Won't comment on this article or it's relevance for current professionals..but did have an interesting conversation with a fellow who had been working with main

Won't comment on this article or it's relevance for current professionals..but did have an interesting conversation with a fellow who had been working with mainframes forever in a small colo in Norcross Ga. He noted that his maintenance|upgrade work on legacy mainframes and architectures were typically week long affairs that brought him about 8-10K. He also noted that he knew all of the people in the US who could perform that work by name.