I am a "just starting to turn gray" mainframer. I've still got about 20 years before retirement, so I'm thinking "WalMart Greeter" might enter my career path before it's all done.
==I'm interested in what you're seeing -- in industry, schools, user ==groups, etc. -- regarding new generations of mainframers. I'm observing more mainframe education in colleges because IBM has decided to get back into that. I read a little about that on the IBM website a couple months ago, but not much in my area and I haven't the time right now. The last time I looked, one of the nearby universities was offering a COBOL class. I already know all I care to know about COBOL. Now assembler would be a different story. It's a tough situation when you let a good thing go. Trying to restart it doesn't happen over night. ==Does your employer court/train young professionals for mainframe careers? Not anymore. But there's nothing wrong with taking the initiative and responsibility to train yourself. ==Do you work with younger colleagues? Is there a generation gap or is ==there "solidarity within mainframes"? No. We operate with a small crew and aren't looking to increase staff at this time. Strangely, we're all about mid-career. I wonder how that happened ??? ==Do you have younger relatives working on mainframes? If so, did you ==influence their career choices? No. ==Do user groups adequately educate new folks in this technology and culture? Yes, if you can get to the user groups and find one that's relevant. I hear SHARE is a great learning event, but expensive without subsidy. The only local user groups I'm aware of are for software products. Not mainframe specific and not z/OS. ==Are your mainframe areas of interest reflected in industry/educational ==initiatives? Yes. But it's informal and self-initiated. I read a lot about where the platform is headed and would like to try a lot of these new things, but I have a job to do and can't responsibly divert the time necessary to fully evaluate new functionality. I'm a couple years behind, but it's my personal initiative that drives it, not a business need, so that's OK. So much to learn and so little time... ==If YOU are a non-graying mainframer -- what led to this career path? How ==do you like it so far? What future options do you see for yourself? I think I'm pretty much middle of the pack. I'm one of the few who will be the bridge from the crotchety old farts to the thumb-sucking when-all-else-fails: reboot crowd. The future is bright regardless of the press reports. As environmentalists gain steam, virtualization will become necessary to reduce watts/sq ft. Being able to serve all manner of applications up from one machine with relatively low power requirements is a pretty impressive feat. If a few airline magazines would pick up on that, things would start happening in a hurry. ==Anything else? Lots. IBM let their education involvement lapse and now they (or we) are paying for it. But look at how they decide to address it... A couple universities around the country and if you don't happen to live near one, you're SOL. If they were serious, they'd open up a lot of their web-based training for free. Or at least price it reasonably. $1000 for a CBT ??? I'll read manuals and hang out on the list servers and ask questions instead. A lot more cost effective for me. Microsoft has the edge in this because the hardware and software is available everywhere for a reasonable price. IBM could support a PC based z/OS emulation environment for cheap and address that availability issue, but look at what they're doing with PSI right now and the threats they've always directed towards the Hercules project. IBM is not serious about reviving the platform or taking it to a higher level. I get the impression that they want it to be THE high-end computing platform. The problem is you HAVE to have people to run it. Educational support and availability of computing resources for learning are NECESSARY. It could be that IBM Global Services is expecting to take over administration on all these servers, but where do they get their training ??? IBM is party to generating the shortage of mainframe professionals if there is one. As in all industries, leadership is a problem. This platform is tightly controlled by IBM. Where it goes and how fast it gets there is pretty much dictated by IBM. IBM has chosen to change directions lately and they're making slow progress. Another big problem is third party software costs. IBM can't do much about that except offer a competing product or buy the offender. And press coverage is a problem. I've read several stories over the past couple years talking about platform migrations. I've made myself appointments to get back to the magazines 6 - 9 months later to ask for a follow up story to report on how well it went. To date, zero follow-ups out of four requests. I realize we aren't inclined to discuss our failures, but if you're going to report on a project, aren't the results relevant ??? Shouldn't the results be more relevant than the plan ??? Having said all this, I'm a big proponent of using the right tool for the job. The z servers do a lot of things very well. But there are also a lot of things that should probably be left to other platforms. Solitaire just doesn't play well on my 3270 emulator, but I hear IBM is looking to offer cell chips on their z9's soon that might include graphics capabilities. Every time you ask a question like this, you get responses from some who complain about the lack of jobs on the platform. And a few who complain about the lack of skilled people to fill the jobs on the platform. This is a highly dynamic industry. Whether you're running Windows or z/OS, things change by the minute. You have to be able to adjust and learn and move forward. A lot of the problems we've generated for ourselves by not being receptive to change and not being willing to take on the responsibility of learning without someone else footing the bill. If the platform does finally give in to the obituary written 25 years ago, I'll adjust. I'm flexible. I'll change platforms or careers. It's been good for me, no complaints. These are exciting times. I'm having a hard time keeping up, and that's a good thing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
