Gabe, all I look forward to the article, and hope you make lots of money with it! Alas I was born in 1945 instead of 1946 so you will have to take my input with a grain of salt. I planned to be a power plant engineer and did my master's theses on power plant steam cycle process control optimization using a FORTRAN model on an IBM 1410 in 1969 at USF. When I got my first FORTRAN class program listing in about 1966 including the linkage editor map from the overnight batch runs for the class, I knew right then I had to learn what all that "stuff" was, and I've ended up following a career in computer science ever since.
I spent 2 years with ECI (later E-Systems and later Rayethon) working on AWACS with secret clearance. Then I spent 25 years with Florida Power and managed their computer department for over 15. During the FPC years, I moved through the system programming career path, and made a number of contributions to the SHARE SPLA library including a structured FORTRAN translator and strucutred programming macros. I also develped PC/370 and released it as shareware in 1985 all done as a hobby while teaching evening classes in computer science at USF. I left FPC in 1995 after helping to implementing CSS by far my most exciting and challenging project up to that point in my career: http://don-higgins.net/css.htm I worked for Micro Focus for 9 years telecommuting from home and developed HLASM compatible assembler written entirely in COBOL which is part of Micro Focus Mainframe Express for Windows. I left in 2004 and started my own consulting company Automated Software Tools Corporation and have been doing some consulting and really having a lot of fun developing open source Java bases z390 protable mainframe assembler and emulator www.z390.org. Right now I consider myself a baby boomer who is simi-retired as I collect a pension and I don't have to work when I don't feel like it or when I have an opportunity to visit with the grandchildren or go touring. But, I still love system software development! It is what gets me up at 4 or 5 am 7 days a week to work on z390 related projects. I do it because it's fun and very self satisfying to me, and I hope to still be doing it on a laptop (or mainframe class cell phone) from my room in an assisted living facility when I'm 90 if I make it until then. My mother is 91 now in assisted living, but she doesn't want to have anything to do with computers. We play scrable or crokinole twice a week when I visit her. In the last 4 years since leaving full time employment in the mainframe industry, I've been busy learning Java, Linux, Perle, Eclipse, and more. There is always a new tool and a new language waiting to be put to good use. At the Orlando SHARE in February, I got a request from Michael Stack and John Erhman to add the ASSIST extended instructions for use by students at NIU. I don't see any end in sight for new opportunities. Come to the March 2009 SHARE z390 session in Austin to hear about a new tool under development. Don Higgins [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:00:03 -0500, Gabe Goldberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >(Sorry for cross-posting...) > >I'm writing an article for CA about baby-boom mainframers (that's me >too, my first job out of college in 1968 was with IBM in Poughkeepsie) >about what we're all doing and seeing and facing in our careers. > >Do people plan to work as long as they're able? Because of enjoyable >jobs? From necessity? For other reasons? > >Are folks being downsized/outsourced? > >Retiring voluntarily or otherwise? When projects finish or ... certain >ages are reached? Or companies migrate off the mainframe? Or youngsters >are available for lower salaries? > >Regarding "dump the mainframe projects" -- have you stayed with a >company after migrating to another platform? How has that worked out? >Have you seen "dump" projects fail or simply continue forever with >mainframes chugging along productively? > >Has the skill set required for mainframe work changed during your >career? How have tools evolved to support skills required? > >What are boomer mainframers doing in retirement? Are you taking new jobs >and "double dipping"? Becoming consultants? Trainers? Writers? With >former employers? In locations you've worked or moving? > >Or starting new careers in other fields? > >With decades of experience and perspective -- and considering >contradictory trends of organizations migrating to other platforms AND >the general resurgence of the mainframe -- what recommendations are >offered for the mainframe's future? > >Are younger-generation mainframe staffers joining your companies? Have >you helped recruit any (including family members!)? How are they >integrated into your data centers? Are there inter-generational issues >(training, collaboration, communication, work habits, whatever)? What >should employers do to smooth the process? > >Have you worked for younger bosses/managers? What's that been like? Are >there challenges communicating mainframe benefits, mindset, practices to >them? > >For reference, Wikipedia defines baby boomers as being born between 1946 >and 1964. So if you served in WW I or had your first legal drink >celebrating Y2K, someone else will have to document your life. > >People who've REALLY left the mainframe arena may not be on these lists >-- so feel free to forward this with colleagues you've stayed in touch with! > >Please reply to me directly as well as to the list, so I see responses >separate from the daily digest. Relatively brief comments are best so I >can ask follow-up questions if necessary. > >The two articles -- for z/Journal and Mainframe Executive -- about which >I queried the lists about mainframe education are nearly done, will >appear early next year, I think. > >Thanks to people who responded for those, and who respond now! > >-- >Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. (703) 204-0433 >3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
