On Sep 30, 2005, at 2:56 PM, Timothy Sipples wrote:
Wow. Guess I've got two "great mentor" candidates. :-)
Steve Comstock writes:
ROTFL!
Dream on! Most the companies I see today are
1. Trying to move off the mainframe
2. Trying to outsource their IT staff
3. Not spending any (or much) money on training.
You live in a dream world. I wish it were not so.
Those of us in the z/OS training world are dying a
[not so] slow death here.
So wouldn't it make sense to have more people to train? Where do
trainees
come from? My market view happens to differ 180 degrees from yours,
but
we're on the same side here, aren't we?
For those companies trying to "move off the mainframe," what they
really
mean is they're trying to move off inflexible applications -- maybe
inflexible IT staff thinking, too -- that are not meeting business
needs,
regardless of platform. Who can blame them? I recommend including
college
interns in your efforts to modernize applications.
I'm hoping you have classes to offer on WebSphere Application Server
for
z/OS, WebSphere Message Broker for z/OS, CICS 3.1 Web Services,
WebSphere
Developer for zSeries, WebSphere Portal for z/OS, WebSphere Business
Integration Server Foundation for z/OS (and WebSphere Process Server
for
z/OS), WebSphere HATS, Linux under z/VM, and many of the other new
middleware products, especially if those classes are focused on helping
companies modernize and integrate mainframe applications using SOA
principles. If so, excellent. I am seeing particularly strong
training
demand in those areas.
Ed Gould writes:
I to thought it was funny. Here IBM wins a MAJOR outsourcing contract
to INDIA (no less) and they want us to help them out? Chuckle
chuckle...
My (first person pronoun not IBM) suggestion has everything to do with
helping YOU and much less to do with helping IBM. Offshoring is
pervasive
throughout the IT industry. However, I do know that companies which
can
recruit and retain home country talent are less likely to offshore. If
you're concerned about offshoring you ought to be hiring college
interns,
among other things.
Yes but here IBM is laying thousands off and then you want "others" to
train people so IBM can take advantage of the training and hire them
so they can outsource even more companies/ There is something wrong in
this picture, no?
Do get me wrong I am all for training a person so he/she will stick
around a company not to just be there for when IBM gets the pick of the
"litter"
One of the ideas behind training employees so they can better help the
company he/she is working for NOT a company (like IBM) that comes in
and takes over the processing of the same company.
I have never been more serious. Either plant seeds now or you will
soon
have a dead field with nothing to harvest. Your dead field, in your
own
country. Yes, that's serious.
They way it is going soon IBM will be the mega employer and the only
player in town, talk about dangerous. Of course who is going to pay
for all the fibre that will have to be laid to India and who will pay
for that?
I'd also point out that running a reasonable college internship
program is
inexpensive.
One final point. Very recently I've mentored two college interns, and
I
thoroughly enjoyed it -- and look forward to repeating the experience.
True, it's a big responsibility, and there are times when you think,
"Could
he/she have possibly asked a more stupid question?" :-) But, with a
little
patience and a lot of concern for the intern, it's an experience that
makes
me that much more enthusiastic about coming into the office. I can't
recommend it enough. Those of you involved in current college
internship
programs at your companies know what I mean, I'm sure.
-------------------SNIP-----------------------------------------
While I am sure there are a few interns out there, IBM cut their own
throat (we have talked about this in the past on here) by doing away
with the educational discount. *IF* they have restarted it (and I am
not sure they have) it will take at least 4-5 years for students to
start graduating. But between now and then (maybe) . IBM seems to have
finally awakened but the dishwater is gone and they will have to pay
catch up by hiring the people that IBM help put on umemployment. What
irony.
Ed (signed in dripping sarcasm)
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