Look to the future
This research from the CBI once again highlights the serious skills crisis facing organisations across the
UK (Skills crisis sparks investment in IT ability).
While this has been a prevailing theme for a number of years, we are now seeing chief information officers struggling more than ever to fill specific IT roles, with those employees involved at the start of the UK software industry moving towards retirement and not enough graduates being trained to take their places.
It is heartening to see more than two-thirds of UK employers investing in initiatives to raise the level of IT proficiency among their workforce, but it is vital to set up a more sustainable framework for the future.
While investing in internal staff training is a quick fix, companies need to work closely with academia to ensure that the supply of skills meets their future demand.
Care must be taken to ensure that the focus of these efforts is not only on new technological advances, but also upon existing systems, some of which may have been in place for a number of decades.
These systems have long been the lifeblood of the organisations they serve, and a shortfall in the skills needed to maintain these could have serious implications for UK business.
Arunn Ramadoss
I do think legacy skills are required somewhat but don't think all skills are required.
I was a fairly recent graduate, and guess what I got my first job as a COBOL developer. I have been a COBOL developer for three years since graduating. I can truly say I wish I stayed away from COBOL and so should all you recent graduates.
It really doesn’t matter whether or not there are 70 billion lines of COBOL and all that other stuff; if you can’t get a job in this area (trust me I’ve been looking). All you have to do is type COBOL in a job search (and there we have it – the last time I got 40 hits) – “COBOL IS DEAD” if you want to
get a job. When you narrow down your search to say London and you only get about 7 hits – so if you want to work as a software developer stay away from COBOL.
It really doesn’t matter if some developer says “COBOL is not dead, I’ve recently got a job in COBOL”. These people probably been programming in COBOL for a life time (that’s like 25 years) so you are competing with these guys for those handful of jobs.
It really doesn’t matter if one says “there will be plenty of jobs when these old people retire and a company will give you loads of money if you have COBOL experience”. They may give people with COBOL skills loads of money to fix a bug but how often do these bugs cause faults (remember if its working don’t touch it). So you maybe sitting unemployed for years before anything goes wrong, waiting for your one off big contract payment (sounds like too much of a risky investment).
Anyway I’ve been looking for work out their and finding it very hard (almost impossible) to find a job. I am a First Class graduate and have a Masters and even with these academics three years of doing COBOL has crippled my chances. I wish I had not done COBOL and stayed with the skills (what you should be learning at university) that have jobs. I have got 3 years COBOL and someone has 3 years of Java or C or C# etc.. so I am out of the competition when looking for jobs. Don’t listen to those that say it don’t matter what the language is (because it does), all you have to do is look at the job specs (they generally mention the programming language because it really does matter).
I am now hoping to build on those skills at university and then will keep trying to apply for jobs. I am also hoping to do some courses to refresh my knowledge in areas I have neglected over the last three years (which from my experience you don’t get from COBOL and my opinion is this language should not be taught at university). Certainly its IT and you have too keep up with recently skills set (that’s RECENT!! skills set), but why get into the position I am in and many (I hope not too many) recent graduates may be in.
I know this is very negative and may not read well, but COBOL has made it very difficult for me to forward my career and I really don’t want this to happen to any other graduate.
Basically “COBOL is truly dead” if you look at it from the perspective of your career. Go out there, do the research and see the truth for yourself !!
This post
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/IT-networks-and-communications-blog/2008/04/cobol-programmers-back-in-dema.html#comment-613419
may answer any question you may have. Please read before posting questions to me.
Posted by: Peter | Tuesday, 06 May 2008 at 09:21 AM
I do think legacy skills are required somewhat but don't think all skills are required.
I was a fairly recent graduate, and guess what I got my first job as a COBOL developer. I have been a COBOL developer for three years since graduating. I can truly say I wish I stayed away from COBOL and so should all you recent graduates.
It really doesn’t matter whether or not there are 70 billion lines of COBOL and all that other stuff; if you can’t get a job in this area (trust me I’ve been looking). All you have to do is type COBOL in a job search (and there we have it – the last time I got 40 hits) – “COBOL IS DEAD” if you want to
get a job. When you narrow down your search to say London and you only get about 7 hits – so if you want to work as a software developer stay away from COBOL.
It really doesn’t matter if some developer says “COBOL is not dead, I’ve recently got a job in COBOL”. These people probably been programming in COBOL for a life time (that’s like 25 years) so you are competing with these guys for those handful of jobs.
It really doesn’t matter if one says “there will be plenty of jobs when these old people retire and a company will give you loads of money if you have COBOL experience”. They may give people with COBOL skills loads of money to fix a bug but how often do these bugs cause faults (remember if its working don’t touch it). So you maybe sitting unemployed for years before anything goes wrong, waiting for your one off big contract payment (sounds like too much of a risky investment).
Anyway I’ve been looking for work out their and finding it very hard (almost impossible) to find a job. I am a First Class graduate and have a Masters and even with these academics three years of doing COBOL has crippled my chances. I wish I had not done COBOL and stayed with the skills (what you should be learning at university) that have jobs. I have got 3 years COBOL and someone has 3 years of Java or C or C# etc.. so I am out of the competition when looking for jobs. Don’t listen to those that say it don’t matter what the language is (because it does), all you have to do is look at the job specs (they generally mention the programming language because it really does matter).
I am now hoping to build on those skills at university and then will keep trying to apply for jobs. I am also hoping to do some courses to refresh my knowledge in areas I have neglected over the last three years (which from my experience you don’t get from COBOL and my opinion is this language should not be taught at university). Certainly its IT and you have too keep up with recently skills set (that’s RECENT!! skills set), but why get into the position I am in and many (I hope not too many) recent graduates may be in.
I know this is very negative and may not read well, but COBOL has made it very difficult for me to forward my career and I really don’t want this to happen to any other graduate.
Basically “COBOL is truly dead” if you look at it from the perspective of your career. Go out there, do the research and see the truth for yourself !!
This post
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/IT-networks-and-communications-blog/2008/04/cobol-programmers-back-in-dema.html#comment-613419
may answer any question you may have. Please read before posting questions to me.
Posted by: Peter | Tuesday, 06 May 2008 at 09:22 AM