We had a discussion with a client this week that we've had many times before. It usually starts off with a question about what language they should use for future development--the implication (sometimes stated) is that RPG isn't an option.
Why? Not because it's an old language, not that it can't do the things they need it to do, but because it has become too hard to find RPG programmers. More specifically, it has become even harder to find RPGers who are willing and able to do modern things.
We responded with the same suggestion that we normally do (and we have done here in the blog before. If you can't find RPGers, look for a PHPer (or Java or .Net or a ...) who seems to have a business mindset (vs. wanting to write games or the next Facebook application) and teach them RPG and DB2. If you stick to /Free and other modern RPG practices--at least in the beginning--our experience has been that they not only learn RPG easily, they actually quite like the simplicity of the language. After they are hooked on RPG, then you can (if you must) gradually show them the ancient-style code that you almost certainly still have lying around the shop.
This idea has been used with great success in a number of IBM i shops. However, to our knowledge anyway, they have tended to be relatively large shops where there were a number of people who could share the mentorship role. In this specific case, we're talking about a relatively small shop. So the time commitment to not only teach the RPG language to the newbie but also to mentor them in the intricacies of IBM i, DB2 for i, etc. would require a very signifiant proportion of the shop's developer resources. And that's a problem.
Schools in the the IBM Academic Initiative program rarely seem to teach RPG these days. This is mostly because, as we blogged previously, even when they graduate RPG-literate students, too many potential employers still insist on three to five years' experience. But, even if all of the school programs were as successful in turning out RPG literate graduates as our friend Jim Buck at Gateway Technical College, the time it takes for students to graduate from such programs is longer than some of our clients can wait. They need to build their five-year plans today--before their existing programmers hit retirement age--and they can't build a plan simply based on the vague hope that there will be RPG programmers around to replace those staff.
A dilemma to be sure. What's the answer? We wish we knew, but increasingly we think that this is an area where IBM, perhaps in conjunction with their business partners, needs to take a lead. There are a lot of unemployed folks out there who have extensive business experience. Many of them probably did some programming with TRS-80, Commodore 64s, IBM PCs, etc. in their youth. Maybe--just maybe--they are a resource that could be tapped to help fill the programmer gap. But it will need an initiative from someone of the stature of IBM to make it a reality and ensure that "graduates" of such an initiative would be able to break through the insane experience barrier that so many shops erect around their hiring process.
Have you encountered this problem? Come up with and solutions of your own? We'd love to hear about them through comments to the blog.
Why? Not because it's an old language, not that it can't do the things they need it to do, but because it has become too hard to find RPG programmers. More specifically, it has become even harder to find RPGers who are willing and able to do modern things.
We responded with the same suggestion that we normally do (and we have done here in the blog before. If you can't find RPGers, look for a PHPer (or Java or .Net or a ...) who seems to have a business mindset (vs. wanting to write games or the next Facebook application) and teach them RPG and DB2. If you stick to /Free and other modern RPG practices--at least in the beginning--our experience has been that they not only learn RPG easily, they actually quite like the simplicity of the language. After they are hooked on RPG, then you can (if you must) gradually show them the ancient-style code that you almost certainly still have lying around the shop.
This idea has been used with great success in a number of IBM i shops. However, to our knowledge anyway, they have tended to be relatively large shops where there were a number of people who could share the mentorship role. In this specific case, we're talking about a relatively small shop. So the time commitment to not only teach the RPG language to the newbie but also to mentor them in the intricacies of IBM i, DB2 for i, etc. would require a very signifiant proportion of the shop's developer resources. And that's a problem.
Schools in the the IBM Academic Initiative program rarely seem to teach RPG these days. This is mostly because, as we blogged previously, even when they graduate RPG-literate students, too many potential employers still insist on three to five years' experience. But, even if all of the school programs were as successful in turning out RPG literate graduates as our friend Jim Buck at Gateway Technical College, the time it takes for students to graduate from such programs is longer than some of our clients can wait. They need to build their five-year plans today--before their existing programmers hit retirement age--and they can't build a plan simply based on the vague hope that there will be RPG programmers around to replace those staff.
A dilemma to be sure. What's the answer? We wish we knew, but increasingly we think that this is an area where IBM, perhaps in conjunction with their business partners, needs to take a lead. There are a lot of unemployed folks out there who have extensive business experience. Many of them probably did some programming with TRS-80, Commodore 64s, IBM PCs, etc. in their youth. Maybe--just maybe--they are a resource that could be tapped to help fill the programmer gap. But it will need an initiative from someone of the stature of IBM to make it a reality and ensure that "graduates" of such an initiative would be able to break through the insane experience barrier that so many shops erect around their hiring process.
Have you encountered this problem? Come up with and solutions of your own? We'd love to hear about them through comments to the blog.
You're right, sometimes "young" and "RPG" is an oxymoron.
We are a French training company,trying to change that. Two or three times a year our customers recruit young people and ask us to teach them IBM i, DB2 and RPG.(A three-week session, last year we did it four times)
Of course, we use SQL and free RPG, even if we have to talk about DDS and fixed form RPG. Our tools are system i Navigator and RDP, no choice !
And i advise my customers to do the same "at home", if they want to keep their young developers
As you can see, it is possible to teach "IBMi", it's a wonderful system with many advantages that can be interesting for young people, but we have to show them the "sunny side".
Christian
Posted by: CmasseVolubis | February 27, 2013 at 01:53 AM
In Sweden, Tieto hired graduates who thought they were about to work with "Role Playing Game". But read about the sucess story on page 10 in our magazine: http://www.data3.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/data3_208.pdf . If you don't know swedish yet, bablefish it :-)
Posted by: torbjörn appehl | February 27, 2013 at 03:42 AM
That's how we started doing it a few years ago. We hired a young buck right out of college who knew PHP and had been a "Firedog" geek for years. That was out of character for us, but it was time for a change.
I took him on a road trip right away to sit in on a week's worth of RPG classes I was teaching down in Pennsylvania. He ramped up quickly. A lot quicker than any of the students (mostly COBOL programmers), I can tell you. Now he uses both technologies fluently every day.
Posted by: Christopher Burns, Sr. | February 27, 2013 at 03:32 PM
The difference between being young or not is to have 35 years yet to work. So, if you are a young developer, to survive, you have the choice between client/server and Cloud computing/Web nowadays. I think this might be a huge opportunity for the platform IBM i. Unfortunately I am alone to believe that we (old developer) are already cloud/computing but not native web yet.
Posted by: Jean Mikhaleff | February 28, 2013 at 01:34 AM
I am confused by your paragraph 5:
Graduates of existing programs can't get jobs because they don't have 3 to 5 years experience. But 'your clients' can't wait for those to graduate, they need someone now for 5 year plans.
Sounds like the classic Catch-22 to me.
Posted by: dale janus | March 13, 2013 at 03:43 PM
@Dale _ it is not actually as confusing as it sounds but I agree we didn't make it clear enough. I'll do it in bullet form to hopefully clarify:
1) Many college programs closed because they were unable to place graduates, This was mostly 2 - 3 years ago.
2) Some programs like Jim Buck's have done such a good job of finding mentors and educating their students in a highly practical manner that they are often over subscribed with more requests for grads than they have available.
3) It is program's like Jim's that we need to clone but ...
4) For many of our clients they need to see something happening in a shorter timeframe. Programs like the ones in France, Germany and Sweden are working and would help meet that need - but we're not seeing firms here in North America take that initiative.
Posted by: Jon Paris | March 14, 2013 at 09:08 PM