Being somewhat older than most programmers today, and desiring to reenter the computer field, over a year ago I decided that perhaps my best shot was to brush up on COBOL, because I had read that there are still a lot of COBOL programs out there and many older programmers, have or are going to...retire! If you do a search today in this log file, there are 5 pages with COBOL references, beginning with a simple COBOL compile in October 2018. I also have 6 small COBOL sample programs on my github placed there in 2019. So I definitely didn't jump on the COBOL bandwagon. Recently, since COVID-19 there has been a lot of talk in the news about companies looking for COBOL programmers. Ironically now after preparing, I can't even pursue any of these jobs.
My mother, who until about 2 months ago was living independently, has become very ill and needs watching. I'm not complaining or blaming her because she has, as usual, been my biggest cheerleader over the years. I can't do enough to repay her. The only complaint I have is the irony of the timing. I didn't recently decide to learn COBOL because of the resurgence of interest in it. I attempted to show proactively, my desire to, at some level, return to programming. I am a person who was actually a IBM mainframe programmer who also wrote many COBOL programs, and who has been brushing up on my COBOL, in hopes of getting my foot back in the door. COBOL syntax, is only part of the problem, because it also helps to understand JCL (on IBM mainframes) and the concept of job streams and batch programming. At least I assume that is still true. I myself could use more JCL experience. But I do have some JCL jobstreams that I put together recently to test my MVS programs. Of course that doesn't take into consideration the advancements in z/OS. I also wrote CICS programs, but don't claim to be useful in that area anymore, because I have forgotten too much! Also I'm a pretty healthy older person who over the last 2 years has lost 40+ pounds and walks everywhere. So I have the potential to be able to offer many years of mainframe programming availability.
Oh, the irony...oh, the humanity : (