It's hard to deny that the economy is in a slump right now. Everyone probably knows a friend or family member who has lost a job, who is struggling to pay bills or is working overtime to pay the mortgage. Hopefully that person is not you.
I am sure there are mainframe companies out there that are stressed, and there certainly are intelligent mainframers who are out of work. But even in this economy, the mainframe workforce and technology must continue to play its key role and step up to become THE leader in technology. But how and why?
From the viewpoint of an ISV Assembler programmer, I see the dismal economy as somewhat of an opportunity for mainframe technology to excel and prepare itself for a strong rebound. It's hard to imagine a rebound right now, but I believe it is inevitable. Mainframers need to be ready. ISVs need to design their software even more so with dollar savings for customers in mind. Customers should expect nothing less from us than software that is highly tuned to save them money.
Why is this exciting? When you are forced to think about the drab economy when you write software, it leads to opportunities to explore more advanced coding techniques. It makes you think about hardware options, new streamlined technology, and everything you can do to generate the best code. zIIPs and zAAPs, new instructions, z10s, new storage options, virtualization - all exciting issues (among others!) that can be addressed, especially in this economy.
From a general mainframe standpoint, I think this economy will push companies to explore mainframes and technology to the nth degree. Mainframes are considered a safe and reliable machine - a very good thing today. Companies are very cost aware today and while crunching the numbers, mainframes will make sense.
Mainframe education - in this job market, getting a good mainframe education should be a viable and longterm career choice. There are many schools out there offering mainframe courses and certificates. It's a tough job market out there, but if you have marketable skills that will turn your next job into a career, I'd say go for it!
I'll admit I may have a somewhat different perspective than some of you - I am not worrying about my sinking 401k, I am not concerned about the value of my home, and I am not loosing confidence in my mainframe career. Yes, the economy is bad and I certainly realize not all mainframers are lucky enough to be employed right now. But I do believe there is no better opportunity than right now for mainframers to kick things up a notch to become the absolute leaders in technology.