How short are we?
I've heard for years about the mainframe skills shortage and really wondered whether it was actually true, or do companies just not want to pay for skilled MVS people. I recently had occasion to be involved in hiring an MVS systems programmer, and I really think they're right, there is a mainframe skills shortage.
No doubt we are....aging. There's a lot of gray hair at SHARE these days. (Not Fifty shades, but still...) And there seems to be so few people entering the workforce, for various reasons, all of which seems to be being addressed; by IBM, SHARE, academia, etc. But complicating the issue, I believe, is the reluctance of companies to pay top dollar for the skills they want. I took ECON 2 in college...I know the laws of supply and demand. When supply goes down, demand increases, and so does the price.
Don't get me wrong....I've made a very good living over the past 25 years as an MVS systems programmer. But if there's such a skills shortage, why isn't my salary increasing by leaps and bounds? Why don't I see a plethora of six figure job ads out there?
I think we have to temper the 'shortage' talk with the 'cheap' talk.
I do commend the organizations doing something about it: the IBM Academic Initiative, CA's Mainframe Academy, and SHARE itself. I think without these organizations, would truely would be in dire straights.
But I still have to wonder...are we really that short? Or are they just cheap?