Re: COBOL to Java conversion

On 30 Oct, 23:46, Robert <n...@xxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:55:20 -0600, Howard Brazee <how...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:37:53 -0600, Robert <n...@xxxxxx> wrote:

So if you're investing into your career, I would not be focussing on COBOL.

Agreed. Go for Java. In a few years it'll be something else.

Which means - don't market yourself (to yourself or your boss) as a
Java programmer. Define your skills more broadly towards your
contributions to your business.

Job ads don't ask for business contributions, they ask for a bucket of technical skills.
Here's a typical, randomly selected ad:

We are seeking someone with the following skills:

Required-
5+ Years Micro Focus COBOL & Pro-Cobol
3+ Years UNIX & shell script
Oracle 9i or above with background in the following features: SQL,
Pro-SQL, Tables, Views, etc.

Knowledge or Experience
Mainframe JCL
Micro Focus Workbench
Pro-C
Software Design Lifecycle ? ESDm a plus

They seem to be light on the requirements. I have seen job ads for
experienced hands-off project managers who needed to be able to code
(what happened to hands-off?), act as a design authority, problem
resolve in several computing languages...etc....etc... and only paid
around $40,000 pa.

.