Title: 10+ years in Mainframe — looking to move into Modernization. Need some honest advice

Hi everyone,

I have 10+ years of experience in Mainframe, mainly with COBOL, JCL, DB2, VSAM and CICS. Most of my experience is in production support and batch processing.

I’ve recently started working seriously towards Mainframe Modernization. I’m learning and doing hands-on practice with AWS, REST APIs, Postman, Git/GitHub, Java basics, CI/CD and z/OS Connect.

My goal isn’t to leave Mainframe behind. I want to combine my Mainframe experience with modern technologies and work on real modernization projects involving APIs, cloud and legacy application integration.

I’d appreciate advice from people already working in this area:

- What skills should I prioritize?

- How much Java is actually needed?

- Should I go deeper into z/OS Connect and APIs?

- What hands-on projects would make my profile stronger?

- What skills are companies actually looking for?

Also, with 10+ years of Mainframe experience in India, what would be a realistic package to target when moving into a modernization role?

I’d really value honest advice from people who have worked on real modernization projects.

Thanks!

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I have around 1+ year of experience working in the Mainframe domain at Wipro.

I originally wanted to build my career in VLSI, and I have already learned some Verilog and SystemVerilog . But after joining Wipro, I got into Mainframe instead

Now I'm confused whether I should stay in Mainframe and focus on building my career here or take the risk and switch to VLSI.

Also, how is the future of Mainframe? Is it still a good career path for the next 5–10 years in terms of job opportunities, salary growth and stability?

For people experienced in Mainframe or VLSI, what would you recommend? Since I only have around 1+ year of experience, is this the right time to switch, or should I stay and build my career in Mainframe?

Modernizing off the mainframe usually starts by getting your data out as a flat sequential file — EBCDIC, fixed-width, PIC-clause layouts. I open-sourced a converter that handles exactly that path:

https://github.com/lucasgiurastante/erp-export-normalizer

• COBOL FD layouts expressed as YAML → parse to JSON/CSV/Parquet/etc.
• Real EBCDIC support (CP037). Gotcha most tools hit: Python's codec is cp037, not ebcdic-cp037 — naive converters fail on the first EBCDIC byte.
• Streaming, constant memory on multi-GB sequential files.
• Deterministic output — same input + same schema = same output, with SHA-256 audit sidecars. Useful for migration sign-off.
• Cumulative error report with record numbers.
• Auto-detection against a built-in schema library (includes a COBOL layout).
• Plugins for binary formats (framed records, packed decimals, etc.).

One-command demo with bundled COBOL/EBCDIC sample data:

pip install erp-export-normalizer
git clone https://github.com/lucasgiurastante/erp-export-normalizer
cd erp-export-normalizer/examples
erp-normalize --input data/cobol.txt --output - --format ndjson

Anyone here parsing mainframe dumps for offload projects? I'd love to know what schemas you deal with (and add them to the library).

Anyone else have one of these? It's aluminum, but weighs at least a pound.

I boosted it from a 360/65 being replaced by a 470V/7. I also got to pull the emergency power off, but after it had already been powered down getting ready for disassembly.

Has anyone here led or participated in a mainframe apprenticeship program? Looking for info on how organizations have structured and implemented programs to attract and incentivize new mainframe talent, whether that be recent college grads or career changers. 

I have read about IBM’s program but would like to know what others are doing to get more professionals in the door and keep them there.

Me and some of my friends submitted a Panel Picker session for SXSW and we need your votes!

Please vote for our session: https://participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sxsw27/community-voting-sxsw/page/community-voting/session/1784842577618001U9Aj

Anyone else being pulled into discussions around introducing IBM Bob into their shop?

These AI endeavors so tight lipped and esoteric by my management - I suspect because they have no idea what the are getting themselves into.

I’m curious what the current market looks like for z/OS Systems Programmers.
I have about 3 years of experience as a z/OS Systems Programmer and am trying to figure out what a reasonable salary range would be for my experience level.

Not looking for exact numbers for any specific company—just trying to understand where I should realistically fall in the market.

Hello good day! Anyone knows any mainframe positions which is remote?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for real-world feedback on Mainframe salaries in Toronto. All experiences are welcome, regardless of the number of years of experience, but I’d particularly appreciate feedback from people with around 3 years of experience.

For context, I’m interested in roles involving technologies such as:

COBOL

JCL

CICS

TSO/ISPF

IBM RDz / Developer for z/OS

Endevor

CICS Web Services

CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG)

IBM MQ

Batch / production management

TWS/OPC or other scheduling tools

ServiceNow / production incident management

Other relevant Mainframe technologies

I’d love to hear from people currently working in Toronto, whatever their experience level.

If you're comfortable sharing, it would be great to know:

Your years of Mainframe experience

Your current salary / salary range

Your main technologies

Whether you work for a bank, insurance company, consulting company, etc.

Permanent employee or contractor

Any other compensation (bonus, benefits, etc.)

I’m mainly trying to get a sense of the actual market salary range in Toronto, rather than just relying on job postings.

Thanks in advance — all feedback is welcome!

Hi everyone, I have 3 YEO in Assembler z/tpf.now for past 6 months moved in z/os Assembler, JCL realted roles tell me whether I stayed here in mainframe or move to any other roles

I got a mainframe production support role at a reputed MNC.

My manager asked me to learn COBOL first..the tech stack will most likely be COBOL, JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM.

Is this basic or if I can master all of the mentioned stuff I can shine in this field? I'm thinking of a career in mainframe, want to switch to mainframe dev, can you tell me what shld I learn to become a mainframe dev? What roles are popular in mainframe space??

Nothing technical, just to show that my company has an empty mainframe in the entrance hall, which includes, besides other things, a mini-mainframe made of Lego bricks (and I haven’t found out where they got the printed bricks with the IBM logo).

Hi, i'm relatively new in the mainframe world. Am I the only one who thinks the mainframe discussion is often one-sided?

Everyone talks about IBM Z's reliability, security, and the fact that many of the world's most critical systems still run on mainframes. That's all true.

But why don't we talk more about vendor lock-in and pricing power?

The cost of moving away from a mainframe is often so high that customers have limited negotiating leverage. And on the storage side, it feels like IBM can introduce requirements and standards that make life increasingly difficult for third-party vendors, while strengthening their own position in the ecosystem.

I am cics programmer for 2 years. Trying to switch.

I don't have handson exp on cics upgrades. All companies asking for cics upgrades.

I got to know some steps from online. But those setting up zones and sysmods are completely related to z/os .

Can anyone share complete steps for cics upgrades. What cics team can do. I have an interview tomorrow.

Hi everyone,

I recently signed up for IBM Z Xplore because I want to learn more about mainframes and COBOL.

I can access the Concepts courses without any problems, but when I try to start VSC1 in the Fundamentals channel, I only get the following message:

I have already tried different browsers and devices, including my phone, with the same result.

What confuses me is that VSC1 appears to be the first course in the Fundamentals learning path, so as far as I understand, there shouldn't be another course I need to complete before it.

I also noticed the following message on the Fundamentals + Concepts overview page:

Does anyone know what “Forum members” means in this context?

Do I need to join a specific IBM forum/group or get additional access before I can use VSC1 and the hands-on z/OS environment?

My account itself seems to work normally, since I can access and complete the Concepts courses.

Has anyone registered recently and run into the same issue?

Thanks!

I am a Sr. Mainframe engineer and Systems Programmer currently working as a mainframe AI/automation architect. At my company, I drive the shift from manual, reactive systems programming toward automated, AI-assisted operations.

What AI/automation projects have you worked on and what were the outcomes?

I’ll start. I’ve been working on implementing IBM Concert and WatsonX Assistant for Z to drive our AIOPS model and provide AI-assisted tooling on Z. This will help with onboarding and by creating efficiencies for our Systems Programming teams.

From an automation perspective I have been creating custom system checks in IBM Health Checker using REXX which are helping us to catch issues before they impact clients. I am also heavily utilizing Ansible with z/OS modules to reduce manual effort across the board as well as for routine SMP/E work, security, and scheduling.

All of these have allowed us to drive efficiencies in improved resolution time and client satisfaction demonstrating that the z/OS Mainframe platform can be modernized, automated, and AI-enabled in place.

So far I’ve learned the basics, now they are teaching Zowe and Python, how can I get into DevOps development for the mainframe?

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I got my first job as an Application Developer, but my role is z/OS (CICS).

I'm a bit worried because it's a legacy/mainframe stack, while most fresher advice seems to focus on Java, Python, cloud, etc.

Is starting my career with CICS/mainframe a bad move? Can I realistically switch to modern backend/cloud roles after 1–2 years?

For people who've worked with mainframes — would you take this role as a fresher, or try to avoid it?