Mainframe Operators Needed 640
blueforce writes "Computer World is reporting that there's a shortage of skilled mainframe workers on the horizon. Quote: "Getting IT professionals, especially young ones, interested in learning mainframe work isn't easy." No kidding. While I've never worked on a mainframe, I have worked on AS/400's. 3 words - Mind Numb ing. Perhaps it's time for a more long-term solution to the problem. Interesting nonetheless. Who'da thunk it - a shortage in IT. What's next, COBOL?"
mainframes.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Only part of the issue (Score:5, Interesting)
That's only part of the issue. I didn't learn squat about sysadmin tasks in University, because the focus is on teaching you how to think about software development, not how to use a particular tool or platform -- that's what tech schools are for.
A far bigger issue, as was already pointed out, is the mind-numbing tedium of being a mainframe operator. Alas, the same applies to being an operator on any system, as your main job is to swap media for backups, stock the print servers, and act as remote fingers when support staff call in on a page.
Regardless of platform, the only operators I knew who were happy with the job were middle-aged people who were more concerned about job stability than job challenge/fullfillment. Many of them were highly skilled, knew more about the systems than the developers, and would have made good developers. They just didn't want the pressure and insecurity that comes outside the data center.
As to "learning VB and Office", it sounds more like a tech school than a university. I've never heard of VB or Office being considered part of the programming course on a university campus. I have seen it offered as a half-credit course to help out students who have no prior experience with basic office automation tools, but who need the basics in order to be able to prepare and submit their coursework.
Another issue with getting people to consider a career as an operator is that the job stability is a smokescreen. Who wants to take a job for lower pay, that has little or no challenge to it, requires dealing with pissed-off user managers, and is subject to termination whenever someone gets a brain-fart about "saving" by outsourcing?
I do. (Score:2)
Re:Only part of the issue (Score:4, Insightful)
I know plenty of older guys (my dad included) that need jobs. My dad can do mainframe stuff, but he used to do primarily embedded work. The shortage will last only as long as companies insist on hiring young people instead of older ones. Sure, I'm young, but I've noticed that the young ones tend to be very arrogant, ignorant, and sometimes downright stupid. When you see the median age at Microsoft, you shouldn't have to wonder why they have so many problems with buffer overruns, and bounds checking.
My dad's been coding for years and years and years. He had trouble trimming his resume down to 2 pages, having been a consultant. People still won't hire him, mostly because he's pushing 60. Sure, he'll cause higher insurance premiums, he may not last 40 years with the company (as if many young ones would), but he can still contribute skills that have had 30 years of refining...
God Damn H-R departments.
recommendations? (Score:2)
1. How much will a graduate/undergraduate degree affect my eventual wages as a programmer?
2. If I got an electrical engineering degree instead of a computer science degre
Re:recommendations? (Score:2)
Figuring out if you want to be a sysadmin or a programmer is probably a good way to start out.
As for your questions:
1. People with MIS degrees make less than CS degrees, and people without a degree make less than MIS degrees. I'd go with CS, a
DRE numbers (Score:2)
Re:mainframes.. (Score:2)
Maybe if 4yr colleges allowed students to touch computers PERIOD they would get more experience that they needed.
-Nick
Re:mainframes.. (Score:2)
Re:mainframes.. (Score:2, Interesting)
You just have to understand the performance aspects of the various J2EE components. You probably wouldn't want to implement a huge batch process using entity beans with container managed persistance if you could do the same with stateless session beans. You probably wouldn't want to use a remote interface if your process is running on the same server
Re:mainframes.. (Score:2)
Same basic concept, has been gradually improving under the covers - just like mainframes.
Old obsolete
Old unchanging
Re:mainframes.. (Score:2)
It's amazing how mainframe technology such as VM is just beginning to filter down to lower end systems. While there are some older concepts in mainframes that are kept for compatability, there are also features that lower end machines could really use. Hardware wise, the massive amounts of I/O available is truely amazing. Mainframes scale. They also use some of the very latest technology that just isn't affordable in smaller packages. Sun, for example just implemented over the past few years in
Re:mainframes.. (Score:2)
At one time CS was part of math departments, and my joke was that it should have stayed there. I'm a math student doing CS+stats stuff.
My real opinion is that CS would not have done well if it had been confined to math department. Many sub-disciplines of CS involve problems that most mathematicians I know wouldn't care to solve.
-Paul Komarek
Not quite (Score:5, Insightful)
Bull. I know plenty of out of work Mainframers, these guys have 20-30 years of experience. Guess what, nobody wants them because of H1B, or they are offering something like 50K.
Operators, not developers (Score:2)
Operators are not highly paid, nor have they ever been. 50K USD for an operator would be a fantasy in many shops, regardless of platform.
The good mainframers I've worked with over the years have rounded out their skills with Java, J2EE, *nix, C/C++, shell scripting, front-end office automation, etc. For that matter, I've never met anyone I respect who focused on only one platform or technology -- it results in too narrow a mindset about how problems might be tackled. It is an absolute joy to have one
Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:5, Interesting)
--Dan
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:5, Insightful)
I administer several AS/400's, and if it weren't due to the Win2K domain I also administer, I'd have nothing to do.
AS/400's just run. I take an hour or so to go through the backup logs - which are mostly automated now. I just search for "Not Saved" and check that the value is zero. Anything else, I investigate. I check the logs for break in attempts and any severe errors.
They do have some tasks that people just must do. Someone with "QSECOFR" or 'root' authority must check the message logs to make sure no processes are looped, or that pool memory isn't all used etc.
Every once in a while the lock tab on a backup tape will get flipped (anyone who uses a Magstar 3570 know what I mean - Arrrrg!), and the machine will be in a restricted state come morning. Then all hell breaks loose until you kill the backup processes and restart subsystems so people can work. There are just some things that need a human decision.
Simple obvious answer: (Score:5, Funny)
Things too reliable? Predictable? Functional? Secure? Just can't find anything to do?
Windowsize it!
Just ten lines of Windows code will have you scrambling for hours to try and figure out what in the heck has gone wrong!
Add twenty lines of Windows code and you've got a month worth of worries on your hands!
And for the truly daring: A mission-critical Windows application!
Kiss the wife and kids goodbye! You'll never eat/sleep/bathe in peace again!
Windowsize it!
(Not approved for those with heart conditions/risk of stroke/high blood pressure/pregnant)
AS/400 user here... (Score:2)
We're in the middle of migrating from an AS/400 office/custom library catalog system to MS Office + MS SQL on W2k.
I've been here five years, and I don't recall the AS/400 system ever going down. Terminal servers are down, Citrix servers are, Excahnge servers are down... three of four times a week.
Sure, I don't have to use Officevision any more, but still, I can work pretty fuckin fast with those old apps. I hope to god they keep payroll on them...
Noooooooooo! (Score:2)
You want to transfer systems to ones that go up and down like a yo-yo? You'll be sorry! I can't blame you for Officevision though...
That's right! Windowsize it! (Score:3, Funny)
If the system never goes down, how can upper management ever appreciate your valiant efforts at 3:00 am to restore the essential programs underpinning your whole corporations future? Again?
Windowsize it! Because you haven't suffered enough!
Re:That's right! Windowsize it! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:2)
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:2)
http://www.sun.com/datacenter/mainframe/ [sun.com]
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:5, Interesting)
Okay, seriously. The only work I ever have to do with the AS/400 is maybe kill users off the system when I need to backup. Or, move spool files from queue to queue when a printer gets really busy printing other stuff. AS/400's are built for business number crunching and business data warehousing. That's it, nothing more and nothing less.
There are no themes to play with on an AS/400. Well, I guess you can change the color of a green screen client access session, but that's about us much themeing as you get. Why? Because it's for working, not playing.
Most applications on the AS/400 are written in RPG which I bet most people would these days would not like to program in. I don't like it much either so I never bothered to learn it. But you can also use Java to access the data as well.
But RPG is so powerfull on an AS/400 that you really don't need anything else. You can create screens in RPG, business reports, and more. You can also use RGP to create CGI apps for web based applications. Maybe one day I should learn RPG.
The hardware support is like no other. Although, working with Twin Axial cabl is a pain in the ass. But, it gets the job done quite well. I have about Twin Ax 40 devices (give or take) on one AS/400. That's terminals and printers. Not counting the numerous RF scanners as well. Not sure how many of those we have. Maybe like 30 or more. I'm also not counting the network printers as well. There's like 5 of those.
We also have another warehouse which uses our AS/400 through a fractional T-1 private line. They have RF devices there too that use the AS/400.
It's a workhorse. Nothing more, nothing less. It might not be the fastest of them all. But who cares when you have stability and durability and all the great features of an AS/400.
Although, like I said before AS/400's are for business. So don't expect to see them in the scientific fields and stuff. I guess for every problem there's a tool. For business, it's the AS/400.
I guess it can be mind numbing because it isn't very glamorous or fun. It's user interface can be called ugly, but at least it's functional and fast.
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:5, Interesting)
It is a different world altogether.
Take a look at Unix, DOS, and Windows. Many of the concepts are similar. You have files, directories, fairly straight forward users and groups, etc. Even MacOS is similar in some ways, like having a directory hiearchy, files, and so on.
In the mainframe world (btw, an AS/400 is midrange, not a mainframe), its a whole different ballgame. The concept of a filesystem is not the same. You have PDSs (partitioned datasets), libraries (similar), and sequential datasets. PDSs are entities that contain members (like files). PDSs can not have PDSs in them, so there isn't a hierarchy.
OS/390 and z/OS do have OpenEdition, which is the Unix part of the operating system. It uses HFS (hierarchical file system), which is more like the standard Unix file/directory system.
Things are put into motion by submitting jobs. These jobs are written in JCL (job control language). The jobs are submitted to JES2 or JES3 (Job Entry System), which is the subsystem responsible for job control.
On top of all of that, there are several other subsystems. You'll usually see security handled by IBM's RACF, CA's ACF2, or CA's TopSecret. Then there are other subsystems such as CICS, CA-IDMS, or IMS that have their own programs running within them. Then add products like MQSeries, DB2, Websphere, etc.
You very rarely, if ever, run into someone who handles all of these components. Almost all shops have separate teams. Maybe a security team that handles RACF or ACF2, a CICS team, DB2 team, and so on.
I've found the most difficult barrier to learning the mainframe to be the lack of comprehendible documentation and tutorials available on the web. I find myself always having to query others who have years of experience already under their belts, or having to dig deep within IBM's documentation sites, usually into several books at once.
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:2)
I agree Mainframe is a completely different world.
JCL by itself is a freightening beast. And that's just the lingo for telling programs to run!
I went to a school that emphasized mainframes (Northern Illinois University). One of the few advantages is that you get really good at looking things up. (I agree the IBM Doc, while complete, is incredibly hard for looking things up.)
Re JCL (Score:2)
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:3, Insightful)
That was exactly my experience. Starting out in OS/390 is like trying to understand a foreign culture, in a different language. All the subtle little cues that you use to help find your way around a new system are different than you expect them to be.
There are silly little things, like the fact that the "Enter" key is different from the "Return" key--to enter, you need to use
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:2)
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:2)
*smack*
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine coding all day at a screen limited to 20 lines, 80 characters wide, all capital letters, red text on a black background. This is regardless of screen resolution. You can customize colors on your Windows client, but it's pretty much the same. I've downloaded programs into text files to study them for sanity's sake before.
Imagine no debugging. Just hardcoded write statements.
Imagine jumping through 1,000 loopholes to recreate test data, only to discover too late that the production data still doesn't work - your code is wrong.
Imagine top down programming. Structured? Sorta. No object-oriented nature at all. Being punished by people thirty years older than you for trying to use a function or some reusable code. Make a change to a program? Good - now change the 10 others sorta like it.
Now imagine that suddenly your clientele (college students in my case) suddenly want all their data to be accessible via the web. Now do you chuck the old busted system? No, you instead place more systems on top of it to interface it with your web system. Synchronization? Forget about it. Transactional data over the web? Not gonna happen.
I'm 26. My colleagues are dinosaurs. I'm getting out as soon as I can. I'm not sure what's gonna happen to this situation in the long run but I don't care.
My colleague across the room from me is thirty years older than me, is nursing a bad back and refuses to learn anything new. He's the guy with a hammer who sees everything as a nail. He has a bizarre theory that the bad economy is good because it means the COBOL programmers of the world shall rise again (I'm pretty sure JFK and Roswell factor into his theory somewhere). Sad thing is he may be right - only they're rising in India.
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm 34, an administrator on a z900 running OS390, and it rocks. Please explain what's tough about creating test data? I think we get to the root of the problem - "your code is wrong".
EVERYTHING you complained about above pertains to your coding and the language (COBOL), NOT the platform. On my box, you can do COBOL, Assembler, Java, C, C++, Perl, you name it. All the "programmers" depend on their IDEs to develop their code - they wouldn't know what's going on in there if you gave them a dump. Ooh! Wait! The dump isn't in Java! I'm confused! It's using numbers! What kind of wacky computer is this?
I've determined that Moore's law is not driven by technical innovation, but simply by the need to keep up with shitty programming.
I apologize, but this really cheeses me off.
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:5, Informative)
Seeing as my job these last few years has been designing, building and supporting a system that provides web-based access to mainframe transactions, I recommend you do a little more investigation before quitting. Let me give you a starting point: COM Transaction Integrator on Microsoft SNA Server/Host Integration Server.
Re:Why would it be mind-numbing? (Score:2)
Dude, use F4. :)
All of our code is in RPG, which looks to me like FORTRAN without all those pesky numerical functions.
My shop is using Advantage 2e (yes, Synon) in COBOL. Fortunately, it looks like we're going to move to Java soon. (Yes, you can do Java on the AS/400. We're doing it right now, for non-mission critical applications.)
However, I have never ever seen a piece of hardware on
Mainframe workers (Score:5, Funny)
No kidding. They need to:
1. Get old.
2. Get fat.
3. Wear rainbow suspenders.
4. Grow untrimmed beards.
5. Forswear sex.
Try selling that to a freshly-minted 22 year old comp sci major.
GF.
Re:Mainframe workers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mainframe workers (Score:2)
Re:Mainframe workers (Score:2)
Re:Mainframe workers (Score:3, Funny)
2. Get fat.
3. Wear rainbow suspenders.
4. Grow untrimmed beards.
5. Forswear sex.
Woho! 4/5's of the way there!
Mind numbing work? (Score:2)
Re:Mind numbing work? (Score:2)
Re:Mind numbing work? (Score:2)
Re:Mind numbing work? (Score:2)
I've a couple of suggestions (Score:2, Insightful)
2) Pay more. Companies have to adjust.
This just happens to be interesting because it is unusual in this job market. It's nice to know I have some skills that might be in demand if my current job goes away.
Still using COBOL, and lots of it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Still using COBOL, and lots of it (Score:2)
MPE, good for you, bad for me (Score:2)
It does feel like a step back in time, though. I'm not the operator of this system, but when I've had to babysit it seems as if there's a lot that could be automated with a better scripting language and some other UNIX-style tools (grep, textuitls, perl).
Re:Still using COBOL, and lots of it (Score:2)
Re:Still using COBOL, and lots of it (Score:2)
They have been using the same code base for 30 years only to have HP abandon them.
So, repeating the question:
Is there a free version of business basic out there?
(i've had no luck googling)
It's the h/\(|<3rz that don't like it! (Score:2)
There's no r007k1t for it d00d!
Re:It's the h/\(|3rz that don't like it! (Score:3, Interesting)
Well... (Score:2)
... haven't we been meaning to get rid of those Visual Basic people? Here's a way.
Cobol may be an easy target, but... (Score:2)
I wouldn't knock it. Which job do you think you stand a better chance of getting: a C++/Java/C# job that you're qualified for with 500 other qualified applicants competing for the same position, or a Cobol job that you're qualified for with 10 other competing qualified applicants. Which do you think will demand a better salary?
Jerk.
Re:Cobol may be an easy target, but... (Score:2)
The C++/Java/C# programmer, easy.
The reason why there are only 10 other competing applicants is because (pick one):
Having experience in the Mainframe world, I can tell you that I
Only one solution - robotic mainframe workers (Score:2)
Mainframe Operators (Score:4, Interesting)
And no, the mainframe cannot be replaced by a client-server solution. I listened to this moron chant throughout school - mainframes are not dead. REALITY CHECK - there are just some applications where a mainframe makes more sense. Mainframes can handle enormous amounts of data without having to break it up for a cluster, or without being bogged down with I/O like most client-server type solutions. Mainframes are great when you need to handle databases with tons of information in it - and you need to consistantly dig through it. Most machines cannot handle it, and will buckle. Mainframes almost never buckle, unless you are testing new stuff on them (naughty newbie - that's what a test LPAR is for) or you do funky things to them.
What do people expect? (Score:2)
Of course there aren't going to be too many people interested in working on mainframes - the average person hasn't even seen one. Compare that with the near unbiquitous PC, and you can see why a lot more people go for the "traditional" computer jobs - people can get comfortable and experienced with them without spending a lot of money.
Damn GUI Tools (Score:2)
Kinda funny that the article seems to start off by blaming "user friendly" software for the shortage. Is it true that no one tinkers anymore?
Or perhaps the problem is that recent CS degrees are getting as devorced from the actual running of computers
Re:Damn GUI Tools (Score:2)
There's zero similarity between your Debian box and a mainframe. One doesn't prepare you for the other.
MORE long-term? (Score:2)
I thought the reason this was an issue was because mainframes were a long-term solution to a problem. They're dinosaurs, sure, but remember that dinosaurs ruled the Earth for millions of years before anything smaller or smarter could come take over. Mainframes are solid, reliable, and house very large amounts of very important data that would have been moved to other systems by now, if it were at all easy to do.
Sure it's easier to get help f
Supply/demand (Score:2)
Quick and Easy Karma? (Score:3, Funny)
Unix is just DOS with funny application names (ga-new what?)
Nothing new (Score:2)
I had to do my thesis about multiprocessor interval-based polynomial factoring on it. I wasted a solid 3 months finding someone who could get the PVM installed. They had NO skilled personel back then. I can't imagine they will find them now.
Mainframe experts are a bit like those iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The dudes in charge claim that tey exist, but no-one has ever seen o
The problem with mainframes... (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyone remember that Woody Allen movie, "Take the Money and Run"?
This was funny in 1967 and is senseless today, because in 1967, nobody's aunt had a computer. And today, nobody's aunt has a AS/400 sitting around. So the only way to learn is on-the-job, which means there's that chick-an-egg problem of: you can have the job if you have experience, you can get experience if you have the job.With PCs today, you just spend an affordable amount of money, and you can start learning.
Re:The problem with mainframes... (Score:2, Informative)
Hercules. [conmicro.cx]
Adam
Where Do I Sign Up? (Score:2)
I am currently a college student, and there is no course on how to run a mainframe. They will teach you the latest and greatest advances in object oriented programming, but when it comes down to how to work mainframes
Mindnumbing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Quite a few years back... (Score:3, Interesting)
When the Mac first came out, I spent about six months reading technical manuals for IBM's OS370. I wanted to actually work with mainframes, but the people that ran the shops acted like it was some holy grail or something, as though you had no chance of setting FOOT in a data center unless you knew a super-secret magic chant or something. I still think the big iron is fascinating, but I've never been quite motivated to resume my interest (the salaries don't really help, either).
As for C++ programmers - someone made a comment regarding competition among "qualified" c++ programmers. I'd argue that the ability to toss some code into a class so that it compiles with a C++ compiler does NOT a C++ programmer make. If you count only those who know both the language, and how to use it effectively, I'd guess that your competition goes way down.
What is a mainframe? (Score:2)
Could it be the cash? It certainly appears so, when's the last time you spent $50-100k on a box?
Does lots of SCSI, RAID and redudant power supplies make a mainframe? Or lots of noise? Lord knows you'll find no louder boxen than those beasts.
I've worked on all kinds of uni
What's so tough about operating a mainframe? (Score:2)
One word..."Automation" (Score:2)
The computer world has come a long way in terms of automating mundane tasks while they have stood at one point in time. That is the problem, not the lack of people smart enough to type commands and follow instruction, but dumb enough to be content doing the mudane tasks over and over for their whole life. Automate the monkey tasks. It's not rocket
Its Called an ENTERPRISE SERVER (Score:5, Insightful)
IBM saw this coming a while back. The 390 mainframes were renamed Enterprise Server (and we all snickered). However, the enterprise server is now running Linux, Websphere, integration services, websites, ASPs, and the legacy systems with incredible stability.
It is difficult to find operators because in many mainframe shops the job consists of running print jobs and contacting support staff when alerts occur. It is no longer a career. It would improve if companies started treating it like a first step. Hire some college students or entry level employees and provide a career path to greater opportunity. Isn't that what we all want?
Windows2k3 server will change all of this (Score:2)
Red Hat is trying to catch up to XP in terms of usability and performance, but they just keep falling behind. Now they are trying to trick users into "Red Hat Network" so they can just get updates for Red Hat's own mistakes. Anything to try and make a profit I guess. Sure the ABMers will fall for it, but the rest of us know better.
Besides MS server 2003 is coming out and will give us so much more functionally than anything Red Hat can hack together. Oh well....you get what you pay for.
This is easy (Score:2)
First vs. Second Generation Programmers (Score:2)
The first generation of programmers would be represented by my mother. She started working with computers before there was even such a thing as a "Computer Science" degree -- she has a Master's in mathematics. She was big iron, all the way... when I was a kid, she showed me the washing-machine hard drives and taught me to play
Cobol programmers needed (Score:2, Funny)
Its not a lack of interest (Score:3, Insightful)
I know plenty of out of work IT people who'd be eager to learn mainframe IT if it meant a job, they just aren't willing to teach it.
here is the posters problem (Score:3)
quite frankly, I would love to have my systems so reliable that they become mind numbing and boring. and predictable.
Mainframes are going to become bigger.... (Score:2)
Well, _I_ didn't like Mainframes... (Score:3, Insightful)
Trust me: ugly. Nasty, nasty, nasty. As other people have pointed out, I didn't do any mainframe courses at University. What I did at this job was read a _lot_ of IBM manuals, and attend a bunch of IBM courses.
For those that know the territory, I even went on a JCL (Job Control Language) course.
Basically, for those people used to working and developing in the modern GUI and development tool environment - run in fear. The other people I worked with though pointed out that if you knew this stuff, you would always have a job. Something which this article seems to be higlighting.
I must point out that in hindsight it was very good experience. Being taught to read mainframe dumps, and having to deal with things every day on the bit and byte level was a great foundation for my continued career.
I also bailed from the company after being there for just over one year, wanting to get out of the mainfram environment. And trust me - being an operator is WAAAAAY less interesting than being a systems programmer.
Re:Well, _I_ didn't like Mainframes... (Score:2)
I still prefer UNIX, but after a year of struggling with the AS/400 I can deal with it.
AS/400 (Score:2)
Catch 22 for older professionals? (Score:2)
I would love to work on mainframes. (Score:3, Interesting)
Can someone tell me where I can get training and experience when no one is teaching mainframes and no one is hiring unless one has 2-3 years experience?
Re: (Score:2)
Wanna make an AS400 (iSeries) more interesting ... (Score:3, Interesting)
btw: Did you know that when IBM changed the CPU on the AS400 from a 48bit CISC system to a 64bit RISC system (PPC based) there was almost zero application programming changes required
mm
Betting Man (Score:2)
Reliability of big iron comes at a whopping cost more than "boxes one must administrate". IBM's licensing and support fees are a significant portion of it.
I've worked on systems that were 20 years old and I've seen the hacks done to keep the code in tune with business practices. Simply amazing and scary. Today, programming is often about abstraction and reuse. A lot of work goes into this endeavor. Not back then. I'm of course speaking from the specific, but thats my experience.
I advocating moving t
I was a mainframe (S/390) systems programmer (Score:3, Informative)
As someone previously said, It's a different world out there. OS/390 is an amazing OS, we had 5 instances of it running at once on the mainframe (2 production and 3 development regions) and then I installed Linux too :-D
Initially I was given a measly 5% CPU for my Linux region....but that's more than enough for Linux to make a mark!
Coming back to the point, the reason for the different world can be summarized in two words - Batch Jobs . So the task of the operators will be to keep staring at the console to look out for requests to load up cartridges (yes, thats the primary backup medium) that a job needs to read stuff off or start some massive printing and computational jobs from time to time. I worked for a large conglomerate, employing more than 30,000 people, so every month the pay-check printing job on huge line printers took about 4 days to complete. Other task included checking DASD usage (mainframe harddrives) to check upcoming shortages , etc.
Even programming for it was fun, I was primarily in charge of the opensystems portion of it, including Domino Go Webserver, O-MVS (unix) and Linux. But I can understand why there is a shortage of manpower. The cool technology does not hit the mainframe world, so you won't get to work on wireless communications, kernel hacking, etc. I am now a Linux systems programmer and I dont wanna go back too, but it was an experience worth getting.
Arrgggh..i have been barfing too long...back to work!
The cult of the AS/400 (Score:3, Informative)
I have worked at a bank for two years now. Before I arrived, I had never even heard of the AS/400. On my first day my manager took me into the computer room and proudly pointed out what looked like a black dishwasher sitting in the middle of the room. "And this," he smirked, "is our AS/400!"
I could bore you with stories about how nobody taught me anything, how I had to figure everything out about the vaunted AS/400 just so I could do my fucking job (and subsequently got scolded for "going where I wasn't allowed") and so on, but I won't.
Instead I'll just say this: whenever I tried to ask my manager or co-workers for an overview of the AS/400, he could only say "oh, it's NOTHING like a PC, it's COMPLETELY different." Me: "okay, but how is it different?" Them: "Oh, it's just different, you wouldn't understand."
I have come to is that my manager doesn't know jack shit about his beloved AS/400. He knows how to "make it work," and even though he claims to have some sort of certification, IBM obviously just gave him scraps. If you can't explain a technology in 3 sentences, then you probably don't understand it at all.
But why does he know jack shit, despite working with an AS/400 for 10 years? It is because IBM has purposely kept him uneducated. Everything is hidden in subscription professional sites and bank-account busting certifications from IBM.
I have searched the web over and over again for information on AS/400 crap. All I can find are IBM's boring information libraries for the "iSeries," mysterious subscription sites for AS/400 "professionals" and this page [storereport.com]. Try finding a book on AS/400 online or at your bookstore. They suck. If you want to wade through the IBM manuals online, be my guest. My suggestion is you do it just before bedtime.
Ok, MAYBE you could teach yourself to be an AS/400 expert by wading through said manuals...but everyone here who learned about PC administration by wading through a Microsoft manual - or, for that matter, an Intel manual - raise your hand (and we're talking actually black-and-white MANUALS here, folks, not online tutorials or knowledge base articles)...well...still waiting...Thought so.
My manager has told me that if you want to learn ANYTHING about AS/400, then you should forget about a career in anything else, because you will have to become an AS/400 expert. Who do you think told HIM that? Why, the current AS/400 experts who want to keep their salaries up and the their jobs secure! (natch)
So here's to the Cult of the AS/400. May you all fade away into well deserved obscurity.
Mainframe Operator Management And Opportunities (Score:3, Interesting)
I moved into computer operations management primarily to maintain control of my environment and earn a measly $1.00 more an hour to start. I had been under supervisors who made bad technical decisions in my judgement, and did not like the experience.
The job was hell on earth, and largely due to the nature of people who choose to do that job. This poster [slashdot.org] got it right, it's basically a haven for people who have the intelligence to do the job and the desire to hide out from a 'normal' job. We are not talking your team players here.
The 24x7 shifts mean job security, yeah, but also the constant wear and tear on nights and weekends meant anti-social behavior is reinforced amongst people who are self-selecting for it anyway.
The fact that I was one of them did not help as I wanted to be as lazy and non-team oriented as the rest of them but could not due to my position. I did not start out as a good leader type to begin with, and had to painfully learn the craft of training and stick and carrot with many ugly lessons learned the hard way.
One of the biggest problems we had was that we could not seriously threaten termination for anything but the most grevious of errors due to the lack of suitable replacements. The systems we run HAVE to run successfully 24x7, no exceptions period. So you cannot just plug in any dweeb with six months of VB/networking at the local community college. So training means standing over them to make sure the processes get done without failure, and takes overtime and care to make sure the mission critical stuff isn't destroyed.
Getting rational reasonable operators who were good and not insane was a difficult thing to accomplish. I literally had situations where bowling alley managers interviewed for me, and later I had to ask myself if I wouldn't have been better off hiring them instead of the jerk we got.
I am even now having to deal with the operator conundrum as a sysprog as some new guy screwed up our monthly database reorg apparently because he thinks he is a genius and understood his instructions without asking or calling.
The solution for our company re: replacement has been to outsource for new operators, try them out to see if they actually know what they are doing, and hire them if they work out.
There IS an operator advancement process at our company- select operators have made it into my systems area and others become Operations Analysts, doing similar work but more on an operationalized basis rather then systems. The Ops analysts are sharp sharp people and just as good as many of the sysprogs. So those posters who are concerned about ops being dead end should make sure there is a similar path before hiring on.
The whole experience was probably good for me as a human being as I am more likely to be sympathetic and understanding of both sides of the management and employee experience. But I am very very soured on ever BEING in ops management ever again and I would have to be very very hungry to ever consider it.
Most ex-ops people I work with feel the same way- it's kind of like helpdesking, it's a job and someone has to do it, but we aren't planning on doing it. And that is your opportunity to grab a job.
Re:Yes, Cobol is next (Score:2)
Re:What did one french man say to the other? (Score:2)
You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper in the world is a white guy, the best golfer in the world is a black guy, France is accusing the US of arrogance and Germany doesn't want to go to war.
Re:Not to be rude but... (Score:2)
When they have a problem, you need to be there, because it is serious, none of this "reboot and hope it gets better" which always means putting the problem off till next time.
Re:Not to be rude but... (Score:2)
My experience with Main & Mid frames supports everything asserted in the article.
But...being a Mainframe operator means doing mindless, repetitive, boring tasks 99% of the time, because the hardware & software doesn't screw up.
Then that 1% comes along...usually due to operator screwup, or just cosmic random crap, and you have to have someone there, or readily available, who actually understands the system.
This is NOT something you want to outsource, or ship overseas, unless you ship the
Re:The Problem With Specializing (Score:2)
I see what doctors have to put up with, and it is not worth it, money speaking. If you have a desire to heal, and the money don't matter, go for it, they could use you.
Re:The mind numbing part (Score:2)