John P Kalinich wrote: 1. Graduated from SHARE Assembler Boot Camp. 2. Read and understood the contents of "Advanced Assembler Language and MVS Interfaces for IBM Systems and Application Programmers" by Carmine A. Cannatello. 3. Fluent in z/OS operator commands. 4. Can IPL a z/OS system.
IMO, you don't "hire" Entry Level System Programmers. You hire Entry Level System Programmer Trainees. Anyone who was practicing as an Entry Level System Programmer for any significant length of time is now an "Intermediate Level System Programmer". If they left the position after just a few months they are a "System Programmer Dropout". To be a System Programmer Trainee, you need to have been: (a) A successful Application Developer on the platform, or (b) A highly experienced platform Operator. While I consider myself a skilled ASM developer and I would highly recommend this skill for any System Programmer, I know that for many years IMS System Programming tasks have been done by people lacking this skill. Obviously, JCL, Utility Program, REXX, and SMP/E skills come before ASM. Familiarity with the diagnostic tools is important as well. But I know that there are many practicing SysProgs that don't know how to read a SYSUDUMP and become dependent on ABENDAID as a crutch. For setting requirements, you also need to consider the environment. A big installation with a whole team of Sysprogs can afford the time to mentor a new guy. But a small shop with only one or two senior people might not be able to afford the time to raise the newbie. John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
