How many jobs are there for COBOL these days?

[benali72]

I saw that the TIOBE Popularity of Programming Languages data (at http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html) lists the popularity of the traditional "mainframe" programming languages at these positions --

RPG         #19
COBOL   #25
Fortran    #30
PL/I           #42

I remember the hype from the early 1990s about "the mainframe is dead," which was TOTALLY bogus. But now we're 10 years into the new century, and I wonder ---

*  How many jobs are there these days for COBOL skills?
*  How many jobs are there for mainframers?

What does  everyone think ?

[TRexx]

My client has hundreds of COBOL programmers, but since there are no qualified Americans in New Jersey or New York willing to write COBOL for $90,000/year, they had no choice but to outsource it all to Tata. 

[benali72]

Wow, no Americans would write COBOL for $90,000 a year?  I'm not in New York or New Jersey, but from where I sit that's pretty decent money for programming jobs.  Jobs like that could have been "rural-sourced" instead (moving them to rural areas of the US where salaries and the cost of living are much lower).  Too bad they couldn't or wouldn't do that.

[pxsant]

I suspect TRexx's statement was a dig at outsourcing.  Most of the remaining Cobol programmers are old farts who would be happy to get 90K if only one of the big organizations would make them an offer.

Of course we all know there are NO qualified technical US citizens thus Tata and Wipro are the only choices.

[ilconsiglliere]

At my last perm job which is a fairly famous life insurance company (the company that dont keep you  ) they had tons of mainframe stuff written in ASSEMBLER. Their core life insurance platform was written in it before I was born. Not only did they have assembler they also used IDMS.

They couldnt find people so they were hiring kids straight out of college and training them in it. They also of course had outsourced a ton of it to India.

I would code in assembler if the price was right but they were paying like 7/hour to IBM India.

[TRexx]

At my last perm job which is a fairly famous life insurance company (the company that dont keep you  ) they had tons of mainframe stuff written in ASSEMBLER. Their core life insurance platform was written in it before I was born. Not only did they have assembler they also used IDMS.

They couldnt find people so they were hiring kids straight out of college and training them in it. They also of course had outsourced a ton of it to India.

Did they ever advertise for talent? I know assembler and live less than a mile from their Clinton site.  I regularly check their web site for jobs and have never seen assembler mentioned.

[Origisaurus]

At my last perm job which is a fairly famous life insurance company (the company that dont keep you  ) they had tons of mainframe stuff written in ASSEMBLER. Their core life insurance platform was written in it before I was born. Not only did they have assembler they also used IDMS.

They couldnt find people so they were hiring kids straight out of college and training them in it. They also of course had outsourced a ton of it to India.

Did they ever advertise for talent? I know assembler and live less than a mile from their Clinton site.  I regularly check their web site for jobs and have never seen assembler mentioned.

I, too, know IDMS and (360 among others) assembler.  And COBOL.  BUT, I have this inconvenient habit of saying "Show me the money".

And, like many Americans over 40, I have the inconvenient habit of expecting to be told requirements that make sense.  And another inconvenient  habit of hollering SHIT! when requirements flit about.

I 'spose if I ate enough curry ...

[Carrie Cobol]

Did they ever advertise for talent? I know assembler and live less than a mile from their Clinton site.  I regularly check their web site for jobs and have never seen assembler mentioned.

I suspect that companies just don't advertise for jobs like that.  They simply assume that because it's legacy technology, no recent college graduates will apply, and experienced people will demand too much money (as they should, but one of the things corporate America is not, is reasonable).  Thus they instantly run to Tata/Wipro.

[ilconsiglliere]

At my last perm job which is a fairly famous life insurance company (the company that dont keep you  ) they had tons of mainframe stuff written in ASSEMBLER. Their core life insurance platform was written in it before I was born. Not only did they have assembler they also used IDMS.

They couldnt find people so they were hiring kids straight out of college and training them in it. They also of course had outsourced a ton of it to India.

Did they ever advertise for talent? I know assembler and live less than a mile from their Clinton site.  I regularly check their web site for jobs and have never seen assembler mentioned.

I used to work in Clinton till I got whacked in February. They used to complain non-stop that they could not find assembler programmers. I never saw an ad for a perm one in the 5 years I was there but I have seen contract ads.

Getting in there is tough, I got in there through a friend. If you have exact skill set they are looking for they will hire you but it takes a long, long time. At the moment they are in offshoring mode, besides my layoff they outsourced their print center and are laying off people in drips and drabs every week now. 

I am trying to weasel my way back in at the moment. They have an opening for an AVP for mobility architecture. I can do that job as I have 20 years of telecom experience but the problem is that job is 2 salary grades from what I was when I got whacked. I doubt that will happen.

If you ever want to know more about them, PM and we can chat.