Move on from Mainframe

thieveslikeus

Hi All, first time poster here ... please be gentle.

Really just wanted to get some advice maybe from those of you who have been in a similar position.

Have spent the past 10 years working as a programmer in the old mainframe technologies - cobol, db2, etc - in various banks and am currently at a point where I need a change. I don't really feel that I have anything else to learn in this area and anything I work on tends not to challenge me very much. Have toyed with the idea of moving into management but if I'm honest I don't think that this is where my skills lie. I have sent my CV out to several recruitment companies but they all seem to say you would need to have .NET or Java experience for any of the jobs that they have.

This leaves me in the predicament of what to do next. Should I update my skills by doing some night classes in java or .NET ? Will this make me any more employable in these areas ? or will I still be disadvantaged due to the fact that I have no commercial experience in these fields. Has anyone out there faced a similar situation and if so how did you move on ?

Or should I just jack it all in sell ice cream on the beach in barbados !!!!

AARRRGH

Funny, I'd like to move in your direction!

Any development manager with any cop on will appreciate your 10 years programming experience. Getting some kind of Java or .NET qualification would be a great advantage.

Could you do the Sun Java exams or the Microsoft .NET exams?

cronos

Perhaps go down the lecturer route. Or become a consultant...

vodkasoda

Do NOT become a contractor / consultant ... I am a mainframe COBOL / CICS / VSAM / DB2 Analyst/Programmer ... I have 31 years experience and I CANNOT get a job :mad: !!! It is impossible to find a decent paying job in Ireland at the moment, not even in the testing area, and on the rare occasion that you do get the chance of a contract, the rates on offer compare unfavourably with permanent work ... it is an absolute joke !!!

cronos wrote: »

Perhaps go down the lecturer route. Or become a consultant...

Agent Smith

thieveslikeus wrote: »

Or should I just jack it all in sell ice cream on the beach in barbados !!!!

i would totally do that!

dazberry

thieveslikeus wrote: »

This leaves me in the predicament of what to do next. Should I update my skills by doing some night classes in java or .NET ? Will this make me any more employable in these areas ? or will I still be disadvantaged due to the fact that I have no commercial experience in these fields. Has anyone out there faced a similar situation and if so how did you move on ?

Like you I now work in the finance sector and am stuck maintaining old Delphi applications. I've been trying to move into the C#/.NET realm for the last year or so without any luck. Delphi is a great product but there just isn't the jobs. The conversations with agencies seem to go like this:

A>If you had 6 months experience we could put you anywhere
D>I've 14 years experience
A>6 months C# experience - can you get 6 months there
D>We don't do C# here - that's why I'm ringing you
A>Come back to me when you have 6 months

I've done a lot of training in C#/.NET as part of the FAS upskilling program (you should check it out - AFAIK they pay 70% of the overall costs - PM me if you want more details). What I didn't do was sit the certificates afterwards as I was so stressed and overloaded with work and sort of went off the boil.

Definitely the hardest thing is to try and work in one mode during the day and study in another during the evening - especially when they're in one respect very similar and you're exhaused from the stress of the crap you gotta do during the day. A year later I'm just getting back to it now, once I get back up to speed I'm simply going to lie and say I've done C# for the last year or 2. Ideally I would have never done this, but judging by the quality of some of the "expert" contractors we've had inside (both Delphi and recently some C#) and my rising levels of desperation...

D.

thieveslikeus

Thanks for the support guys.

Dazberry, I will look into the FAS training you mention, it cant do any harm. Hopefully you have a breakthrough soon in your own quest for new work.

Dublindude, you say you'd like to move in my direction. Do you mind if I ask why ? is it because you've heard that this area is set to become quite lucrative as time goes on and all the older cobol people retire. I'm not convinced on this arguement. Of the 4 banks that I have worked for all of them have been putting plans in place to replace these older systems. It might take a while but when faced with astronomical wage bills it might make more sense for them. I suppose time will tell but I don't want to take the risk of ending up with redundant skills in my mid 40s.

mdebets

You could also work on an open source project in the evening, to get some experience.