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Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

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Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#21

Post by xiaodai »

skissane wrote: post #20
seanhunter wrote: post #7

The idea that COBOL is at the heart of bank systems is a persistent myth that gets published every now and again alongside some story about how essential these systems are, how they can never be replaced and how the people maintaining these systems are a dieing breed. Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private…

> Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private wealth. I’ve seen plenty of company-specific languages, plenty of C++, Java, perl, python but have literally never encountered a COBOL system. Two of Australia's four biggest banks – ANZ and Westpac – have historically run CSC Hogan. I don't know what they are doing…

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Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#22

Post by PeterStuer »

seanhunter wrote: post #7

The idea that COBOL is at the heart of bank systems is a persistent myth that gets published every now and again alongside some story about how essential these systems are, how they can never be replaced and how the people maintaining these systems are a dieing breed. Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private…

I have consulted in big banks and there's plenty of COBOL (and RPG) still around in the core.

Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#23

Post by worthless-trash »

skissane wrote: post #20
seanhunter wrote: post #7

The idea that COBOL is at the heart of bank systems is a persistent myth that gets published every now and again alongside some story about how essential these systems are, how they can never be replaced and how the people maintaining these systems are a dieing breed. Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private…

> Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private wealth. I’ve seen plenty of company-specific languages, plenty of C++, Java, perl, python but have literally never encountered a COBOL system. Two of Australia's four biggest banks – ANZ and Westpac – have historically run CSC Hogan. I don't know what they are doing…

They still are hiring for it, thats for sure.

Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#24

Post by century19 »

seanhunter wrote: post #7

The idea that COBOL is at the heart of bank systems is a persistent myth that gets published every now and again alongside some story about how essential these systems are, how they can never be replaced and how the people maintaining these systems are a dieing breed. Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private…

As the other comments say, this is not a myth. Of course banks use other languages and try and put as many work processes as possible outside the core system, but core COBOL systems is very common. Have worked at a couple.

Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#25

Post by mickael-kerjean »

skissane wrote: post #20
seanhunter wrote: post #7

The idea that COBOL is at the heart of bank systems is a persistent myth that gets published every now and again alongside some story about how essential these systems are, how they can never be replaced and how the people maintaining these systems are a dieing breed. Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private…

> Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private wealth. I’ve seen plenty of company-specific languages, plenty of C++, Java, perl, python but have literally never encountered a COBOL system. Two of Australia's four biggest banks – ANZ and Westpac – have historically run CSC Hogan. I don't know what they are doing…

Same here, in Australia I did a contract with QBE insurance, COBOL was what was running the show and I know of several people in banking where it's the same

Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#26

Post by exabrial »

I would do it for them for the right price; about 5x what I currently make writing Java/Js/C on Linux.

These sense like an extreme amount, but the problem is I’m pigeon holing myself into a single tech and my pathway to career advancement is finding other big banks that are hurting… which again I’m willing to do, but the risk/reward has to be there.

Given what some of these mangers make at these banks, coughing up that salary isn’t unreasonable.

Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#27

Post by soco »

seanhunter wrote: post #7

The idea that COBOL is at the heart of bank systems is a persistent myth that gets published every now and again alongside some story about how essential these systems are, how they can never be replaced and how the people maintaining these systems are a dieing breed. Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private…

I worked and keep working for a couple of biggest insurers. Enough COBOL around to make management sweat.

Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#28

Post by century19 »

mschild wrote: post #18

There is a network of local state owned savings banks in Germany called Sparkasse. They have an in-house IT company called Finanz Informatik. I was surprised to learn that they actually had IT/Software Dev apprenticeships that taught COBOL and mainframes as their main subject. Apparently the program was somewhat successful for them.

When I've seen this in other banks it's been difficult to keep the junior devs interested in staying with COBOL. In general they wanted to move to other teams.

Re: Shortage of COBOL developers in insurance and banks

#30

Post by apaprocki »

seanhunter wrote: post #7

The idea that COBOL is at the heart of bank systems is a persistent myth that gets published every now and again alongside some story about how essential these systems are, how they can never be replaced and how the people maintaining these systems are a dieing breed. Almost all of this seems untrue (except maybe the last one). I’ve worked at a variety of banks from front to back office across securities and private…

It also appears in ways that you don’t expect. PeopleSoft is COBOL and they have like 25k+ customers. As we write, Oracle is trying to sell more COBOL into the enterprise in 2023 :)
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