3 ms·

For enough money they will find someone willing to learn COBOL.

by rsj_hn 5y ago

ctdonath 5y ago
Will they learn enough COBOL to be worth the money? Seeing how hard it is to find good mobile developers, and having lived in a COBOL shop back in the heyday, I don’t see a meaningful number of talented “show me the money” types passing up modern tech for antiques.
JohnBooty 5y ago
Maybe, or maybe not. Suppose you accept 1.5x or 2x or even 3x your annual salary to take a COBOL job. Nice... for now. What happens in 2, 5, or 10 years when this COBOL gig ends? Now your skills have withered or disappeared and you're 2, 5, or 10 years behind when it comes to "modern" technologies where 99.9% of the job opportunities are. In a sense, that COBOL job is a gamble. You are gambling that you can ride that sucker until retirement. Of course there are other possibilities. You could sock most of that extra $$$ away and spend a year retraining yourself, or something, if/when that COBOL job ends. Or whatever.
- itronitron 5y ago
  I'd rather learn COBOL and get paid 2x salary for the next 5 years than learn some BS JS framework that I'll have to forget in the same timeframe.
  - dntrkv 5y ago
    React has been around for 8 years and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
    - roenxi 5y ago
      Staking a career on something that has existed for only 8 years is a huge gamble. Most people build careers around concepts and tools that have existed anywhere from decades to millennia.
- haroldp 5y ago
  > What happens in 2, 5, or 10 years when this COBOL ends? What happens in 1 or 2 years when the current hottest new full-stack, mvc, reactive 3.0 whatever is old and tired and you have to learn the new thing? You learn the new thing.
  - stickfigure 5y ago
    In fairness, the new things tend to build on top of each other. You can get off and on the treadmill but it comes with a cost.
  - JohnBooty 5y ago
    Sorry, I forgot a word there. Post now edited. I meant, "when this COBOL gig ends", not "when this COBOL ends" which is what I initially typed. I agree that COBOL will outlive a lot of these modern flash-in-the-pan frameworks. However, the number of COBOL jobs will dwindle over time, and if I took a theoretical COBOL job today it's not clear to me that I would be particularly employable if/when that job ended. Particularly if I am unable/unwilling to relocate as I suspect COBOL jobs may be much less likely to be remote. Whereas, in comparison, if one stays current in Ruby/Python/JS/.NET/Java then one's prospects would remain strong for the forseeable future. "Staying current" on the tech treadmill is of course its own special hell, but it is probably the safer road. What happens in 1 or 2 years when the current hottest new full-stack, mvc, reactive 3.0 whatever is old and tired and you have to learn the new thing? You learn the new thing. OK, but how employable are you at that point? It's going to take some significant effort to catch back up. Perhaps more crucially, your resume is not going to be appealing to potential employers. If they're looking for hotshots in the latest framework, do you think they're going to look kindly upon a candidate who's spent the last X years working with COBOL? There are ways to address that, such as getting up to speed in Trendy Framework XYZ and making some portfolio pieces, open source contributions, etc. But, that's not always a smooth road.
    - chopin 5y ago
      >OK, but how employable are you at that point? >It's going to take some significant effort to catch back up. You got 2x (or whatever) the salary until then. That should give you plenty of time to catch up. Currently anybody is employed anyways if one knows how to use a keyboard. I don't think that is ending anytime soon.

For enough money they will find someone willing to learn COBOL.

by rsj_hn 5y ago

For enough money they will find someone willing to learn COBOL.

Will they learn enough COBOL to be worth the money? Seeing how hard it is to find good mobile developers, and having lived in a COBOL shop back in the heyday, I don’t see a meaningful number of talented “show me the money” types passing up modern tech for antiques.

JohnBooty 5y ago

Maybe, or maybe not. Suppose you accept 1.5x or 2x or even 3x your annual salary to take a COBOL job. Nice... for now. What happens in 2, 5, or 10 years when this COBOL gig ends? Now your skills have withered or disappeared and you're 2, 5, or 10 years behind when it comes to "modern" technologies where 99.9% of the job opportunities are. In a sense, that COBOL job is a gamble. You are gambling that you can ride that sucker until retirement. Of course there are other possibilities. You could sock most of that extra $$$ away and spend a year retraining yourself, or something, if/when that COBOL job ends. Or whatever.

itronitron 5y ago
I'd rather learn COBOL and get paid 2x salary for the next 5 years than learn some BS JS framework that I'll have to forget in the same timeframe.
- dntrkv 5y ago
  React has been around for 8 years and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
  - roenxi 5y ago
    Staking a career on something that has existed for only 8 years is a huge gamble. Most people build careers around concepts and tools that have existed anywhere from decades to millennia.
haroldp 5y ago
> What happens in 2, 5, or 10 years when this COBOL ends? What happens in 1 or 2 years when the current hottest new full-stack, mvc, reactive 3.0 whatever is old and tired and you have to learn the new thing? You learn the new thing.
- stickfigure 5y ago
  In fairness, the new things tend to build on top of each other. You can get off and on the treadmill but it comes with a cost.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  Sorry, I forgot a word there. Post now edited. I meant, "when this COBOL gig ends", not "when this COBOL ends" which is what I initially typed. I agree that COBOL will outlive a lot of these modern flash-in-the-pan frameworks. However, the number of COBOL jobs will dwindle over time, and if I took a theoretical COBOL job today it's not clear to me that I would be particularly employable if/when that job ended. Particularly if I am unable/unwilling to relocate as I suspect COBOL jobs may be much less likely to be remote. Whereas, in comparison, if one stays current in Ruby/Python/JS/.NET/Java then one's prospects would remain strong for the forseeable future. "Staying current" on the tech treadmill is of course its own special hell, but it is probably the safer road. What happens in 1 or 2 years when the current hottest new full-stack, mvc, reactive 3.0 whatever is old and tired and you have to learn the new thing? You learn the new thing. OK, but how employable are you at that point? It's going to take some significant effort to catch back up. Perhaps more crucially, your resume is not going to be appealing to potential employers. If they're looking for hotshots in the latest framework, do you think they're going to look kindly upon a candidate who's spent the last X years working with COBOL? There are ways to address that, such as getting up to speed in Trendy Framework XYZ and making some portfolio pieces, open source contributions, etc. But, that's not always a smooth road.
  - chopin 5y ago
    >OK, but how employable are you at that point? >It's going to take some significant effort to catch back up. You got 2x (or whatever) the salary until then. That should give you plenty of time to catch up. Currently anybody is employed anyways if one knows how to use a keyboard. I don't think that is ending anytime soon.