[wallstprog]

Back in the mid-70's Manufacturers Hanover Bank used to give candidates a "Programmer Aptitude Test", which was basically an IQ test. If you passed you were hired, and they paid to send you to a 12-week class that taught S/360 assembler & COBOL.

I took Comp Sci. in college, but my class also had math majors, actors, and all sorts of other people. IIRC it was about 50/50 men/women.

[scottshamus]

I did a similar program in 2011 for one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. At the time, I thought it was a new program to get COBOL programmers since they were becoming more difficult to hire but your comment made me realize they likely always hired this way.

[egberts1]

THAT. That it was about 50/50 men/women during the 70s/80s.

Man, I miss the good ol’ days.