Anybody need a mainframe programmer/analyst?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I don’t know if this is the right forum of the SDMB in which to post this, nor do I know if I am violating the rules of netiquette by posting it at all, but here goes anyhow . . …

I could use some advice on job searching. I have been using web sites like monster.com, dice.com, and careerbuilder.com, and have had very little luck finding any positions for which I am qualified, and even less luck getting any responses. I have sent my resume to job search firms and temp agencies, and gotten only limited response from them, too.

I know there are a lot more mainframe programmers looking for positions than there are positions out there. I also know that I am good at what I do. So how do find someone who will let me prove that I would be an asset to their company?

I am an experienced applications and infrastructure programmer/analyst, skilled in the use of COBOL, COBOL II, DB/2, DL/I, IMS, TSO, SQL, and other mainframe tools. I also have UNIX experience. I have worked on various business applications, including manufacturing, human resources, and banking. I have worked on infrastructure applications, including batch job scheduling and submission, date subroutines, and output distribution. I have been responsible for developing and testing of disaster recovery procedures for those same infrastructure systems.

On the other hand, I don’t have any experience with CICS, SAS, Focus, JAVA, C, C++, .NET, Oracle, SAP, or PeopleSoft.

At the moment, I am limiting my search to states with mild winters, but I may have to get less picky if I don’t start having better luck.

If anyone wants to contact me directly, my email address is robertlong@mail.com .

2

Do you do windows?

*No mommy! Make the bad people STOP HITTING ME

3

REAL programmers do NOT do wincrap.

We may tolerate a few of the 30+ varients of Unix existant, but never microsquat products. ('cept office, which is inescapable).

  • heathen, who has been looking for 2 years, as of today. (at least the weather is nice here)
4

So, happyheathen, how are you supporting yourself, if that’s not too personal?

5

Doubting Robert, if you like, you may send your resume to me at [EMAIL=braue@ratsnest.win.net]braue@ratsnest.win.net , and I will forward it to the appropriate people in our Texas offices (or elsewhere, if you decide that you want to move). No promises as to results.

6

If by “mainframe” you mean an IBM mainframe running the likes of OS/MVS or DOS/VSE or VM/CMS, then I’m not surprised. Does anybody still use IBM mainframes for anything anymore? (The instruction set doesn’t even have a stack, fer cryin’ out loud.)

7

Yes, Virginia, there really are mainframes - they are the ones who print your paychecks, sort all the checks written everywhere, prepare your credit card statements, process your tax returns.

WFB’s WEBS system is 5 sierra-class processors running damned near everything - their ATM’s are are on Tandem strings networks to the WEBS system.

REAL processing is still on REAL computers, and will stay there - IBM’s MQ series and its supporting applications are designed to make the flow between big boxes and little boxes appear seemless.

p.s. - I haven’t seen the OS360 (yes, 60 - as in 1960, when it was devised) instruction set in decades, and most m/f’ers have never seen it - let’s just say that somehow we’ve managed to run things quite well without ever having to worrly about stack overflow - real languages are device-transparent. Maybe the little boxes will get to that point someday. :slight_smile:

8

This statement not only makes you look like pompous ass, but it reveals an incredible amount of ignorance. There’s a great big world out there that you obviously know nothing about.

9

To sum up:

  1. Real Programmers don’t use Microsoft products
  2. Well, OK, they do sometimes
  3. Heathen is a real programmer
  4. He has no job

Ahh irony. Here I was the entire time thinking that Real Programmer’s Don’t Use Pascal or even better . But I do suppose that the definition of “Real Programmer” constantly adjust to programmers that do “whatever those damn kids AREN’T LEARNING ANYMORE”.

Me, I’m a C/C++ programmer doing work on Linux & Windows. Works for me, and I still have a job that I like.

10

Good for you.

Enjoy your language of the month/os of the year. Remember Visual Basic? Visual C? How’s Perl doing? Java?

Yes, the m/f has seen IDMS, ADF, PL/I, APL, and a few other mistakes - but nothing like the Powerbuilder-type stuff on the small boxes.

Glad you’ve still got work - locally, the dot.bomb has hit the client-server side even worse than the m/f side.

11

Now now, this ain’t the Pit here.

But I will say this:

Twelve years ago, a classmate at my university insisted that around 90% of the programming jobs out there were for IBM mainframes, and that 90% of the programming jobs out there would absolutely, positively, unquestionably, undeniably continue to be IBM mainframe jobs well into the 21st century, and that if I wanted to have any hope of a “real” career I had better make IBM mainframes my specialty.

Not listening to her was the best career move I ever made.

No new business in its right mind would invest in a new IBM mainframe. Not when they can get PC-based server networks that can scale to their needs and cost less than the millions of dollars that IBM mainframes cost. (Not to mention the fact that even the biggest Unix- or Wintel-based servers don’t have the special power-and-cooling-room requirements that traditional IBM mainframes do.) As new businesses trickle into the market and existing businesses trickle out of the market, it is inevitable that the IBM mainframe’s market share will contnue to shrink going into the future.

And this isn’t some slam against the mainframe programmers out there (I was one until late 1991). This isn’t me sticking out my tongue and saying “my computer can beat up your computer, neener neener”. This is just the plain hard reality of what is happening, and likely will continue to happen, in the market. IBM mainframes may never disappear, but their niche is suffering, and will continue to suffer, constant attrition.

12

Yes, there are many applications that can be done well on client-server technology - and things like email and word-processing should have never been on m/f’s (but, since that was all that was available, that’s where they ended up).
Stuff that used to be paper-based is almost perfect for micro-processor-based technology - images, catalogs, order forms - perfect fits.
Where the difference comes is i/o bandwidth - I don’t see check sorters being driven by servers, nor do I see tax returns being processed by small boxes. A/R is an i/o-intensive application - it will be interesting to see where that one ends up.
And there is a reason why IBM is still shipping m/f’s, even if you can’t see it.

IMO: “scalability” is a term which originated in the marketing department, not engineering :wink:

13

Never mind what language and/or platform is best, COBOL on the mainframe is what I know how to do!

So I ask again, how do I find a job?

And thank you to the folks that have sent me helpful e-mails.

14

Now, now, I would say that depends on the needs of the new business. Sometimes big iron is called for. And mainframes do no necessarily mean water chillers anymore. I know for certain that the 9000 series are about the size of a refrigerator and air cooled. Couple that with a EMC machine, and you could fit several terabytes of data and the power to process it all in a smallish room, as long as you have raised floors of course, you still need cables.

15

I could have written the OP and 90% would match. About the only difference is that I also worked with heavy duty SQL on Teradata as well (yeah, I know that no one uses Teradata much anymore) and I have a lot of experience with IMS DB/DC (no CICS). I have also quite a bit of application performance and tuning experience with COBOL / IMS batch and online applications.

I also got my TABC (alcohol server) certification this weekend, so if anyone has a bartending job, let me know!

My email address is in my profile if anyone has any leads for the Dallas, Texas area.

16

:eek: Holy Cats!

My first “real” job was at Teradata! I worked on an IBM mainframe client-side program that accessed the Teradata DBC in a way that behaved “transparently” like SQL/DS or DB2. It was called the TS/API. (Specifically, I worked on making the DBC error code lookup table-driven, and on Updatable Cursor emulation for SQL/DS clients. The whole product was written in IBM mainframe PASCAL, if you can believe that.)

rsa, did ou ever have occasion to use TS/API by any chance?