this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 156 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yo if you are doing COBOL systems maintenance for 90k you arent charging enough.

That's all this meme means. Consultants on COBOL maintenance can make 90k in a week. This is not the area where companies pinch pennies.

[–] odium 47 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

A lot of banks have bootcamps where they pick up unemployed people who might not have ever had tech experience in their life. They teach them COBOL and mainframe basics in a few months, and, if they do well, give them a shitty $60k annual job.

Source: know someone who went to one of these bootcamps and now works for a major us bank.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So you're saying you can get free training then just leave for a real paying company eh

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I imagine they have some absurd contract that says they can't leave for 89 years or whatever

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

And I'd like to see that contract hold up in court lol

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

The trick to exploiting people is keeping them in fear and ignorance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

There are some court cases going on right now about this type of thing. Generally, the payback is only allowed to be for the real cost of training, and only for a few years. So that 60k salary for 3 years is also the right amount to make you worth 150k anywhere else.

[–] djehuti 2 points 9 months ago

This has been going on for decades. My dad became a COBOL programmer in 1980ish after taking an aptitude test in answer to a newspaper ad. Y2K consulting was a pretty good gig.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My experience with Fintech and the financial sector is that they don't care about how much, they only care about how fast.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

They just have understanding of correct criteria of financial success, since they, eh, work with finances.