I was bored this morning and it's too cold to even go the the gym,
so......
I was looking at the job market in various skills I have.

Amazing how many VAX/VMS jobs are still looking for people considering
that VAX VMS is officially dead. :-)

Reminds me of how people like to use Indeed and Monster as proof that
COBOL is dead even though most of the jobs posted have boilerplate
descriptions written by people who probably have no idea what the
requirements for the job actually are.

bill

In article <j4vvamFe284U1@mid.individual.net>, Bill Gunshannon
<bill.gunshannon@gmail.com> writes:

>
> I was bored this morning and it's too cold to even go the the gym,
> so......
> I was looking at the job market in various skills I have.
>
> Amazing how many VAX/VMS jobs are still looking for people considering
> that VAX VMS is officially dead. :-)

It's not officially dead in that if you have a valid license (and
employers will have a license) then you can still use it. Development
stopped a long time ago, so no recent change (except for hobbyists).

> Reminds me of how people like to use Indeed and Monster as proof that
> COBOL is dead even though most of the jobs posted have boilerplate
> descriptions written by people who probably have no idea what the
> requirements for the job actually are.

Even if the descriptions were correct, it wouldn't prove much, as COBOL
people tend to keep their jobs and their successors are trained on the
job, so even with very many COBOL jobs (and there are very many), there
wouldn't be that many ads for COBOL skills.

On 1/21/2022 9:46 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> I was bored this morning and it's too cold to even go the the gym,
> so......
> I was looking at the job market in various skills I have.
>
> Amazing how many VAX/VMS jobs are still looking for people considering
> that VAX VMS is officially dead.  :-)
>
> Reminds me of how people like to use Indeed and Monster as proof that
> COBOL is dead even though most of the jobs posted have boilerplate
> descriptions written by people who probably have no idea what the
> requirements for the job actually are.

We know that there are still some VAX'es running at places - either
very old HW or emulated.

Usually due to various dependencies.

So there has to be some demand.

But note that VAX/VMS may just mean VMS. Those wording the
job ads may not know much about the formal name changes of
VMS over time.

In the Java world it is still common to see job ads asking
for J2EE and most of them are probably on something newer
(for the non-Java people: the technology was called J2EE
1999-2006, Java EE 2006-2019 and Jakarta EE 2019-).

Some may smile over that, but it is not a big problem, because
people with VAX/VMS skills will also be able to work with
VMS Alpha and VMS I64 (and people with J2EE skills
will be able to work with Java/Jakarta EE).

I am more skeptical about the Java or Python ads really
wanting Cobol. Because the typical Java or Python programmer
will know absolutely zero about Cobol. Which will force the
hiring manager to complain to the recruiters.

That would be like putting up an ad for Linux/Windows
admin when really needing a VMS system manager. Doesn't
work.

Arne

On 2022-01-21, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I was bored this morning and it's too cold to even go the the gym,

How cold is cold ? :-)

(And how does it compare to northern Europe such as in Norway or Sweden ?)

> so......
> I was looking at the job market in various skills I have.
>
> Amazing how many VAX/VMS jobs are still looking for people considering
> that VAX VMS is officially dead. :-)
>

I suspect when people start advertising for jobs to work with x86-64 VMS
systems, some of them will still call it "the VAX". :-)

Simon.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

On 1/21/22 2:34 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-01-21, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I was bored this morning and it's too cold to even go the the gym,
>
> How cold is cold ? :-)
>
> (And how does it compare to northern Europe such as in Norway or Sweden ?)
>
>> so......
>> I was looking at the job market in various skills I have.
>>
>> Amazing how many VAX/VMS jobs are still looking for people considering
>> that VAX VMS is officially dead. :-)
>>
>
> I suspect when people start advertising for jobs to work with x86-64 VMS
> systems, some of them will still call it "the VAX". :-)
>

As I said, boilerplate. Some of those same jopbs wanted Windows-NT
experience. I think we have reached the point where one can not tell
what the job they are applying for actually is. Not a new phenomena
but one that is becoming much more prevalent.

Reminds me of the last two jobs I held back in 2012. First job was
as a COBOL Programmer. At the end of the interview they aske4d if
I had any questions. i said, yes, one. I then said, "Do you realize
that you didn't ask me a single question regarding COBOL?" They
kind of looked back and forth at each other and said, "Your right."
After 3 months there they rold me I was being scheduled for a class
in PL/SQL. Being as I already knew PL/SQL I was not impressed. I
left about a month later as they wanted me to do things I had not
signed up for. They still have a bunch of cobol, but were never
able to find someone else to come there to take over the maintenance.
The next was even worse. I was hired to be a Unix (specifically
HP/UX) system administrator. Less than a month after hiring me
I was informed they only had one Unix box and it was scheduled for
deactivation within 6 months at which time I would be moved over to
the Windows System Administrators camp. I was there about one
month. I learned as I was leaving that the day I started the rest
of the office had a pool on how soon I would leave.

Now I just read these vacancy announcements for their humor value.

bill