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  • Situation Wanted

    March 13, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    There have been a tremendous number of layoffs in the tech sector in the past several months, and we are grateful that the IBM i market is part of the economy but also somewhat set apart from the go-go tech sector that sometimes engages in irrational exuberance. But we also know there is a talent shortage and a skills gap in this IBM i market. The question is, what can we do about it?

    Well, The Four Hundred can do one simple and easy thing: We can start a Situation Wanted column, which are doing today to help get people looking for work in the IBM i market in front of people who are looking for prospects to fill empty positions at their companies. And that is precisely what this column is. If you send us some information about the job you are seeking, we will publish it and get your name and desires out there. It is that simple. If this is successful, we will consider putting up a companion Help Wanted column.

    Our first Situation Wanted comes from Nate Wolf, whom I have known since he was born. You can see his resume here.

    Wolf is my best friend’s nephew, and also the great nephew of one of my several mentors throughout my life, Richard Rubenstein, who I have written about many times. Uncle Dickie adopted me as a nephew and brought me into an intellectual and computational world that I was sorely in need of as a teenager, and importantly when he bought an Apple II – I believe it was in 1979 – for his nieces and nephews as well as for himself, I inherited the older Ohio Scientific Z80 system with the dual 8-inch floppy disk drives that was my very first computer. But more importantly, Uncle Dickie was a marine biologist who didn’t like that career path, and he was intelligent enough to do anything. So when the Spark-o-Matic Corporation, a manufacturer of car stereo systems, in 1980 got its hands on one of these new-fangled IBM System/38 minicomputers, he was at a party and was asked if he could program it – meaning, build a custom MRP II system from the ground up. He, of course, said yes. And then did it.

    Less than 10 years later, and after switching from being an aerospace engineer to being a tech writer and after many system architecture discussions with Uncle Dickie, I was the founding editor of a publication called The Four Hundred, dedicated to the child of the System/38.

    Nate is just like us – he started out somewhere else but he belongs here in the IBM i community. After working as a mechanical engineer for a few years, he decided he, too, wanted to create programs, not physical objects, and he did an aggressive boot camp to learn all of the modern tools at our disposal. But what Nate really wants is to find a company where he can make a difference and be a part of something, just like Uncle Dickie did.

    So, for all of you looking for young talent, this is your chance. And for those of you who are also looking for meaningful work in the IBM i market, send me your situation and what you want and we will keep this column rolling.

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    Tags: Tags: IBM i, MRP II, Situation Wanted, System/38

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    The IBM i OS Base Is Older Than We Think, But Moving Ahead IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 10

    7 thoughts on “Situation Wanted”

    • John Rockwell says:
      March 24, 2023 at 1:18 pm

      Good idea. There’s a Hiring Board on the ALL400S site that pretty much does this. It’s creator is in the process of enhancing it so companies can advertise open positions related to the IBM I on it too.

      The geographic filter is sort of cumbersome so that will also be fixed when the enhanced version comes out.

      Here’s a link to it – https://board.all400s.com/
      The last time we checked over 20,000 people had used it. (It’s where I send recruiters and HR people trying to fill a position to.

      – John Rockwell

      Reply
      • Timothy Prickett Morgan says:
        March 28, 2023 at 1:10 pm

        Thanks John. I believe yours will probably be more useful, but we also have pretty wide reach….

        Reply
    • Scott Chatten says:
      March 31, 2023 at 9:08 am

      This is a great idea! I’m frustrated daily when I speak to senior leadership about the labor shortage for the iSeries and their conclusion is to migrate off the platform. We need to engage much sooner and offer modernization options before they get too far down the migration path. In most cases there is over 30 years of custom business logic living in the current system and it is working nearly perfect. Allowing employers better access to available talent is a key part of keeping the iSeries thriving as other fads come and go.

      Reply
      • Timothy Prickett Morgan says:
        March 31, 2023 at 9:10 am

        More immediately, I had hoped to help get Nate a job.

        Reply
        • Scott Chatten says:
          March 31, 2023 at 9:28 am

          I forwarded Nate’s resume to our recruiting team. There is another layer of complexity for new developers with everyone wanting 5-7 years of experience. I trying to help two other people right now with the same issue – one a college grad with great skills – the other a neighbor who wants to change her career path and completed a coding boot camp. Our industry needs more paid internships to help get through the first 1-3 years of coding and build a resume.

          Reply
          • Timothy Prickett Morgan says:
            March 31, 2023 at 9:59 am

            Thanks, Scott. We appreciate you.

            Reply
    • David Abramowitz says:
      April 3, 2023 at 5:01 pm

      Great idea. Best wishes for success to the platform and to all who use it.

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 33 Issue: 14

This Issue Sponsored By

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Table of Contents

  • You Ought To Be Committed
  • Thoroughly Modern: What You Need to Know About IBM i Security
  • Spring Brings Events To IBM i Community, And More
  • As I See It: AI-AI-O
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 10
  • Situation Wanted

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