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Cobol Job Market Heating Up

Posted by timothy on from the dress-the-part-at-the-interview dept.

snydeq writes "Developers seeking job security in the years ahead could find an unlikely edge in Cobol. According to an InfoWorld report, demand for Cobol skills is surging, with salaries on the rise. More importantly, the short supply of offshore Cobol programmers and the fact that mainframes aren't going away anytime soon are spurring longevity for big-iron skills, with many companies looking to hire in-house Cobol pros to bridge mainframe Cobol apps to the rest of the enterprise. The report provides further evidence that Cobol may indeed be primed for a comeback, with new kinds of Cobol integration jobs emerging to prove old-guard skills are critical to some of the hottest areas of software development today."

22 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Write that shit for a living??? by tha_mink · · Score: 5, Funny

    Kill me.

    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
    1. Re:Write that shit for a living??? by TheNinjaroach · · Score: 5, Funny

      How about we just mod you down instead?

      --
      I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
    2. Re:Write that shit for a living??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Edsger Dijkstra remarked that "The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense".. From Wikipedia.

  2. This is why I'm keeping my Coldfusion skills up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or as I refer to it "COBOL of the 90s"

  3. Hand me my walker, it's time to get paid by AppyPappy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cue up the Theme from Shaft, I'm ready to walk that aisle. Twenty-eight years later, I am ready for my place in the sun. You bunch of Java-smoking hippies make a hole cause I'm coming through. I told you that personal microcomputers were a flash in the pan. Take your Winchester drives and Hercules graphics and shove em up your ass. Big Iron is here to stay.

    Dammit, where are my car keys? Honey, where are the keys to the Citation?

    --

    If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem

  4. Re:How do people learn it? by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Funny

    COBOL SYNTAX TURNS MANY NOOBS AWAY BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS YELLING AT THEM.

    That's why the only people who can stand to work with it are elderly who are hard of hearing.

  5. Re:How do people learn it? by truthsearch · · Score: 3, Funny

    To learn how to program on Linux years ago I scrapped together some used computer parts, put together a Linux system, and dove into code.

    So to learn Cobol I guess I'd go dumpster diving for a mainframe. Hopefully one with some code left on it.

    --
    Developers: We can use your help.
  6. Yeesh! by Benfea · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other news, Cthulu has risen and has started eating nuns.

  7. I think you meant by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    SUBTRACT 1 FROM WS-OLD-KARMA GIVING WS-NEW-KARMA.

    There, fixed that for you.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:I think you meant by nschubach · · Score: 2, Funny

      You forgot your PIC statements!

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    2. Re:I think you meant by killmofasta · · Score: 2, Funny

      ADD 1 FROM WS-BAD-KARMA GIVING WS-MOD-PARENT.

      Dude! Im so there! Where is my $120?

  8. Re:Why is Cobol still alive? by McSnarf · · Score: 5, Funny

    The thing is - most mainframe custoemrs kept up with hardware changes. Old code written on a 370 will still run (as binary) on modern mainframe hardware, which will, of course, run circles around the usual unix box and floss it's teeth with ripped-off heads of web designers.

  9. What am I Bid, What am I bid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Somewhere I have a 1970's vintage Cobol text book. Any takers?

    1. Re:What am I Bid, What am I bid? by killmofasta · · Score: 2, Funny

      and I HaVe A FIREPLACE! Lets BURN IT!

  10. time flies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is it 9999 already???

  11. Re:How do people learn it? by plasmacutter · · Score: 3, Funny

    Then Oreilly should be an excellent start..

    SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  12. Re:How do people learn it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    *doosh* <--- You

  13. It's a trick! by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I used to joke about "Visual Cobol" being the next big thing in computer languages... that is, until I learned that it's a real product!
    I still think this is a trick to get all those Chinese and Indian software engineers to train for a worthless language, so we can get our old jobs back...

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  14. Re:Why is Cobol still alive? by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Have you seen the documentation for those legacy systems?

    Neither has anyone else!

    Trust me, porting code you don't understand is not an option.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  15. Re:How do people learn it? by mrops · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just make sure the mainframe is energy star rated. You don't want it trickling electricity when in sleep mode....

    If you do buy one, let me know, I wanna start up a hydro business in your neighborhood.

  16. Re:How do people learn it? by PaneerParantha · · Score: 2, Funny

    That is soooo unstructured.
    Rewrite your procedure division thusly.
    PERFORM INITIALIZATION
    PERFORM MAIN-LOGIC
    STOP RUN
    .

    (notice the structured period?)

  17. Re:How do people learn it? by DrCode · · Score: 2, Funny

    Woohoo! Finally a use for that CapsLock key!