Comment by eej71
5 years ago
The ignorance of cobol is not the blocking point.
Ignorance of the details of the NJ system is the great challenge. Its likely a huge legacy system with all of the attendant warts, histories, strange choices, and odd limitations that come with that. Given that these systems are built up through years of teams of people that come and go - it will likely take a long time to address the real issues.
> The ignorance of cobol is not the blocking point.
> Ignorance of the details of the NJ system is the great challenge.
This seems very plausible. But on this analysis, what's the point of trying to hire "COBOL programmers"? We've just stipulated that the COBOL is easy. Onboarding an experienced COBOL programmer is only a trivial savings over onboarding someone who's never heard of COBOL; they'll both have to learn the system -- but the pool of experienced COBOL programmers is much smaller than the pool of "everyone".
I don't disagree - but its a government agency and so the job requirements are always going to come out like that. Between that and the below market pay - there is a long road ahead for them.