Re: Declining Cobol job market



<klshafer@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:73e1d0b1-d01b-4800-96f8-ce3bb2db575f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Aug 28, 3:55 pm, "William M. Klein" <wmkl...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Who besides Robert, and DocDwarf, and I are contractors? :-)

Me. But only for the last 30 years, so it may have escaped your notice :-)

Before I was managing projects on contract and providing advice to
corporations on contract, I was programming computers on contract (mostly in
COBOL, because that's where the money was, and because I really liked COBOL
best, of the languages I knew...)

I think you made some good points about different strokes for different
folks, and I completely agree that there is a different mindset required for
contracting or permanent.

(And I don't think one is "superior"to the other, although I would never
work full time for a corporation because it doesn't suit the criteria that I
personally require to do the job.)

Of course, "permanent" isn't, and hasn't been for decades. I have seen
people who gave their lives to corporations fired without compunction when
it suited the company. Business is business. Anyone who thinks they have a
"job for life" either has a very short life expectancy or is deluding
themselves.

Cobol as a technology is declining mainly because it doesn't well fit
today's networking requirements (although there are many other reasons as
well.) As the language declines, so will the job opportunities; it is
inevitable, and has nothing to do with "contract" or "permanent" status, or
people's perceptions of what they used to get and can't any more.

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL... now I can do anything."




.

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