Harry has a good point. I am a 26 year old in the mainframe world, and came into an internship with the US DoD while in my Junior Year of college. I have seen, from the younger generation view that he pointed out, a fair amount of the dismissive and condescending attitudes in some of the seniors that I have worked with. That being said, there are also quite a few seniors that I have had the fortune of working with that have had quite the opposite affect on me personally, and they are the reason that I have, for a bit more than 5 years now stuck with a career working with z/OS. Maybe I am among the outliers in the research study alluded to, but I feel that all fields have a fair amount of people in both positions: those willing to share and listen, and those that are still trying to live the glory days of old being very quick to dismiss any new ideas...so I'm not sure that that is unique to the demographics of the z/OS Systems Programmer groups.
That said, maybe I was just fortunate that I found my internship and first post-college job within the Federal Government in which it is nearly impossible to get fired, thus making change and new ideas/people not as much of a threat as in private industry. Thanks; Nathan Pfister zOS Systems Programmer AES\PHEAA - Tech Services From: "Harry Wahl" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Date: 01/06/2014 01:34 PM Subject: Scary Sysprogs; was: Is the oner of IBM-Main still with us? Sent by: "IBM Mainframe Discussion List" <[email protected]> Interesting segue this thread has taken... I recently attended an IBM meeting which addressed why young people are eschewing an IBM z/OS mainframe career in favor of other platforms, including other IBM platforms. This seems to be a very serious concern at IBM and possibly the greatest threat to the future of z/OS. The speaker was a woman from IBM who had been tasked by IBM management to study this. She presented selected conclusions from her assignment. Some results were what one would expect, many results were unexpected or at least not typically considered in the context of z/OS's continued viability. One of the top reasons graduating students from the best universities will not accept a position working on z/OS is how they feel they are (or will be) treated by z/OS "old-timers," particularly systems programmers. This conclusion is supported by other data indicating that students who co-op'ed or interned in z/OS positions are far more likely to reject z/OS as a career as opposed to those graduates who have no experience with the z/OS environment (technically and socially). The prevailing conjecture for this phenomena is the relatively advanced age of z/OS people. There seems to be a phase in one's life and career where there is a natural desire to mentor young people. It is a time when young people are not your competition (you have accepted that you are no longer one of them) and you are aware of the knowledge and insights your work experiences have imbued you with and wish to express and share them with someone who can both appreciate and benefit from them. This phase eventually passes...obviously. The average age of z/OS people is far beyond the average age of other platforms' people. It is understandable that a bright graduating student, bursting with ideas and proud of his education, would do anything to avoid working with a group they perceive as dismissive, condescending and disrespectful curmudgeons. Memories of being chased off lawns by grumpy old men are still fresh in their minds. On occasion, I lecture at top universities and my small experience interacting with students bears this out. Students are in awe of IBM's technology (and they should be), but they don't want to work at any job where regaling tales of "glory days" of the past eclipses discussing bright new ideas from fresh minds. Students graduating now don't consider IBM mainframe technology as old and dying. They're too young to even remember the prognostications of the mainframe's demise. They fear the ancient guardians of the technology will simply stifle what they could do with it. Harry > Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 10:39:20 -0600 > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Is the oner of IBM-Main still with us? > To: [email protected] > > On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 10:29 AM, Aled Hughes <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Sorry Ed, but you need to lighten up or think about what/how you write. > > The SysProgs of yore have long dropped their 'angry young men' stance. > > This Forum is thankfully a witness to that. > > > > The "Angry young men" have been replaced by the "PIssed off old farts" > <grin/>. Jeff Dunham's "Walter" character is our leader. <GRIN> > > > > > > ALH > > > > > > > > > -- > This is clearly another case of too many mad scientists, and not enough > hunchbacks. > > Maranatha! <>< > John McKown > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN This message contains privileged and confidential information intended for the above addressees only. If you receive this message in error please delete or destroy this message and/or attachments. The sender of this message will fully cooperate in the civil and criminal prosecution of any individual engaging in the unauthorized use of this message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
