IBM Z and LinuxONE - IBM Z - Group home

I am a millennial and a mainframer!

  

Are you looking for a career change? You are not exactly sure what to do with your career? Become a mainframer, you will love it!

One year ago, I joined IBM. I had been working the past eight years in another company, while I enjoyed my job, I wasn’t sure exactly if I wanted to continue on that path.  Sometimes, I wish I had listened to my mother who repeatedly encourage me to study something related to IT. My mother worked for IBM for several years before she became a stay-at-home mom. Luckily, this time I did listen, and I applied for a new position at IBM.

The journey

The IBM Z platform offers the security, reliability, and resiliency needed to quickly respond to new requirements and processes, of course, I didn’t know that when I was interviewed.  The interview went well, despite my lack of knowledge toward IBM Z. I mentioned to my now manager that even though I didn’t have a technical background, I had the ability to learn and adapt. While most of the people I know, including myself, have heard of mainframes, I didn’t really know the importance of mainframe in our daily activities and how intertwined it is with so many different industries. Despite the fact that I am still learning about the IBM Z platform, I must confess that I am passionate about the mainframe and my job.

I love how it's constantly evolving, how it seems like there is an endless number of things I can learn about the mainframe. I get to see how IBM Z is the processing core for 2/3 of the Fortune 100, including the world’s top Banking, Insurance, and Telecoms companies.

I have been a Community Manager of our vibrant IBM Z Community for over a year. I take a lot of pride in being part of IBM and the opportunity to work with this incredible technology and with our amazing partners. Every day, I work to help our ISVs to get the most of our partnership with empathy because, without empathy, we can’t advance the ecosystem and build solutions that help our community, although at the same time I also help people like myself be able to go to the ATM and get money.

My role is tightly coupled with other roles, most of them are very technical, to me, these are the company’s best and brightest, especially my team. These are people that have been in the industry for a long time, actually, some of them have kids my age, however, they are always willing to help and accommodate my requests, together we help our ISVs see what IBM Z can do for them. Honestly, I went from planning to work at IBM for a few years to wanted to retire from my position, I don’t like my job, I love my job!

The Future is IBM Z

Today, it is clear to me that being a mainframer could seem like a very old 80’s movie, but this is not the case. In addition to being abundant, mainframe jobs pay well, and most importantly have not been affected by the pandemic as other areas of tech employment. Salaries for entry-level enterprise computing jobs average US $70,100 a year, according to a 2019 report from tech analyst Forrester Research commissioned by IBM.

In the last few years, IBM have doubled down on support for university computer science departments with mainframe computing curriculum. Through its IBM Z Academic Initiative, IBM has partnered with about 120 colleges and universities to integrate enterprise computing into their curriculum. IBM also sponsors apprenticeships and coding challenges, like Master the Mainframe.  Last year, IBM partnered with the state of California on a two-year public-private technology apprenticeship program to reskill state employees in such areas as mainframe system administration, software engineering, and application development.

IBM Z is an industry-unique computing platform. It powers Clouds, including pay as you go services in the IBM Cloud. I can assure you that there are, plenty of fascinating jobs available for millennials that are interested in working with the IBM Z platform.

As a millennial, and now a mainframer, I encourage you all, especially younger professionals or anyone looking for a change in career to become a mainframer!