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getting back to work

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by elfpump

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As a COBOL programmer/Anmalyst with over 20 years experience with Brokerages and Banks,in New York, I have been out of work for 18 months. Are COBOL jobs ever coming back? Can I hope to get re-employed? Or do I have to make a career change? How come nobody needs maintenance programming any more, even if new development has moved to web based and distributed platforms? Is my experience worth nothing? Has anybody found a job? How did you do it?

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by oldefar

So you were programming back when Bunker-Ramo, Quotron, and GTE ruled the brokerage stations, and AT&T owned the wire rooms. :)

Things change fast, and one aspect that has been consistent is the reduction in the tech department required to support the business. Each year the number of bodies required decreases, and of late the decrease has been greater than the growth of IT into new business areas.

Don't look for a return to a high demand for COBOL. At best, you may luck into a caretakerrole to see you through another decade.

I recommend you look around at what you like doing, and see if you can build a job out of that. This may be programming in new languages, or it may be a full change in career.

by thinkaloud

thinking aloud.

With 18 years of experience, your value is the domain knowledge within the specific industry.

We have to acknowledge the drop in supply of jobs in global downturn.

Having said that, you may want to carve a new career for yourself. Become your own boss!

Myself, I have taken this crisis and turn it into opportunities. Getting into businesses. It's tough initially but the returns are sweet.

by scarecrow71

I started my career 12 or so years ago as a COBOL programmer and I struggled then to find work, so I can imagine how hard it is today. Within 3 or 4 years I had totally stopped using COBOL at all!

The fact of the industry is that skills can become obsolete very quickly and to have any hope of survival, you need to constantly refresh your skills, and aquire new ones.

With your level of skill and experience it should be easy for you to retrain (Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!). Alternatively you could look at a consultancy role.

by anacron77

i second exploring new business opportunities, an leveraging your experience you can get consultancy work too...here in asia there are still a lot of companies looking for skilled cobol programmers. at least you're your own boss and happy because ur doing what u love doing...

by jimhm

I think most of the COBOL stuff is contract work, we still have hundreds of millions of lines of COBOL code, we have hundreds of COBOL programmers. And not many of those applications are being retired (to expensive to rewrite) - The problem is - thecompany doesn't pay top dollar for old skills... they have been outsourcing as COBOL programmers retire or move into C++ or JAVA...

Depends on what your salary range is could be holding you back... Hey - TechRepublic didn't you say the COBOL skills were still in high demand... Hum - something isn't adding up ...

by aaelwyn

COBOL is slowly fading out of existence, but it will be many years before it is gone, if you want to stay ahead, i would recommend retraining in a newer langauge such as C.
It won't be easy, but you obviously understand scripting and need only advance on that ability as opposed to trying to find the odd job that still requires this older language.
Once you make an advancement, many doors will suddenly open for you.
The IT industry is all about getting ahead and staying ahead. The last you want is to be left behind in the dust. Of course, as the others mentioned, consulting or a complete career shift is a viable option.

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