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I’m aware of a couple people at health systems/hospitals that work maybe 400 hours/year making $500k+/year. Experts in legacy languages, specifically COBOL and

by zxexz 2y ago

I’m aware of a couple people at health systems/hospitals that work maybe 400 hours/year making $500k+/year. Experts in legacy languages, specifically COBOL and MUMPS. For legacy billing and EMR/EHR and related systems code, respectfully. One guy gets flown out to the east coast from his ”chateau” in Utah every month or two; the only downside is he’s on-call pretty much all year round. I’ve heard banks have people like this on-site too but I’ve never met any.

epgui 2y ago
> respectfully I think you mean "respectively"
- zxexz 2y ago
  You are right! Though I do have immense respect for those languages - not love, but respect. The way one respects a grouchy aging tiger. Not extinct, its ilk will be around forever, and I don’t want to be the one caring for it.
  - seabass-labrax 2y ago
    Your comment reminded me of a certain other tiger that one might want to be careful around..! https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/05/26 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/05/26
barryrandall 2y ago
Multiple airlines do this as well.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
rqtwteye 2y ago
I have heard/read of these people but people I know who work at hospitals doing MUMPS get paid very little. Same for COBOL programmers. There are some mythical people who make bank but most COBOL guys make way less than the typical JS guy.
- chaostheory 2y ago
  Are they the original employees who started decades ago? If so, that’s no surprise. My aunt was in the same position years ago, despite my attempts to update her on modern salaries. Those awesome salaries tend to be paid to mercenaries and not the lifers.
  - rqtwteye 2y ago
    And only to a very small subset of the mercenaries. Most institutions that hire COBOL or MUMPS people can't fathom paying a lowly "IT" guy that much money. They prefer to hire some cheap offshore guys.
kayge 2y ago
As a 30-something "full stack web developer" who has also spent the last 3-4 years learning about IBM i (aka AS/400) servers and the CL and RPG programming languages... I have a glimmer of hope that I might move into a gig like that in my twilight years of employment :)
- ecshafer 2y ago
  I highly doubt that those gigs will exist in the future, or will become even rare than they are. The big banks and financial companies are making a decent effort to get rid of those legacy systems (but are on decade + time scales). They also are weary to even hire new people in those stacks, and are increasingly relying on contractors through places like TCS that will put people through bootcamps. I know several places that have the policy of no new cobol code, only maintenance. These people with the ludicrous salaries, I assume are consultants, or have even more niche specific and rare skills beyond just COBOL and JCL and RPG or whatever, probably with specific, ancient implementations on ancient machines.

by zxexz 2y ago

epgui 2y ago

> respectfully I think you mean "respectively"

zxexz 2y ago
You are right! Though I do have immense respect for those languages - not love, but respect. The way one respects a grouchy aging tiger. Not extinct, its ilk will be around forever, and I don’t want to be the one caring for it.
- seabass-labrax 2y ago
  Your comment reminded me of a certain other tiger that one might want to be careful around..! https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/05/26 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/05/26

barryrandall 2y ago

Multiple airlines do this as well.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

rqtwteye 2y ago

I have heard/read of these people but people I know who work at hospitals doing MUMPS get paid very little. Same for COBOL programmers. There are some mythical people who make bank but most COBOL guys make way less than the typical JS guy.

chaostheory 2y ago
Are they the original employees who started decades ago? If so, that’s no surprise. My aunt was in the same position years ago, despite my attempts to update her on modern salaries. Those awesome salaries tend to be paid to mercenaries and not the lifers.
- rqtwteye 2y ago
  And only to a very small subset of the mercenaries. Most institutions that hire COBOL or MUMPS people can't fathom paying a lowly "IT" guy that much money. They prefer to hire some cheap offshore guys.

kayge 2y ago

As a 30-something "full stack web developer" who has also spent the last 3-4 years learning about IBM i (aka AS/400) servers and the CL and RPG programming languages... I have a glimmer of hope that I might move into a gig like that in my twilight years of employment :)

ecshafer 2y ago
I highly doubt that those gigs will exist in the future, or will become even rare than they are. The big banks and financial companies are making a decent effort to get rid of those legacy systems (but are on decade + time scales). They also are weary to even hire new people in those stacks, and are increasingly relying on contractors through places like TCS that will put people through bootcamps. I know several places that have the policy of no new cobol code, only maintenance. These people with the ludicrous salaries, I assume are consultants, or have even more niche specific and rare skills beyond just COBOL and JCL and RPG or whatever, probably with specific, ancient implementations on ancient machines.