So my dad just lost his job.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm going to develop an Android app that bans smartasses without having to log in as a mod.

[Grey Fox]

I'm going to develop an Android app that bans smartasses without having to log in as a mod.

Well, not you obviously but his dad could develop a drawing app for tooddlers with google ads & he might be able to not lose his home.

Do you know how many ads my daughter clicks on everytime she plays a game?

[Ideologue]

"Hey, everybody!  Be a self-employed entrepreneur!  It's the French-Canadian way!  Even the word is French!"

That said, I guess it's not the worst idea.

[Syt]

Sorry to hear, Raz. I hope things will look up soon.

[Razgovory]

He is (was) a computer programer.

It may not be at the wages he once had, but I don't think he'll have a problem finding a job.

Unless he's been doing it all this time without getting any industrial certifications because he didn't need them as he's worked with the technology since it came into existence, like somebody else I know.

That's exactly what he did.  In fact, he worked in programing on mainframes and never really learned PC stuff.  He knows thing like COBOL.  He was just a clerk working for the state of Missouri when they asked if he'd like to be a programer.  He said, "sure, why not?"  This was 1983.

[CountDeMoney]

Uh oh, mainframes. If it's any consolation, I was called by a recruiter if I had any experience with mainframes and terminal emulation;  still plenty of them (read: government) out there.

[Zanza]

Mainframe programming and COBOL are actually quite in demand skills. Lots of stuff that needs zero downtime or high security is still running on mainframes, like core banking or air control or so.

[fhdz]

Raz, I'm sorry to hear it.

[DGuller]

Uh oh, mainframes. If it's any consolation, I was called by a recruiter if I had any experience with mainframes and terminal emulation;  still plenty of them (read: government) out there.

I work on mainframe every day.

[Razgovory]

My dad is taking it surprisingly well.

[Richard Hakluyt]

No slutpack?

[Tamas]

Experience with mainframes doesn`t sound hopeless, especially in such a huge country, if you are able/willing to move for a job I guess.

I am sorry Raz, in your family`s situation this must be really tough. Have you considered finding an employment? Even if you need to/decide to give it up later, or never find any, due to your issues, it may mean a lot for your Dad in this situation that he sees you going out of your way to help the situation.

P.S. My dad`s birthday is also on Wednesday

[Eddie Teach]

Experience with mainframes doesn`t sound hopeless, especially in such a huge country, if you are able/willing to move for a job I guess.

Yeah, that's the kicker. Probably not a lot a lot of jobs in Jefferson City.

[Caliga]

Mainframe programming and COBOL are actually quite in demand skills. Lots of stuff that needs zero downtime or high security is still running on mainframes, like core banking or air control or so.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Yup, at least in my little slice of Fedland if you are a mainframe programmer there is an automatic adjustment (upward) to your baseline pay when you're hired on. So if a job opening is for a certain programmer classification, but you're expected to do mainframe programming, it automatically has an adjusted payscale versus one that doesn't. It's a very in demand skill.

What happened with mainframes is by and large they (and the lesser mentioned mid-range machines) were basically all of the computing industry at one point. If you were a programmer you worked on those machines, period. When that changed, it went from being a skill that everyone doing programming needed to one that sort of segmented you out from the faster growing fields in doing desktop development. But honestly mainframes aren't going anywhere, IBM got scared shitless that was happening and in the early 1990s had mostly already gotten deep into their turn into services and other offerings because they were afraid of being tied to mainframes. But the reality is the development of powerful servers, workstations, desktops etc has not replaced mainframes. Corporations still tend to buy them, and they aren't going anywhere. At this point even IBM (which for years predicted a decline publicly) is saying they don't expect their mainframe business to go anywhere, although they do expect cyclical declines/increases in sales.

A lot of people I work with assume the mainframe systems we (as users) work on every day are running on ancient hardware. The reality is, while parts of the code base date back to the 60s I know (as I was involved in the purchasing decisions) the mainframe itself is from the IBM z9 range, it's a relatively new (2000s) era machine. I think part of the perception that these are old machines is the limited color and such on the display when you log in for a terminal session, but that's solely configuration choices and the system looks like it's from the 70s because they're afraid the people who have actually worked on it since the 70s would fall over dead if you added too much color to a menu or etc.