IBM mainframe

Accolades; willing to learn other systems and programming languages !

Since IBM mainframe was the beginnings of all the languages you have mentioned you will see many downward reflections of what you have already learned. IBM was the standard for many years, you will be going back to the "BASICS" of the predecessor of the languages you spead of, the origination for C, C++,SQL, ASP, LINUX, UNIX, and all HTML.

Bottom line is it will not hurt.

The answer is a qualified 'yes'. There are certainly applications written in C, C++, and Java on the mainframe. Linux is one of the fastest growing mainframe operating systems.

The hardest part of working on mainframes is getting training. Marist offers mainframe courses, but other than that, you're mostly dependent on an employer to help you to learn on the job.

There is an application called Hercules that will let you run a mainframe emulator on a PC. You might want to play with that.

http://www.sysprog.net

Some of your skills will be directly transferable to the IBM mainframe environment. Certainly SQL gets plenty of exercise in the suite of applications I work with. There appear to be two areas where you'll need to gather some additional information in order to work effectively with an IBM mainframe. First is sequential (yup I said it) programming languages. The (still) dominant application language on the mainframe is COBOL. The language itself is not difficult to learn or to read, but it does take some learning and practice. The second piece is MVS. You'll need to orient yourself with some of the more common tools, SPF (the editor on the mainframe where you'll spend most of your time), JCL (job control language), file allocation and structure (very different from a PC environment). The toolsets on an IBM mainframe are very mature. You mostly just have to not be shy about pressing F1 to see the on-line help.

You don't mention whether you'll be working primarily as an application programmer, systems programmer, or hardware technician. I'm assuming that your bent is toward applications based on your skillset. If you can specialize in application development supporting a particular type of business, banking for example, that can increase your value.