Ditto. I attended Manchester Community College and received a Computer Science Associates degree after learning COBOL, JCL, etc. It got me an application programming job that eventually lead to System Programming. The Community College system is a great place to get started. A little pressuer from some local businesses could steer them back towards the mainframe subjects. It would take a major effort to effect the same change in a 4 year school.
Jon L. Veilleux [EMAIL PROTECTED] (860) 636-2683 -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Eric Bielefeld Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 6:49 PM To: IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Curiosity I went to the Milwaukee Area Technical College and go an Associates Degree in Business Data Processing in 1978. To me, that was really a great program. They had a JCL class, two Cobol classes, assembler, PL/1, database, and then the usual stuff like English and basic Math. It was great preparation for being a programmer. Matter of fact, just after I graduated, I was promoted to a junior programmer job after working at Milwaukee County for 3 years as a computer operator. After 8 months of that, the tech support manager asked me if I wanted to work in technical support, so I took that. I really thing that with a little updating, the curriculem for the program I took was fantastic, and still applicable today. Now, I think they do teach a Cobol class, but most of the stuff is all PC oriented. I did take a Cisco Networking set of 4 classes there, but I decided I didn't want to do Cisco networking. I was impressed with the quality of the teaching at MATC for the Cisco classes. Eric Bielefeld Sr. Systems Programmer 414-475-7434 Milwaukee, Wisconsin ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Tsujimoto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, June 29, 2006 9:45 am Subject: Re: Curiosity To: IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU> I fully understand this point of view. After all, when accounting > students graduate, they can immediately use what they learned, e.g. > balance a corp's books. When a med student graduates, they can apply > what their learned as well (although, I'd rather be worked on by a > seasoned doc). But, when a CS person graduates, he/she is better > suited to simply go on to grad school, or go work for a vendor (e.g. > IBM). I'm a product of the system (CS puke), but I recognized that I > needed marketable skills (SNOBOL was fun, but it doesn't pay the > bills). So, I went outside the university and took classes on BAL, > and other like subjects. > Actually, I > got my first job because I had learned Mark IV during my summer job. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------- This e-mail may contain confidential or privileged information. If you think you have received this e-mail in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this e-mail immediately. Thank you. Aetna ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
