Re: Future Programmers - The future of IBM i

decryption? :-)

Here's the thing it pretty much doesn't matter what area of IT you're part of these days. Ever since Susan tagged me as the MQC for RPG (you need to know the 'M' is for Minimaly :-) ) I've basically phased that out of my repertoire as I just wasn't keeping up any longer. Instead I focus on admin and connectivity and upgrades and such.

BUT if you think I did that because admin and upgrades and PTFs have allowed me to stop learning, let me say: "Vios" "Image Catalogs" "LPAR" "HMC" "SAN" "VLAN" and a lot of other four letter words. :-)

The key with any part of IT is recognizing that knowing what you learned 10, 20, 30 years ago is helpful, and sometimes profitable, but learning MUST never stop. Once it stops your value trends downward on an increasingly steep curve.

I dare you to ask Pete Massiello, Jim Oberholtzer, Rob Berendt, Jon Paris, heck even Paul Nelson if they've learned anything in the last week. I was talking to Jim this morning and we BOTH had 'Aha' moments in the last 24 hours!

When I talk to any IT professional I can tell those who want to AND are trying to learn and those who want to coast. Coast away but I'm not very interested in your thoughts if you're on that path any longer. Thing is, lots of employers feel the same way.

So if you're not investing in educating yourself you're not just staying even you're falling behind!

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 6/14/2013 3:27 PM, Jon Paris wrote:

Oh dear two disagreements in two posts.

I'm not saying _All_ greybeards Paul - hell I'm a lot older than most of the ones I teach! But I have worked with a lot of employed greybeards who meet the decryption I used.


On 2013-06-14, at 3:19 PM, Paul Nelson <nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The graybeards are unemployed because they got outsourced. I saw 2 more
cases last week.

It's not due to their lack of desire to learn new stuff.

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013 2:16 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Future Programmers - The future of IBM i


On 2013-06-14, at 3:03 PM, Michael Ryan <michaelrtr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think there may be value in teaching
integration techniques along with modern RPG and ILE, but there are enough
graybeards around to handle the old stuff.

Sorry Michael - in my experience you're wrong.

I've talked to multiple large customers in the past 12 months who are
considering a move away form IBM i because they can't get staff. Correction
- can't get _affordable_ staff. And a large number of unemployed graybeards
just want to keep doing same old same old until they retire. These
businesses need to integrate mobile, web, etc. with what they have.
Maintenance is rarely just a fix-it issue - upgrades of existing apps are
always needed.

I have also talked to a number customers who are actively training their own
newbies - or considering developing such a program.


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com




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Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com