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I've worked in the financial sector as recently as 2006. Without getting too specific, some of the financial systems I worked on underpin large sectors of the e

I've worked in the financial sector as recently as 2006. Without getting too specific, some of the financial systems I worked on underpin large sectors of the economy, across many banking chains. While Java was starting to take over these systems, thankfully the banks and regulators were hedging their bets on JEE with the knowledge that someone would eventually have to take over these systems. They were starting to think about growing an intergenerational community and started hosting applications in smaller chunks that individually comprised less risk (long before microservices was a coined term) and thinking in terms of APIS not implementations. They're not idiots. Having said that it might be good to ask your local bank how much of their systems are implemented in COBOL.

parthdesai 10y ago
Anecdotal, but my friend knew VP of Information Technology at one of the big 4 banks in Canada really well. The VP told my friend to learn COBOL and if he passed the interview, they give you a blank paper where you write down your salary.
- nickbauman 10y ago
  What this VP should have been doing was figuring out how to get out of that scenario entirely.
  - parthdesai 10y ago
    Well VP could have been exaggerating a bit as well since we were uni students back then and my friend was doing his internship there. He knew the VP through robotics.
    - gpderetta 10y ago
      Note that, in a bank, VP is not a particularly important position. A senior software developer anywhere else might have the VP title in a bank. It is very possible that your firend's friend wasn't involved in any hiring decision at all and it was just internal hearsay. Source: I'm VP at a large bank.
      - parthdesai 10y ago
        Ah could be that as well, you know better. We were just young kids (still are) and believed what he said.
  - daemin 10y ago
    Well the VP probably knew that 1) The company (couldn't afford | didn't want to spend) to build a new replacement system. 2) New people would be needed to maintain the existing system 3) Students don't know how much their services would be worth - so the amount might not be big enough as a regular engineer might charge.
- user5994461 10y ago
  And then they hire these people, starting with the lowest numbers.

parthdesai 10y ago

Anecdotal, but my friend knew VP of Information Technology at one of the big 4 banks in Canada really well. The VP told my friend to learn COBOL and if he passed the interview, they give you a blank paper where you write down your salary.

nickbauman 10y ago
What this VP should have been doing was figuring out how to get out of that scenario entirely.
- parthdesai 10y ago
  Well VP could have been exaggerating a bit as well since we were uni students back then and my friend was doing his internship there. He knew the VP through robotics.
  - gpderetta 10y ago
    Note that, in a bank, VP is not a particularly important position. A senior software developer anywhere else might have the VP title in a bank. It is very possible that your firend's friend wasn't involved in any hiring decision at all and it was just internal hearsay. Source: I'm VP at a large bank.
    - parthdesai 10y ago
      Ah could be that as well, you know better. We were just young kids (still are) and believed what he said.
- daemin 10y ago
  Well the VP probably knew that 1) The company (couldn't afford | didn't want to spend) to build a new replacement system. 2) New people would be needed to maintain the existing system 3) Students don't know how much their services would be worth - so the amount might not be big enough as a regular engineer might charge.
user5994461 10y ago
And then they hire these people, starting with the lowest numbers.