This isn't really about IBM & academia, but I think it may speak to IBM's
commitment to the mainframe. As many of you know, I worked for a little
over 3 years for IBM in Dubuque Iowa. The Dubuque facility is primarily for
outsourcing. They have some Mainframe clients, but many many more clients
that they outsource for doing Windows, Unix, Linux, and just about anything
companies want. I believe there are at least 2 or 3 other places in the US
that provide the same services.
I think the biggest problem IBM has, at least in Dubuque, is low pay. I'm
sure a few of you have had offers from IBM, but when you saw the pay, you
just rejected it. The people they hire, at least when I worked there, are
paid about half what they used to make. Obviously, if you've been
unemployed for 6 months, and no prospects, you may decide to take the job
but just for a while until you find something else. At least that's what I
did. Unfortuneatly, I have that thing that almost no company wants, I'm
old. I will say for IBM, they do hire older people, whereas most companies
don't, although they will never tell you that's the reason for not hiring
you.
They also hire people who have no IT experience and train them, which is
also a good thing. This is illustrated by one guy in my group who was in
his 20's. He was hired and worked about 2 years for IBM. He then quit and
found a job that I think paid about triple what he was getting.
There are some very good MVS people working for IBM in Dubuque, but they are
really overworked. There are also many more good people who are looking to
get out of IBM. I haven't talked to anyone in Dubuque since I've left, so I
can't comment on the current situation, but I know there were a lot of
unhappy people there.
To me, the unwillingness to pay market rate for employee's says a lot about
IBM's commitment to high profits, but not to their people. It used to not
be that way.
Eric Bielefeld
Retired z/OS Systems Programmer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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