Re: Question concerning entry level programmer skills

I am what you may consider an entry level RPG programmer, 40+ years old,
with but a mere 1.5 years in the industry, and it is for the very
reasons you suggest that I got into the AS/400 community.

First, every person enterring the IT arena seem to beleive the only
opportunities exist in the perceived glitz languages(C++, VB, Java and
what ever else Microsoft decides to add to their developer studio) but I
continually saw ads for AS/400 programmers, so I began to investigate
this arena.  

During the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan there was mention of the
AS/400 being used to power the official web site and mention that
although the site was averaging better than 1million hits per day no
problems were attributed to the AS/400.  I figured if a machine could
hold up like this it must be a solid box.

The rest as they say is history, I took a total of three AS/400 related
classes(AS/400 Intro, RPG-1, and DB@/400-1) at the community college,
and placed my resume on the web.  Within 6 months from starting my first
class I was hired to my present position.  

There are entry level opportunities out there, my advice would be to
study up on subfiles, then study subfiles, and once you've done this,
study subfiles.

Well I think I have rambled lonng enough so I will bid a hearty "so
long"..

Mark A McCarty
New Campaign/Polo Leathergoods
  

Imaginor@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Are you insinuating that there exists young people emerging from college with
> RPG educations? Why? There are so many exciting career challenges available
> in information technology today and none of them include RPG - related
> environments. Oh, you might be able to drum up a few exceptions but generally
> speaking, the action has shifted rather noticeably into the world of java,
> fusion and flash.
> 
> Hey, I am an RPG - System 3x - 400 veteran of 20 years and feel the '400 is
> the best box in any market...but i haven't found any young, or old, entry
> level RPG programmers since the mid-90's. And with more and more educational
> institutions dropping RPG as a curriculum, the situation doesn't appear to be
> improving.
> 
> Hey Hey, My My...RPG must never die!!
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