AI? Whoa! Hybrid cloud? Whoa?
Wait a minute. What about mainframe?
What...?
Mainframe careers, they are opportunity
for everyone to be involved in absolutely critical work
and get involved in the industry and really have a job for a long time.
Just like I have, 36 years!
But, you know,
let me introduce my co-speaker today, Christina LaRow,
who is a new IBMer, to explain why
she chose to come into a mainframe career.
So about eight months ago when I joined IBM and prior to that,
I graduated college-- and I sent out job applications everywhere.
We all know how that goes.
And I wasn't hearing from anything.
And then I was like with my best friend
one day who happened to have an internship at IBM and then got a full time job offer.
And he said, “Well, why don't I forward your resume along?
See what happens.” I said, “Okay, sure,
why not?” Sent him the resume.
And then a few weeks later
I got an email from Rosalind saying, “Hey, why don't we chat?
I'll send you some contacts.” Yeah, and you got to talk to
a number of people on the team about what they were doing, right?
Yeah. And it was fascinating.
Before that, I didn't really know what the mainframe was
besides this ancient technology
that my parents use when they were kids.
Or it was something that everyone was
kind of questioning me on about why I was even entertaining this job offer.
But what made you finally decide to actually take the job?
Well, when we were talking with your contacts, people like Frank and Jerry.
they were so excited about the technology and they were explaining
how impactful it is on society-- how
like on the economy and government, just private organizations.
So many people use mainframe.
And that got me excited to work on a technology that's impactful. And
looking at Jerry and Frank-- they're on the older side
and they kind of represented where I thought the mainframe developer was.
So I saw a lot of opportunity for myself to grow in this role.
You mean we're old and we're going to retire?
And so you can take over for all those jobs?
Your words, not mine!
Yeah. But I understand that we do need a variety of ages
as part of the industry to help make sure it grows.
Okay, so now you're here.
How did it-- how did you work out with that?
What did it turn out like?
Easier than I thought it would be.
A lot of stuff I learned in college applied to the mainframe,
which I was not expecting at all.
I thought I'd have to learn this really old archaic language
or work on like those old black and green screens.
But no, I can use VS code.
I use Python almost exclusively,
the [Eclipse] z/OS Explorer, which I had exposure to in college.
I'm able to use that.
The hardest part is all the Z terminology,
which I can just ask my teammates
or I can ask you or anyone else within the vicinity.
It's kind of unique to sit next to you
so you can answer those questions, and it's kind of fun.
It's also good for me
because I get to learn more about how you see the environment
and you see the mainframe and how you're working with it.
Now let's talk to everybody else.
How would you suggest they get started in a mainframe career?
Be open to it.
People are going to come to you
and they're going to say, “Why on earth are you doing this?
No one will be using it in ten years.”
Don't take their word at face value.
Do your own research.
Find out for yourself how important this technology is.
Second, when you do decide
that you want to pursue this career,
don't be intimidated by all the acronyms.
There are so many acronyms.
You can Google that--it's fine.
You can ask people--it's fine. Ask questions.
Don't be afraid to go to your teammates or anyone else
if you're in the office.
Don't be afraid to look around you and say, “Hey,
what does ISPF mean?” Or any other acronym or any other
just vocab word that you don't know because no one here
expects you to know everything about Z right off the bat.
And that was a huge comfort for me going in.
Ask question!.
And if you are one of the people that someone is asking a question to--be patient.
They may ask dumb questions,
apparently no question’s a dumb question and be patient.
They're going to have follow up questions and they're just trying to learn.
So be excited to learn.
Be open to questions.
Everything will be fine.
And that's really important when we think about this.
No matter what job you take,
you need to be a continuous learner for your lifetime.
I learn new things every day.
Talking to newer people who've come into the industry
as well as technology continues to change.
But the mainframe is a critical part of our world.
It runs the economy.
And it's time to take a look at the mainframe today
and see the opportunities that are there.
Thanks for watching.
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