The term “next generation” is a hot topic in most professional circles, and for a good reason. As baby boomers look to retirement, those next in line – from Gen X, to millennials and even Gen Z – must be ready to fill the skills gap. At times this push feels especially pertinent to those who have dedicated their careers to the mainframe, where it can be hard to compete for attention with other emerging technologies.
At the SHARE St. Louis Tuesday keynote, four young professionals shared their experience as next-generation mainframers and what first got them interested in the platform. They are dedicated to ongoing learning and have been diving into their work and the industry with utmost enthusiasm. What follows is a conversation SHARE had with the group, asking a few remaining audience questions.
For those looking to shore up their own “next-gen” programs, a few themes from this conversation persist: An active presence on college campuses helps spread awareness and catches young professionals’ interest. An internship program will not only get new hires in the door, but create a culture of ongoing learning. Additionally, give new hires hands-on, meaningful work and trust that, with patience and explaining, they will evolve into leaders within your organization.
The conversation that follows has been edited for clarity and features Sai Gujja, Manager, Software Engineering, CA Technologies; Theak Pel, z/OS Systems Programmer, US Bank; Kimberly Harris, Senior Information Security Engineer, Worldpay; and Byron Smith, Mainframe Security Technical Engineer, M&T Bank.
What kind of training did you receive for z/OS? What helped you the most as you first started learning mainframe technology?
Sai: We have a nine-week boot camp for new hires into the Associate Software Engineer (ASE) program, which touches a lot of things. Even in nine weeks, it’s a lot to learn and you can’t do it all. After that, we returned to work and focused in on our tasks. Then we were paired with a mentor, so there was some hand-holding for a bit – we saw them work, and that’s how I learned what I know today.
Byron: I joined the IBM Academic Initiative at my school and got an internship position out of it. A lot of my experience on z/OS was through actual, physical experience – getting my feet wet in the system. I wasn’t reading documentation all day.
At one point, they had the z13’s and I was going to do an IPL. But I thought I broke it one day. I thought to myself, “I just broke a million dollar box, how am I going to fix this?” So I ran downstairs to the mainframe room, looked at it, and the Ethernet cable wasn’t even plugged in. The simplest thing caused the biggest problem – and that’s stuck with me. It can be a period out of place, a space…
[The group laughs a bit and agrees, chiming in with other examples.]
And as I progressed with different organizations positions, I started learning different pieces of the mainframe. In that way, my training was unorthodox. I think we can agree, our training is not the traditional path – you don’t go to school, learn mainframe and study an IBM book.
Sai: They put me on customer support the first few years of my career. I was debugging issues – and the simplest thing, like Byron said – it was a one-line code that messing with their system.
Kim: I started as a computer programmer out of college. I took a MVS JCL class, but that was it. My second security position was when I got formal training on CA Top Secret in Washington, D.C. Other than that, it was being thrown into the fire. I didn’t have internships, so it’s been real-world, hands-on experience for me. I’ve been in the government sector, private sector, financial, healthcare and defense. I have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to mainframe security in these different industries.
Theak: My hands-on training was through the internship program at U.S. Bank. That was the first year they implemented it and I felt like a guinea pig. I was like, “Me, of all people? I'm new to this whole IT track and I'm trying to learn z/OS?” That was pretty crazy. So I took a shot and they ran me through JCL, parallel sysplex. What’s cool is that our capstone project was to rebuild the system and bring it up into a parallel sysplex. If they had stuck me in an office instead and said, “Read this,” I'd be bored.
Having hands-on training and a mentor to guide you through the process is great. There are so many things you can’t pick up in just a year or two. Having that exposure gave me confidence in seeing what I could get into, and from there the rest is history.
Have you been able to convince millennials to work in your teams?
Sai: Yes, we did at CA. We continue to do the ASE boot camp program. We target college students and millennials coming on the teams, and they work with us in the mainframe environment, working on the same things we do every day.
Once they're here, they see for themselves what an ocean the industry is, but having that awareness and people around them make it easier. It's not just about the mainframe, it's about what you are doing on the mainframe that impacts the world. Once they understand how nearly every transaction in the world goes through a mainframe at a certain point, they are excited to work because they see the value they can provide.
Theak: I’ve started leading our internship program and a lot of students are surprised to learn these things about the mainframe. If anything, our job is to spread awareness. Even if they don’t come work for us, they might tell their friends about our program. That's the problem, there isn’t enough exposure, especially on college campuses. Once they learn you can do all these cool things on a mainframe, we’ll have more people like us wanting to work on it.
Sai: As a manager, the biggest challenge is retaining talent after two years. The way I try to sell it is, "You are creating a unique skillset and getting the best of both worlds by working on the technologies you would use elsewhere, and working on the most reliable platform in the world.” It's a double-edged sword, though, because you want them to learn the technologies but then retain them once they gain that skill. It's a tight balance there.
Do you feel limited to mainframe career opportunities with your current skillset? Could it be successful in distributed dev?
[The group starts chiming in, eager to respond and Kim takes the question first.]
Kim: I want to take this one first because I come across this all the time with my boss. I've worked on different platforms because I have digital forensics training and IT security training, so it spans more than just the mainframe. I don't feel that I'm limited. Some would say in my current position I'm siloed because I'm on the identity and access management team within security engineering, but I feel like I can take my experiences and skill sets and use them elsewhere. If you're able to secure one of the most secure platforms on the planet, then you can secure other things.
Sai: I never felt limited. I might be different from you all because of the fact that I am already using distributed technologies on the mainframe, so wherever I go I'll just be using the same technology.
Byron: I don't think I'm limited because I have the mindset of a computer program security professional. On the mainframe, I feel I have more opportunities. What I've also found out is that no one person can know everything on the mainframe. You can know about different subsets and subsystems and there are several opportunities to take. I'm not limited at all to just mainframe. I can switch between the two – distributed, it's convenient and easy, but I prefer mainframe. There are more opportunities to learn on the mainframe, in my opinion.
Kim: There's nothing like the mainframe that can prepare you for fires and emergencies.
[Group laughs and agrees.]
Sai: Yes, nothing can compare to that.
Theak: Having a background in mainframe technology sets you apart from your peers. We grew up with Windows, Linux, Java, but now we get the opportunity to work on something else that none of our peers touch. It makes us invaluable. Our skillset will transfer to just about any other platform. If anything, we're the unicorns.
[Group laughs for a moment.]
Byron: That's actually neat, I like that. We're unicorns. We are.
We’ve heard a lot about how adaptable you have to be in this industry. What traits or characteristics should young students practice if they’re interested in getting to where you are today?
Byron: Be humble. Have an eagerness and passion to learn. In the mainframe, you have to be a chameleon, because it’s always changing. Come with that attitude of being adaptive – that's what a chameleon is, an animal that changes colors, blends with the environment.
Sai: Come to it with a growth mindset. Never be fixed because you will never grow. Learn and be humble.
Theak: Have that agile mentality. That’s what the true definition of agile is, being able to adapt or pick up new ideas. It spans outside technology, too. Having that mentality going into the mainframe will set yourself up for success.
Kim: Your age is advantageous. Don't be afraid to take that next big step. Someone wants you to work in New Zealand – why not? Take risks now while you're young. At this age, the sky is the limit, so be open to that.