r/cobol

I’m 19 and currently exploring different directions in software engineering. Recently I’ve become really interested in COBOL and IBM Z/mainframe systems.

I know this is kind of an unusual path in 2026, and COBOL is considered legacy tech with a higher barrier to entry compared to modern stacks. But that’s actually part of what attracts me to it — it feels niche, and I like the idea of building expertise in something not many people are learning anymore.

My thinking is that being specialized in a less common area (like mainframes, COBOL, IBM Z) could potentially be valuable long-term since a lot of critical systems still run on it, and fewer new devs are entering the space.

At the same time, I’m unsure if this is a smart move career-wise. I don’t want to box myself into something with limited growth or miss out on more modern and in-demand paths.

So I’m curious:

• Is COBOL/IBM Z still a viable career path for someone starting out today?
• What does the job market actually look like for entry-level mainframe devs in 2026?
• Would it be smarter to learn modern languages first (like Python/Java/Go) and then specialize later?
• Or is starting with COBOL/mainframe early actually an advantage?

I’m genuinely interested in the space, not just chasing job security, but I want to make a realistic decision before investing a lot of time.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi r/cobol,

Student here from Pakistan studying Theory of Programming Languages.

Just wrapped up my final project — a lexical analyzer for a language

I'm calling PyCOBOL, which is basically COBOL's structural syntax

mixed with Python's control flow keywords.

I know that sounds weird but the idea was to design a hybrid language

and build a lexer for it from scratch as a compiler design exercise.

What the lexer currently handles on the COBOL side:

- IDENTIFICATION, DATA, PROCEDURE, ENVIRONMENT DIVISIONS

- WORKING-STORAGE, FILE, LINKAGE, INPUT-OUTPUT SECTIONS

- PIC clauses with basic format validation

- Keywords like DISPLAY, MOVE, COMPUTE, PERFORM, STOP RUN

- COBOL-style identifiers with hyphens (MY-VARIABLE)

- Level numbers 01-05

My professor evaluated it and said it was good but told me to get

feedback from an actual COBOL developer — which as a student with

no industry connections is... not easy lol.

I already know the obvious gaps:

- No column position enforcement (columns 1-6, 7, 8-72)

- No COPY statements or REDEFINES

- Very limited subset of the full COBOL standard

- No parser after this — just phase 1

What I'm genuinely curious about from someone experienced:

Does our tokenization approach make sense for COBOL's structure?

Is there something fundamentally wrong about how we modeled

COBOL tokens that would matter in a real implementation?

Happy to share the code in the comments if anyone's interested.

Thanks 🙏

COBOL experts needed.
$80-$100/hr.
Independent contractor. #remote
#COBOL #jobs
Get all the details here:

t.mercor.com/XqKwH