r/mainframe

Has anyone here led or participated in a mainframe apprenticeship program? Looking for info on how organizations have structured and implemented programs to attract and incentivize new mainframe talent, whether that be recent college grads or career changers. 

I have read about IBM’s program but would like to know what others are doing to get more professionals in the door and keep them there.

I’m curious what the current market looks like for z/OS Systems Programmers.
I have about 3 years of experience as a z/OS Systems Programmer and am trying to figure out what a reasonable salary range would be for my experience level.

Not looking for exact numbers for any specific company—just trying to understand where I should realistically fall in the market.

Hello good day! Anyone knows any mainframe positions which is remote?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for real-world feedback on Mainframe salaries in Toronto. All experiences are welcome, regardless of the number of years of experience, but I’d particularly appreciate feedback from people with around 3 years of experience.

For context, I’m interested in roles involving technologies such as:

COBOL

JCL

CICS

TSO/ISPF

IBM RDz / Developer for z/OS

Endevor

CICS Web Services

CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG)

IBM MQ

Batch / production management

TWS/OPC or other scheduling tools

ServiceNow / production incident management

Other relevant Mainframe technologies

I’d love to hear from people currently working in Toronto, whatever their experience level.

If you're comfortable sharing, it would be great to know:

Your years of Mainframe experience

Your current salary / salary range

Your main technologies

Whether you work for a bank, insurance company, consulting company, etc.

Permanent employee or contractor

Any other compensation (bonus, benefits, etc.)

I’m mainly trying to get a sense of the actual market salary range in Toronto, rather than just relying on job postings.

Thanks in advance — all feedback is welcome!

Anyone else being pulled into discussions around introducing IBM Bob into their shop?

These AI endeavors so tight lipped and esoteric by my management - I suspect because they have no idea what the are getting themselves into.

Hi everyone, I have 3 YEO in Assembler z/tpf.now for past 6 months moved in z/os Assembler, JCL realted roles tell me whether I stayed here in mainframe or move to any other roles

I got a mainframe production support role at a reputed MNC.

My manager asked me to learn COBOL first..the tech stack will most likely be COBOL, JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM.

Is this basic or if I can master all of the mentioned stuff I can shine in this field? I'm thinking of a career in mainframe, want to switch to mainframe dev, can you tell me what shld I learn to become a mainframe dev? What roles are popular in mainframe space??

Hi, i'm relatively new in the mainframe world. Am I the only one who thinks the mainframe discussion is often one-sided?

Everyone talks about IBM Z's reliability, security, and the fact that many of the world's most critical systems still run on mainframes. That's all true.

But why don't we talk more about vendor lock-in and pricing power?

The cost of moving away from a mainframe is often so high that customers have limited negotiating leverage. And on the storage side, it feels like IBM can introduce requirements and standards that make life increasingly difficult for third-party vendors, while strengthening their own position in the ecosystem.

I am cics programmer for 2 years. Trying to switch.

I don't have handson exp on cics upgrades. All companies asking for cics upgrades.

I got to know some steps from online. But those setting up zones and sysmods are completely related to z/os .

Can anyone share complete steps for cics upgrades. What cics team can do. I have an interview tomorrow.

​

I got my first job as an Application Developer, but my role is z/OS (CICS).

I'm a bit worried because it's a legacy/mainframe stack, while most fresher advice seems to focus on Java, Python, cloud, etc.

Is starting my career with CICS/mainframe a bad move? Can I realistically switch to modern backend/cloud roles after 1–2 years?

For people who've worked with mainframes — would you take this role as a fresher, or try to avoid it?

So far I’ve learned the basics, now they are teaching Zowe and Python, how can I get into DevOps development for the mainframe?

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!!

One of the presenters this week indicated that their mainframe shop is “more so Waterfall than Agile”.  Since I have over 20 years in Waterfall, and only limited hands-on involvement in Agile, I found that information to be “promising”.  Which leads me to the following questions:

a.  Is it true that mainframe shops tend to “lean towards Waterfall”?

b.  If not, do certain high-level, specialized efforts, such as “modernization”, “acquisitions/mergers/migrations”, AI deployments, and someday perhaps Quantum deployments better fit the Waterfall model?

c.  What high-level efforts are more so suited to Agile?

Hi, is this r/mainframe the best choice to ask questions about creating custom ISPF panels?

I want to build REXX tools for our department and centralize their usage through custom made ISPF panels that I will create. Its been a very long time last time I did any.

Is this r/mainframe my best choice to ask questions about coding/compiling/using assembler codes?

I used to love assembler but that was over 20 years ago. I am thinking about maybe getting back to it.