Spot on. I see people talking about learning COBOL or not, but as you say that's not so much the point. You really need to know how ancient mainframes work. A p

Spot on. I see people talking about learning COBOL or not, but as you say that's not so much the point. You really need to know how ancient mainframes work. A programmer can pick up the basics of COBOL soon enough, but understanding the ins and outs of zOS and the likes? Much harder, especially the more recent your tech knowledge is. Approaches to software and systems design has changed dramatically since the IBM mainframe days. If you want to make money working on old software just learn Java EE or .NET Framework or something!