zBlackX

A thought provoking video —
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/shifthappens.

Calling all mainframe programmers – or want-to-be mainframe programmers.

Where I currently work we are having trouble finding mainframe programmers. They don’t pay enough, which is part of the problem, but it looks like the labor market in the IT field is tightening up also. Going forward it is going to get worse because I estimate that 80% of the staff is within just a few years of retirement age. This is compounded by the fact that there is essentially no one providing mainframe training. Even on new technologies, that are newly available on the mainframe, such as Java, SOA, and WebSphere.

There is a community collage here on the west side of town (Estrella Mountain Community College) that is adding two new introductory mainframe classes this fall. The first one, CIS181 – IBM Mainframe Z OS - Level I, is an introductory course covering general concepts of how to allocate and access files, use JCL to run jobs, and use TSO and ISPF.

The second one, CIS181 – IBM Mainframe Z OS - Level I, covers some stuff that is new to me (HTTP Server and WebSphere), but they are only 3 out of 9 major bullet points. They each deserve a full class of their own, and passably an advanced class. This is the first semester they have had these classes and hopefully they will add more advanced classes in the future.

Disclaimer: I didn’t mention where I worked (although it probably wouldn’t be hard to find out as I may have mentioned it in other posts), but the comments and opinions presented here are my own, and are not necessarily shared by my employer or anyone else.

Paul Graham has a new essay about “Stuff” at http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html. One of the comments references a book and video about the “The Paradox of Choice” that is also quite helpful.

We just spent several weeks moving stuff and we also have a bunch of stuff in storage. I want to go through everything and really pare down the junk. We’ll see in a couple of months from now how well I do.