The way forward >>>====> Your homework assignments -This will help get your head on straight.
www.pbs.org, Frontline, you can watch it online. Worked well on 700K DSL. "Close to Home" <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/closetohome/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist> WSJ on the Fun-employed. <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125780714976639687.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_ne\%20ws#> If you have HBO, check out a current special on the Garment industry and how it cratered out. It's a little long but you will see the connection to mainframes. == Now then, those of you who are still working, have "skills", are IBM internal, don't get too comfortable. You might be OK or you might not. The HBO series pointed out that in the 1980s, 95% of clothing was produced in the U.S. It's 5% today. My last client had multiple 3084's in the 1980's and about 2005 or so, de-installed their last 'frame. They were one of the largest IBM shops in the area and now, nothing. Large mainframe shops can convert onto other platforms. Do not kid yourself. I don't take any joy in this. I miss the machine room and the power of MVS. Some of you lost money in the equities markets, some have significantly lower home/real estate valuations. That's done. Assess it and move on. I found work off the mainframe and use the fundamental skills that served me on the mainframe, both on z/OS TSO and VM/CMS. Back in the 1980's, I learned Rexx on CMS and built systems that replaced people. In the 1990's and early 2000's, I used Rexx to power my batch TSO file movers. Same deal. Rexx gave me the ability to build systems fast. This is the end of 2009. No one knows what happens next. A couple things are certain though. It will be a long time before the system programmer job market expands. Even if there are new jobs, I know too many talented people who are out of work. They will take whatever comes along. This recession or whatever this is, will not resolve in the near term. Companies will not be expanding their mainframe capacity. So. With that cheery perspective, consider expanding your skills to other areas. If you have a choice between Dubuque at $20/hour and something else technical where you are, at $15/hour, I'd take the something else, especially if it is different and there is some promise. I might not jump at pulling cables and rolling around carts of new PC's but even there, it might be a foot in the door at a company. Take it or relocate to Dubuque. Linux server work, Cisco, Apache, MySQL, J2EE, XSSL, Eclipse, anything that pays at least $20/hour trumps Dubuque because you don't have to move and it expands your skills in another direction. If, say, the JES3 market suddenly triples, you have the option of walking away from being a Junior J2EE codehead and going back on the 'frame. If it doesn't, in two or three years, you will be a seriously skilled J2EE codehead and probably earning $80+K. Might take a job change or going 'contract. Your decades on the 'frame give you a powerful advantage over the nubies and clickers, go with your strengths. Use the Force. I understand how hard it is to shake loose of 20, 30, 40 years of being a master of the universe. I see that in the comments here. Some cannot believe that their jobs are gone or that companies aren't paying market rates. During the 1970s, I never felt the recession. My salary kept increasing. Ditto the 1980's recession. Today is different. We are more like the clothing designers in the HBO special, auto engineers, or commercial jet pilots. Jobs are vanishing and salaries are falling. Grab onto a critical production application system. As much as I like new development, as the recession deepens, new development may stop and companies on life support will pay for maintenance for production. Cut your expenses ruthlessly. Do it now before a job loss forces you to cut expenses. Save every cent you can. Squirrel your savings away somewhere safe and optimize your returns. These are conflicting goals. My solution is a secure, insured savings account at a well regarded, conservative bank. It pays 1.0% interest. This is counter balanced by a trading account which is in shaky, risky companies, AMD (doubled recently), SLM (also doubled). -ckh GLTA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
