Do I have a chance at getting back into Mainframe roles?
Straight out of college, I got a job as a mainframe developer (technically APS with some COBOL). I worked as a dev and eventually an analyst over the course of about 6 years and was pretty good at it, enjoyed it, and felt fairly fulfilled.
Towards the end of those 6 years I started to feel like I was stagnating career wise and since mainframe was my first job out of college, I figured I would try a more modern position to see what it was like and got a job as a system/data analyst. I have been working here for about 4 years and I have been absolutely miserable. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the technical work, but I think it’s obvious I much preferred my mainframe role over this.
Now I want to transition back to mainframe development but the problem is, am I still going to be employable in that career path? I’m four years out of practice and have a family now so I can’t accept low wages (anything below $85k is a no go). I do technically still have experience with COBOL, CICS, JCL, Easytrieve, DB2, etc.. but was re-reviewing examples the other day to jog my memory and realized just HOW MUCH I need to go over before I’m back up to speed.
Am I still employable in the field? YWhat should I review and skills to build to increase my chances? How has AI impacted the field? Any help or advice would be appreciated!!