New Jersey needs COBOL programmers for their unemployment claims system

Post by jakear » Sun, Apr 05, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

axaxs wrote: post #156

downvoteme1 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t be surprised if this position then goes to an H1B contractor though. If enough anericans who have this knowledge do not apply because they - Hate the tech - Can’t provide their feedback to improve the system - Don’t like the salary offered even if’s greater than their current unemployment income, then is it for an offshore company to come in and fill that gap.

And that's why most American programmers hate H1B. It's not about filling jobs that we don't have the skill for, it's about filling jobs that companies don't want to spend money on. Offer a half mil a year, and watch how many qualified Americans come out of the woodwork.

Post by lotsofpulp » Sun, Apr 05, 2020, 1:52 PM UTC

abeyer wrote: post #111

xienze wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why not hire an amazing $150k - $180k engineer? If you're making that kind of money, you have a lot better options than working on some ancient COBOL system that processes unemployment claims.

> If you're making that kind of money, you have a lot better options than working on some ancient COBOL system that processes unemployment claims. There's more to life than money and tech. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be happy to work on a boring tech stack in helping to address possibly the largest public crisis many of us will see in our lifetimes vs. working with the new fad of the week in pursuit…

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 05, 2020, 2:01 PM UTC

throw_m239339 wrote: post #190

c3534l wrote: post #15

The point at which the government should have rewritten their COBOL systems into a language that would have a talent pool to draw from was at least 30 years ago.

> The point at which the government should have rewritten their COBOL systems into a language that would have a talent pool to draw from was at least 30 years ago. Lack of foresight, lack of understanding that codebases are a living thing and are never "done". But hey, let's all work for ad companies and put our best minds at solving how we could make people see more ads! Isn't it the power of the executive branch to…

Post by scarface74 » Sun, Apr 05, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

throw_m239339 wrote: post #223

scarface74 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actively avoid companies that put all of their logic in the DB. It’s harder to version control, harder to unit test, much more work to rollback. You can’t keep it in sync with the source code etc. I can’t just switch branches and know the state of the system at the time the branch was created.

You're making good points. First, I'm talking about a PL "middleware" layer than does not necessarily involves restructuring the data itself (basically, instead of querying tables or views, you query stored procedures or functions). When it comes to version control, wouldn't a migration system suffice to assess the state of that layer? As for unit testing, I kind of agree, it's possible though, like any other program…

  Get_Customer_1
  Get_Customer_2
  Get_Customer_3

Post by jeromegv » Sun, Apr 05, 2020, 2:33 PM UTC

rwallace wrote: post #124

downvoteme1 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t be surprised if this position then goes to an H1B contractor though. If enough anericans who have this knowledge do not apply because they - Hate the tech - Can’t provide their feedback to improve the system - Don’t like the salary offered even if’s greater than their current unemployment income, then is it for an offshore company to come in and fill that gap.

I don't think the point is that Americans should consider themselves too good for the COBOL jobs. The point is that the organization has stated that it will refuse to hire many people who would be willing and able to do the jobs.