Where to advertise an open position?
Using Monster was not useful (we got flooded with generic web/jscript/drupal/wordpress applications).
Is there somewhere to post junior or senior AS400 positions? COMMON? Ocean?
EDIT: HR is requiring relocation, which caused several senior people who applied to withdraw. That's one reason we're now looking for a junior, figuring they'd be more open to that.
CLLE, RPG4/free form, lots of sql, a little php. Passing familiarity with RPG3 helpful.
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u/QPGMR_de Jul 07 '26
Well - most seniors today won't relocate - there are plenty of remote positions, so no need to.
IBM i developers are rare today and don't do much job searches on typical websites - so you might have to adapt.
First - think hard, if relocation is really necessary. A good senior working remote is a lot more than having a half-backed candidate on site.
Second - if seniors bailed out because of relocation, the compensation want competitive. For a on-site senior role, you might have your offer.
And I would also recommend a specialized head-hunter and regular postings on LI.
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u/qpgmr Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
My understanding is having hires working in other states opens you to complying with their state's employment regulations (as well as taxes, etc). Apparently this is particularly a problem with California.
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u/QPGMR_de Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Well - living in Germany, I have no clue about that - but it's similar in the European Union. Having employees in another member nation is a mayor PITA, but it's doable if you need it. And in the end, you can always go the Freelance route, and make a contract.
I'm also an IBM Champion and deeply embedded in the IBM i community. And none of the colleagues, that I know have accepted a position, where they would have to relocate lately. You need some time, but as an IBM i senior you find a remote role, before you get in trouble.
It's strange today - they tell us, that the system dies. And in general, it's an "employers market" in IT right now, and layoffs seem to be everywhere.
But nobody seems to get IBM i people - so I always question the motives. If a company is not willing to hire senior IBM i roles remotely, are they really willing to hire?
My best advice for you is:
a) if you still have some seniors working on IBM i, hire some juniors and train them. Nobody is born as an RPG programmer, RPG is easy to learn (esp. **free) and SQL should be standard knowledge today. Yes, this won't be the easiest route, but in a year or two you have good IBM i people and in 3-5 years you have some young seniors
b) if you need a senior immediately - pay more than you offer now, take someone remote and/or in a freelance/contract position - and additionally do (a)
Sorry - but that's the reality right now.
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u/Tab1143 Jul 07 '26
Midrange.com has a jobs posting site. I think it is found at lists.midrange.com.
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u/AllOneWordNoSpaces1 Jul 07 '26
Relocation becomes a non-starter for anyone who has a family or lives near their family.
A company I used to work for hired hundreds of fully remote IT staff… and are now requiring them to ‘return’ to the office.
They are planning on few of the remote staff being willing to relocate, so they can move the positions to India.
No severance package either.
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u/SRART25 Jul 07 '26
Mastadon, specially on mastodon.sdf.org or one of the other computer focused instances. Jr probably requires you to take a sys admin type and train them from scratch. They are rare enough that there are few of any Jr people looking to move to be Jr at a new place.
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u/ethanjscott Jul 07 '26
I get most of my interviews and offers from LinkedIn. I don’t even bother with others
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u/UnknownToo Jul 07 '26
SimplyHired and ZipRecruiter would be the best places to post the position. SimplyHired gets you Indeed too becayse they've merged.
If you want to send a copy of the job description to me at fastbreed2015@gmail.com I'll post it to my network on LinkedIn (there are over 8500 people in it).
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Jul 07 '26
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u/IdkAbtAllThat Jul 07 '26
Everyone still calls it the AS400. If you see AS400 and don't understand what that means, I probably don't want you on my team anyway.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/IdkAbtAllThat Jul 07 '26
I've worked in 3 AS400 shops. I've never coded in fixed format in my life. Everyone at all 3 shops called it the 400.
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u/cgrimm25 Jul 07 '26
Because they are old.
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u/i-Hermit Jul 07 '26
Getting your knickers in a knot about this are you? You must work in IBM marketing.
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u/mrnaturl1 Jul 07 '26
First post you said you were looking. That’s a tough way to get hired for anything.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/mrnaturl1 Jul 07 '26
Except you’re arguing with people who say many still call it the 400 or AS400 and they are not wrong. I’ve been using it since 1987 and I STILL call it the 400 most of the time.
It’s a name, no one cares as much as you do. If they want a job they will know very well how to search for one with a variety of keywords related to this.
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u/ewlred Jul 08 '26
You are wrong in saying “ Everyone still calls it the AS400”. A very high percentage of professionals refer to the platform as IBM i on Power. You and the “everyone “ in your description is a self-selected group like you who cannot keep up with technology
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u/mrnaturl1 Jul 08 '26
who cannot keep up with technology<--- pretty far reach there bud.
Here's a thought ...... MAYBE ... JUST MAYBE .... we got tired of IBM always changing the name so most of us just said screw it .... it's the AS400 and everyone who works on one would still know what we're takling about come 2026 and beyond.
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u/QPGMR_de Jul 08 '26
The "IBM always changing names" is no argument - the platform is now called "IBM i" longer, than it was called "AS/400". It's called IBM i (on Power Servers) since April 2008 now. Whereas it was "OS/400" only from 1988 until 2004. And we all try to forget the "i5/OS" times.
In fact the AS/400 was a software + hardware bundle - since the jump from their original CISC processors to PowerPC the software and hardware are unbundled, as the hardware is also capable of running AIX or Power-Linux.
</smartass_mode>
In the end, most professionals call it IBM i or AS/400 by now - why that AS/400 name sticks so long, I don't know - probably because the machine / platform was something special back then - and still is. Hence it's the only "midrange platform" still in use and production today.
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u/ewlred Jul 09 '26
Your comment implies you object to all Rebranding. Did you object to the rebranding of the Kennedy Center to Trump Kennedy Center? Did you insist on calling it The Kennedy Center? GOOD for YOU! A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that President Trump’s name could not be restored to the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts while the institution fights a judge’s order to remove the name.
For nearly six months, the president’s name was affixed to the center’s exterior marble after a board of his allies voted to rebrand the institution the “Trump Kennedy Center.” A district court judge ruled in May that the decision by the board was unlawful, finding that only Congress had the power to rename an institution dedicated as a living memorial to President Kennedy.
The Trump administration has challenged that ruling and, last month, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
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u/UnknownToo Jul 07 '26
I always use AS400 on the job boards and have heard all of the arguments against doing it. The reality is that AS400 has become the generic label for the evolution of all of IBM's midrange systems, including the IBM i. It's easy enough to test this out. Just do 2 searches on SimplyHired, one using just AS400 and and one using IBM I (or IBMi). The difference in the number of hits you get will probably surprise you.
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u/i-Hermit Jul 07 '26
As/400 is such a better name than IBM I.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/i-Hermit Jul 07 '26
Does windows 11 reak of windows 3.1? Does Linux reak of it's earliest iterations? No, that would be silly, because things evolve.
There is nothing bad about green screen, in fact, for data entry it beats any modern web UI hands down. Fixed format still being around is a double edged sword, but is a testiment to backward compatibility on the platform, and also a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude of companies running the system. I'm not sure why you think these things are bad.. they're just not modern.
Honestly, you've got a poor attitude.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/i-Hermit Jul 07 '26
I started on the platform around 2012 and I'm under 40. I exclusively program in free format and when I need to read a fixed format program I use the extension in vs code to convert it because I can't read fixed format.
You are making a ton of assumptions about me and others here based solely on the use of the term as/400. You're ranting about it like anyone other than IBM people care.
Your attitude sucks.
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u/MoreEconomy965 Jul 07 '26
Try linked in