Re: How to advance my learning as an Operator -- MIDRANGE-L

Rob, please don't even consider taking even a "mild risk" - you will likely get fired. A company that is as security-conscious as you suggest is not to be trifled with.

Is your manager/supervisor approachable about furthering your knowledge? But you can't expect to learn on their nickel without some permission.

I worked some time ago at a place, as a temp, on a Sys/36 using the word processing stuff.. They got nervous when I came in early. I _was_ trying to do some word processing for myself and probably looked guilty. I probably tried to justify it as learning stuff. Tough lesson - I learned something, alright!

In this market, be glad you have work. You already know how tough it is - don't jeopardize what you have.

If you want to learn Java, there's all kinds of stuff that is portable to any platform. Go to Sun and get the tutorials. Get a book. Get the developer's kit from Sun.

I just ran across some stuff at IBM's site - something like iSeries College or ??? - lots of good, free presentations on various topics iSeries-wise. You could try <http://www.ibmweblectureservices.ihost.com/servlet/Gate/Login?action=load&customer=ibm&offering=lsow> when you get home or, if you don't have Internet there, at the library.

Good luck as you proceed. Tread carefully, my man!

Vern

At 06:59 PM 5/19/2003 -0700, you wrote:

Hi everyone,

Due to my being unemployed since Jan. 2003, I took a temp operators position at one of the largest Pharmaceutical company's in the world, shift work, 3 days a week, 12.5 hours per shift with an alternating Sunday, fortunately days. There are 15 AS/400's, mainframe, Win 2k, and Unix. Primary responsibilities are AS/400. The company is constantly buying up competitors and much of the Production and Development work is intergration. My work involves monitoring job completions via a checklist, tape backups via BRMS, checking for serious job halt messages and escalating. Takes up about 40-50% of my time. They are all on V5.2, some machines have websphere, MQSeries, advanced Java, DataMirror. The apps all home grown, not one package. Standard third party tools for security, bar codes, etc...The problem is what can I focus on learning that will add to my knowledge and future marketability as the programmer that I was, or as a Senior Systems Admin that I would prefer to be over this! spot? I would like to learn about Websphere but I am not sure how much I can do without a client machine. They are starting a Websphere project very shortly. I have a PC that is connected to all the systems via client access. Is this something that I can set up by myself? I probably will need to ask permission. I think that focusing on Java might be the easiest and least detectable. But I don't think I can go and create my own library. Even compiling a program in some dead library would not work. They are very security concious, but I am prepared to take a mild risk.

I am just looking for any ideas. I haven't been able to come up with much yet.
Any ideas are appreciated,
Rob