[insulanian]

> Part of the reason I took the job ... because I have a fascination with older computer technology.

I was also thinking about going the mainframe route, also because general impression is that the mainframe developer earns big bucks. However, when I started exploring the job offers I was surprised that salaries were not that high at all.

So why is that impression still around, and do mainframe developers really earn significantly more money than a full stack enterprise web developer?

[zhte415]

Mainframe is possibly the most offshored field there is in enterprise technology. There are masses of roles in India and to a lesser extent China and Phillipines where is offers a stable decent paying career for these countries. That's where the base-line and critical mass of roles are.

[krinchan]

Furthermore, lately IBM has literally bought Mainframe developers off of other companies. My employer several years ago pink-slipped their entire AS400 work force. Immediately, IBM showed up with job offers for all of them at a severe price cut as contractors. Then, for 5 years, they laid off 25% of them until all that was left were the cheapest, unmotivated code drones that would bill maximum hours and not ask for raises.

I've heard similar stories all over from companies on Mainframe/AS400 platforms. It's totally anecdotal, but at this point it's pretty in character from IBM these days.

[coleca]

Very true. Because these skills are in high demand, my experience has been that employee turnover in the mainframe sector offshore is extremely high. We had a tremendous problem retaining offshore mainframers through the big BPO companies like Wipro, Cognizant, US Technologies, etc. Go through the effort to train them up, and they would get poached in no time because their skills were in such high demand, and the training cycle starts over again.

[zhte415]

Turnover can be high, often depends on industry and country.

I know/do banking with staff in China, around 300 mainframe engineers, with average tenure around 5 years, which is miles ahead of India. If you'd like pointers for mainframe in China, drop me a mail.

[insulanian]

That explains some things.

[snaky]

It depends on what the role is and many other things, the same as it is in any field. Of course, highschooler in Brazil who recently read a half of 'COBOL for dummies' in two weeks would not earn much more than other who choose 'J2EE for dummies'. Deep knowledge and experience could bring significant profit, but the same is true for almost any other industry - maybe J2EE performance consulting for z/OS with CICS would pay more than J2EE performance consulting for AIX with TXSeries but not too much more.

[rbanffy]

> I was also thinking about going the mainframe route

Me too. Sounds fun. Plus, I liked the 3278 a lot.