My Journey into Mainframe
My journey into Mainframe wasn’t something I planned — it’s something I discovered.
As a child of the '80s, I was fascinated by computers, and I spent a lot of my free time trying to teach the machine to do something useful or funny. It didn't take long for me to decide what I wanted to do for a living.
My first encounter with mainframes was during my internship at a large data center with four mainframe computers. As an operator, I immediately became part of the team and was able to discover an endless number of new things during that year. Even though I didn’t realize it at the time, all those experiences would later prove to be very useful to me.
After that time, I studied Informatik at the university and began my career as a Developer, working primarily with personal computers and wrote programs in Assembler and C for Windows and Unix. At the time, Mainframe wasn’t on my radar anymore.
A good friend brought me back into the world of mainframes. He was working at a mainframe ISV at the time. He often talked about the fascinating world of mainframes and how much cooler it was than those boring personal computers. When the time came for me to look for a new job, I didn't have to think twice.
My first steps into Mainframe Development were “jumping into the cold water”. I started out as an assembler developer, working directly on a team with a major product and many customers. Even though that was some time ago, the experience I gained during my time as an operator proved to be very valuable. Understanding how hardware and software work is one thing, but the processes at the customers’ sites are just as important—specifically, the production workflow in a large data center. That’s the only way to offer customers the best experience on what I consider to be the best platform.
The support from my mentor and my teammates helped me grow and gain confidence.
I still fondly remember our sessions together, with a mountain of open IBM manuals in the room. Yes, those were real books back then, and unfortunately there was no “Search” button.
And as I gained experience, the projects became more numerous and larger in scale. The topics I worked on changed, many times. But what remained was my enthusiasm for this platform. High-performance hardware combined with the highest level of reliability never ceased to fascinate me.
Today, I work as a Development Manager, and I’m proud to be part of the mainframe ecosystem. What excites me most is still mainframe technology, with all its possibilities, and the scale and importance of our clients.
If you’re curious about Mainframe, don’t worry about having the “perfect” background. Skills can be learned, and the community is incredibly supportive. Curiosity, openness, and willingness to learn will take you far.