Imagine a seasoned blacksmith bringing along a young apprentice. His days are numbered so he his passing knowledge and years of experience to the next generation. Now picture “the last blacksmith”. His days are numbered but he doesn’t have anyone to pass his knowledge and years of experience to. The coals will go out forever once he stops stoking the fire.
This is the feeling that passes over me as a mainframe programmer. It appears that layoffs are looming in the weeks to come. There is no young or new developer to pass my skill and knowledge to. No one has come to me seeking knowledge on JCL, Natural/ADABAS, or any of the tools used on IBM z/OS.
The next thing I ask myself is, “So what?”.
The blacksmith went away but iron/metal working is still around. “Dude, ditch the anvil and get a torch!” The same applies to me. “Dude, ditch the 3270 emulator and get a host!”.
This was a decision I made over 11 years ago. I was ready to become a “web master” back before all the click and drag editors came out. The need for mainframe developers kept me busy. Except for personal use and a few stints as a web developer here and there, it’s been all EBCDIC, not ASCII. Throw in some MS ACCESS, SQLServer, MySQL, and Oracle here and there and that’s been pretty much my career.
It’s time for me to learn the lesson of the blacksmith and get some new skills. I don’t have a spare IBM390 laying around so I’ll stick with Brinkster (my favorite hosting service!).
Take a minute to visit Old iSkool and The Goal Farm too!
I am sticking with this hands-free data-entry device and still would like someone to volunteer to edit this blog. I'm doing the best I can but it's hard to catch my mistakes and all the times the software doesn't understand me.
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