heres a novel idea..... uhhh RE-TEACH IT ---- jesus H ... thats fucking bullshit that NO ONE ON THE FACE OF THE FUCKING PLANET doesnt know a 60 year old programming language... for christ sakes theres people who can still speak and decipher dead languages from 6000 years ago...
It's less about knowing COBOL and more about knowing the design decisions, libraries, common functions etc that were in use at the time, or in many cases, knowing the codebase itself (once those guys are gone...no company will pay the 1+ years of salary needed for someone to become well versed in these large codebases).
I had someone who was a bank COBOL programmer explain to me (programmer professionally for 20 years) about this, because I thought the same thing, but the situation is a bit more complicated than first glance would indicate.
That said in the end it comes down to the fact that they just don't want to pay for results. Whether that be paying a retired COBOL programmer who knows the codebases for banks and whatnot a LOT of money for a short consulting and fixup gig, or paying someone who is newer in their career for a year or more to get up to speed on it, potentially build a test network etc.
Software development is considered a "liability" and not something you should do or maintain to keep your business running well, so they just avoid ever hiring any programmers to do anything for as long as possible and this is the result.
heres a novel idea..... uhhh RE-TEACH IT ---- jesus H ... thats fucking bullshit that NO ONE ON THE FACE OF THE FUCKING PLANET doesnt know a 60 year old programming language... for christ sakes theres people who can still speak and decipher dead languages from 6000 years ago...
It's less about knowing COBOL and more about knowing the design decisions, libraries, common functions etc that were in use at the time, or in many cases, knowing the codebase itself (once those guys are gone...no company will pay the 1+ years of salary needed for someone to become well versed in these large codebases).
I had someone who was a bank COBOL programmer explain to me (programmer professionally for 20 years) about this, because I thought the same thing, but the situation is a bit more complicated than first glance would indicate.
That said in the end it comes down to the fact that they just don't want to pay for results. Whether that be paying a retired COBOL programmer who knows the codebases for banks and whatnot a LOT of money for a short consulting and fixup gig, or paying someone who is newer in their career for a year or more to get up to speed on it, potentially build a test network etc.
Software development is considered a "liability" and not something you should do or maintain to keep your business running well, so they just avoid ever hiring any programmers to do anything for as long as possible and this is the result.
Bs! Have read the same argument since 80s. Plenty of old time Cobol geeks around. Just more fake argument for Computers going down in '24.
this story has been in the press for years mate
2021 - https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/2021/05/cobol-jobs-banks
2017 - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-banks-cobol-idUSKBN17C0D8/
1998 - https://www.irishtimes.com/business/lack-of-software-skills-a-problem-1.194259
1996 - https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/cobol-programmers-back-in-demand/