Death of the AS/400 (was Death of the RPG Programmer, List Activity)

Folks,

I'm not even going to quote a pertinent piece here, as so many were right and 
so many more were wrong on this subject.  AS/400 consulting and perm work is 
in the toilet right now, period.  Don't espouse JAVA to me, I've _GOT_ JAVA 
experience but cannot find work there.  ILE?  Yeah, right.  RPG?  
Fuhgedaboutit.  There _IS_ little to no work to be had for AS/400 
professionals right now -- contract _OR_ perm.  I am forced to swallow my 
earlier words about consultants not saving enough money to get through the 
annual "January slowdown", because said slowdown has now lasted until June.  
I saved enough for this, but I certainly don't expect everyone else to do so. 
 There are folks out there, just like you and me, that are working the census 
right now in order to feed their families.  So much for the much ballyhooed 
"high tech career".

I (and most other industry analysts) figured that, with the dissolution of 
Y2K, that companies would be screaming for help to do the stuff that they'd 
put off for the past 2-5 years.  Perhaps the e-business trend would even 
further accelerate the latter -- WRONG.  Companies are still griping about an 
IT worker shortage, but it seems that they're only interested in _LOW PAID_ 
IT workers when it actually comes down to having to hire someone.  H1-B folks 
around here earn around $55K per year -- good money, but it won't get you a 
trailer within an hour's drive of the Research Triangle for housing.  Forget 
owning a reasonably new car to navigate our complete lack of public 
transportation.

Sorry, but contracts _AND_ permanent employment on the AS/400 seem to be 
pretty much dead.  If it makes you feel any better, it appears that the other 
midrange platforms are suffering equal problems...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." -- John Wooden
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