBOL programmers at all? Of course not.
The article also seems to suggest that younger programmers instantly find work while older programmers struggle to shift to another employer. Again, is that macro-level factor any less true in any other labor market? I doubt it. Whether you call it age discrimination or not, it doesn't seem to be unique to the mainframe programmer labor market. I must admit I chuckled a little when I read about the programmer who laments the fact that headhunters aren't phoning him. At the same time he said he plans to retire in one year. Wild guess: maybe prospective employers don't want to hire someone who won't be willing to work for them for more than a year? :-) Or, in programming terms, if you're never going to iterate through a loop more than once, do you really need the loop? :-) Which leads me to some suggestions: 1. If you do want another job, look for one. Sometimes you get lucky and headhunters call -- and call with interesting prospects -- but that's not common. 2. Recruit and train new programming talent in your location. Find some summer college interns, for example, and get them up-to-speed. Senior programmers who can attract and retain new talent will be able to prove that outsourcing/offshoring is unnecessary and demonstrate that they are personally more valuable. (In fact, I predict a booming mini-industry in mainframe programmer training.) Every one of us should be doing this ASAP. (I mentored a college intern this past summer, as a matter of fact.) Also happens to boost department morale significantly. 3. Diversify. Pounding out lines of code is not sufficient. Sitting down with architects and businesspeople, sifting through needs analysis, and doing a better job turning their ideas into code reality are skills that are much more difficult to offshore/outsource. Said another way, exploit your advantages in locality and language -- and grab those advantages if you don't yet have them. - - - - - Timothy F. Sipples Consulting Enterprise Software Architect IBM Americas zSeries/z9 Software Phone: +1 312 529 1612 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
