RE: Mainframe Operators Needed (Article)

~~~http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/26/2215229&mode=thread&tid=126
~~~
~~~Thoughts?
~~~
~~~I am 23 and LOVE the As... I mean iSeries. Is it true in the
~~~AS/400 world as
~~~well? I know there are many younger people out there. But
~~~how does that
~~~compare to the "experienced ones"?
~~~
~~~Mike Wills
~~~iSeries Programmer

Mike,
I would say Yes, but the need is different, and I don't have first hand data
of this, just babbling.
I have worked in 3 data centers with mainframes.
2 with a well managed staff and one with untrained operations/winging too
many things. None recently.
What happened was, in the less prepared shop, the most valuable folks end up
doing too much grunt work.
These days I think both sides, management and staff kind of expect you to
"smile and like it" when they hand you the beeper. Just because of the
factual parts of the article.

I do know some folks in some medium and small iSeries shops. I can't think
of one with an operator that does not have other jobs, CL programmer, LAN
technician, you name it. (I am waiting on the list for input from a large
shop lister)
A selling point of iSeries has always been low-maint, "self running
computer"
Traditionally, mainframes need planning and scheduling to change anything.
Perhaps changed in the last few years, but most changes needed an IPL to do
things we take for granted on the iSeries and are plug-n-play on windows.

Things that struck me in the article?
Quantity 2 needed? We can't train 2 people?
What is their reputation? Is pay a notch above food stamps? (they should be
concerned)
Massive stress little reward situation at that company?
There is such a difference between mainframe babysitter and systems
programmer, that the article can not be weighed by me.
The senior techies around any company can train operators. Whoever is the
system programmer is the one who should be caring.
Operations make his/her job easy or harder.
Document, document, document. That would precede anything if I found myself
in those shoes.
Mergers make people wish they documented operations also.
Personally, I think it can all be done internally in a motivating way. A
person close to me has first hand experience of this, she is not a techy at
heart, but has filled the shoes of a new retiree/lifelong mainframe techy
without a glitch. The keys to make this happen in a usual way:
1) Pay & reward
2) professionalism /teamwork
3) Documentation
...where you don't have to go whining to a computer magazine
I can take any interested techy and show him a future on any IBM platform.

The concerned companies might should just change the job description, like
everybody else.

The automation tools have come a long long way, the theory was "lights out
operation", another thing they are probably too cheap to employ. I never
believed "lights out" was achievable but I believe it means the difference
between double staff and double training needs, and staff turnover for
mundane tasks.

Another thing everyone said is that ops is a dead end job. I say; if you say
so. Not worth commenting to the naysayers.

Everything is subject to change, and the article is a very narrow view.
Training is THE issue everywhere.
Another view, if they are retiring at the company, it is probably a better
than average company, they have not left.
Good benefits? So that speaks to me, that they might have a point I should
listen to.

Most people can't cut it with non-Gui iSeries or mainframe, and we just have
more computers now (smile) than ever.
Operations in NOT mundane compared to programming or watching grass grow.
The speaker in the article about mundane, never had a production job
watching widgets go by month after month.

I don't think I would appreciate the staying power of a platform without
"getting around" to different companies and platforms. AIX, point of sale,
mainframe, iSeries, clients(PC's) all have a place right?


Just my thoughts and babbling,
Mark Villa in Charleston SC