not ever been a mainframe guy, but also part of the thing is not so much cobol but understanding all of the various mainframe arcana for whichever system is use

not ever been a mainframe guy, but also part of the thing is not so much cobol but understanding all of the various mainframe arcana for whichever system is used.. you might try to 'sneak in the back door' e.g. via java-on-mainframes and get systems experience on the big iron, then step slowly over to the cobol side of things..