I'm someone that knows COBOL, started out on 370 Assembler in the way back when, etc. I found that these mainframe based jobs (I also sysadmin'd z/vm, z/os, their predecessors, etc.) don't pay that good. In the scheme of things. Maybe once they get desperate they'll pay better, but not now I went the road of slinging Python code, just not for a hedge fund. I'm definitely not interested in doing fin-tech, that's a rule. "Data Engineer" is a big buzzword now, and it's like crap, I've been doing that for decades. Salaries are very good, I'm making more than double now what I was making two years ago.johnpcapitalist wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 7:55 pmMy son thinks the road to riches lays along the path of slinging Python for a hedge fund. I have told him he could make more money with less pressure by moving to Omaha to work for First Data Resources, which handles most of the credit card clearing in the US and probably globally as well. It's all in COBOL, and uses two extremely fast & reliable but extremely arcane technologies including the IMS database (non relational but screamingly fast) and TPF (a TP monitor, way faster but way harder to code than CICS). All the old guys that wrote their stuff are retired or dead, and they'll pay a lot of money to get rookies on the platform and then stay there. But given that he's a Brooklyn hipster, he can't imagine living in Omaha. Can't say that I blame him.roadscholar wrote: ↑Fri May 21, 2021 3:27 pmBut now I hear they're begging some young hotshots to learn it, because huge institutions and government entities still use it, and there's a shortage of programmers who know it. Specifically, the now burdened Unemployment systems country-wide are desperate for COBOL support.
I guess what I'm saying here is that your son ain't wrong, but fin-tech sucks and those bastards will burn you right out if you let them, so keep an eye on him. Also most of the DE jobs these days are remote anyway, I'm in Brooklyn, but my new job is out of SF.
Also, when all this COBOL crap (unemployment system) broke in NJ last year, I thought to myself, my turn to shine! They had old retired COBOL programmers crawling out of the woodwork. They had so many VOLUNTEERS to fix that crap, they didn't know what to do with them all. I was personally offended, with all the tens of thousands I've paid in taxes to NJ (I lived in NYC and worked in NJ for a number of years), they want me to VOLUNTEER???