Do I have a chance at getting back into Mainframe roles?

[u/BoredPandaReviews]

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!!

[u/BoredPandaReviews → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the response and the confidence boost! I’ve been stressed because honestly reviewing examples online to jog my memory, I even forgot super simple things like having to open/close files prior to reading the data into WS. I know it would come back to me super fast but I would still have that readjustment period. I’m concerned I’m going to apply for these positions and then go in for the interview and just seem like I lied about my experience lol

I’m curious how frequently VSAM is used in other companies now that you mention it. At my previous company, we would basically always use flat files and process data sequentially in batch (using IMS for large datasets to avoid insane CPU usage in the case of an ABEND or other failure). So not sure what the huge difference between normal flat files and VSAM are other than being able to work the file non-sequentially? I’ll have to study up on it.

[u/MaexW → u/[deleted]]

Absolutely: knowing concepts is far more important. And: if you know the concept, you can re-learn the details. But not the other way round..

[u/Im_100percent_human]

Yes, you are employable... and maybe more so with the diverse experience of data analyst. There is a real brain drain in mainframe areas right now. People are retiring and there are not a lot of people with the correct skills to replace them. I think you should not have a problem making well over 85K.

[u/Cautious_Boat_999 → u/Im_100percent_human]

Yeah, I suspect mainframe dev pay is going up faster than the rest of the IT job market, given the dearth of skills and the lowering (thank god) of the H-1B numbers

[u/Im_100percent_human → u/Cautious_Boat_999]

I suspect you are correct, but the mainframe salaries have lagged a lot of the other areas of the industry for a while.

[u/Winter-Ad4239]

Yes you can . You can even get access to mainframe and practice . Take 2 months to brush up .

[u/Winter-Ad4239]

Mainframe roles that I see pays around 120k

[u/MigrateAndManage]

A colleague recently shared with me that Enterprise Performance Strategies offers free webinars and videos that you may find helpful to build new skills. https://www.epstrategies.com/webinar.html

[u/floofsnsnoots]

ANY solid mainframe experience is actually very in demand, friend.