IBM Practically Begging CS Students To Become Mainframe Programmers
from the not-dead-yet! dept
Yes, mainframe computers still exist, but the people who work on them are increasingly aging themselves out of the job market. That, apparently, is a problem for IBM, who wants to keep selling mainframes, just as companies realize they can usually get by just fine without them. So, IBM is giving various college programs access to mainframes and encouraging classes teaching students how to program the big dinosaur iron. Of course, while that may mean jobs that are available now, you have to wonder if it really makes sense to spend so much time to be trained in what's likely to be a shrinking market. Update: Then there's the strategy a Princeton engineering dean suggested for Microsoft: hoping that fictional characters go on to careers in computer science to encourage more kids to do so.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Big Iron licenses
I doubt that people will be as interested in programming on systems such as the S/390 Zos, if they can't have access to it on their own terms, as much as having to go to a central server for access.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MS wants this? Not.
-andy
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: MS wants this? Not.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I worked on a mainframe right from college
[ link to this | view in thread ]
IBM = Mainframe
[ link to this | view in thread ]