So, today I’m fast approaching my sixth year without work. Why? You ask.
I was 57 years old when JPMorgan decided that I need to retire, and since they were diversifying the IT department by replacing every single American programmer with an Indian visa holder, I was one of the few holdouts left in my silo. Don’t ask me how an Indian in every single cubicle as far as the eye can see, adds to diversity in the workplace, but then again, there are a lot of things in life for which there is no explanation.
After 30 tears of mainframe COBOL/CICS/DB2-SQL programming, and five years of trying to teach myself OOP, and how to code in this world of disparate logic, and never ending stream of new and more confusing methodologies, I came across a video on YouTube, this one presented by Mike Bauer. But I was having trouble with that convoluted mess of links and little inclination of how any of it works (github).
So, I went to freeCodeCamp looking for this, or some similar course, thinking that the website would provide some insight into how to do the labs, or perhaps some insight at all. I did a search and found yet another course presented by Beau Carnes.
Guys, I an introductory course is nice, but will I really benefit from it? Even if I do decide to go through the course; in five year’s time, I’ve yet to run across any course that actually provides cohesive concise informative content that can actually be turned into some form of productive knowledge with which to make even a nickel. Most of it is so verbose and boring to listen to, that it becomes easy to get lost in the weeds.
I’m asking for some help here. I want to apply my experiences of thirty years with COBOL application coding, to code in COBOL once again, a refresher course, a new platform; even if I earn no where near what I earned before, a little is better than zero. I need to get back to work!!
I only ask that if you don’t have actionable advice/insight (meaning no wise cracks, no one liners, and no me-too stories), then please say it out loud.
Thanks.