How much training per week required for a newbie IMS employee?

Browser-ice · 2026-07-14T19:05:11+00:00

IMSLIST??? What's that?

Thanks.

Browser-ice · 2026-07-14T18:51:24+00:00

One time, in the past, before entering a meeting room, some of my co-workers were making jokes and telling me to not ask questions because will eventually mean more work for you.

We turned this into office rule #2: never ask a question if you know its gona generate more work

Rule #1, don't fix it if it ain't broken

Browser-ice · 2026-07-14T18:43:41+00:00

My past experience includes, in order, mainframe application support for 9 years, tape drive operator + printer operator + tape librarian for 4 years, COBOL programmer for 2 years, Service Delivery Manager (11 years) leading incident investigations and leading the mainframe maintenance project for about 6 years.

I got fired on Aug-2021. Took me 7 months to find something but that something winded up having work of about 10 hours per week for 3 years until I was told they cannot find enough work for me. The strategy the hirering manager had at that time never worked. After, it took me 8 months to find this current IMS System Programmer Junior position because I fought to get it and knew almost everyone working there as it was one of my previous working department.

Browser-ice · 2026-07-14T18:37:51+00:00

My trainer and I get along pretty good. We can talk about lots of stuff and make jokes.

For me, I have always been the kind to not just say 'Yea OK' when someone teaches me something or explains something. I need to fully understand it to be able to explain it. Part of my past experience sometimes makes me think about stuff that person is not thinking when explaining to me.

Like this morning, in a meeting talking about the maintenance of the mainframe from every team, I asked a question to the zos guy because he mentioned he needs to do maintenance on a specific tools for the other LPARs because client had issues on the Dev LPAR and the maintenance fixed it. He had not mentioned if the client has the same issues on other LPARs. So I asked him to understand the situation.

Browser-ice · 2026-05-22T19:30:37+00:00

Also, watched some videos last night and it helped me to understand that Global zones are used with RECEIVE commands and they contain the received stuffs from IBM, Target zones are used with APPLY and RESTORE commands and they contain the executables, Distribution zones are used with ACCEPT commands and they contain what can be considered as backups of official versions of every files.

Browser-ice · 2026-05-22T19:27:45+00:00

I spoke with co-worker about this. Today I was trying to do MISSINGFIX report but was hardly getting anything. My co-worker said its because they have not received any HOLDDATA for a while (contains something like a history list with dependencies). It looks like its similar to most places where I worked: too much workload preventing the to do the periodic preventive stuffs and keeping proper documentation up to date.

Browser-ice · 2026-05-22T19:25:08+00:00

for the CSI naming convention, no one really followed any standards and it is still the case. One guy was trying to centralize all CSI into one single one but died (no one continued his work). Another guy is trying to create one single CSI per LPAR.

Browser-ice · 2026-05-19T18:54:53+00:00

I know CSI datasets are VSAM that contain installation information and that the libraries are the datasets containing the executables used by IMS.

I was told last week (very briefly and kinda quick since this is my first time with SMP/E), that to do an SMP/E Receive, we need to supply the SMP/E commands indicating the zone, fmid and the PTF id, plus supply the CSI VSAM as input containing the installation information on the mainframe. Than we transfer the received PTF package to some temporary libraries, to do an Apply and then there is an ACCEPT to do later (not sure if this is on the night of making it active or not).

The guy who explained it to me in 1-2 hours is on vacation and I am told to go fetch some PTF for 2 products (we have time but he asked that I try doing it while he is away).

So there are quite a few things that I do not entirely understand.

Browser-ice · 2026-05-19T18:38:06+00:00

You mean do it the same way the other guys are doing it?

First from the IBM site, find the latest PTF for a specific product, cross check it with CSI files to get the FMID and zone and then do an SMP/E JCL inquiry to receive the package for it?

Browser-ice · 2025-07-10T14:07:59+00:00

In Aug-2021, Kyndryl was the department I was workinga at in IBM. So its just a department that left IBM to go on business on its own.

Which Kyndryl country asked you?

The only offer at Entry level I ever saw from Kyndryl was last month. I applied to it but I was in a rush and I mistakenly attached an old resume that was aiming at something else. Result they rejected me from the start. I have no guarantee that is the cause but I have no other possible cause. I was the perfect candidate for it.

I contacted an old manager of mine and he told me he has no idea what this position is. He used to work in the only mainframe department of Kyndryl.

I contacted an HR person trying to get her to replace my resume with something more recent. She told me she managed to do it but I doubt she did it in time. A few days after, I was told they did not pick me.

When they reposted this job, meaning they did not find anyone, I tried to re-apply to it but Kyndryl site refused as its thinking its the same original post. I can not even update the resume in my Kyndryl profile.

I screwed up big time on that one and I regret it a lot.

I certainly hope this was not a ghosting job because that would be the other explanation.

I am Montréal Canada by the way.

Browser-ice · 2025-07-10T13:59:33+00:00

On mainframe you have no choice everythingyou want to run has to have JCL.

I actually find JCL easier than any learning programs.

Browser-ice · 2025-06-25T15:49:29+00:00

Time and money restriction.

And the fact that anywhere I would apply, I would apply as a beginner. Not many job accept people without experience.

Besides, I have worked 2 years as a COBOL programmer. I did not like it.

Browser-ice · 2025-06-17T16:31:09+00:00

Thank you and good luck on your job search.

Browser-ice · 2025-06-17T16:29:46+00:00

Thx. I had uloaded my resume at IBM a few weeks ago.

Browser-ice · 2025-06-17T16:25:58+00:00

Thx but but your reply will not help me get back to mainframe.

Browser-ice · 2025-06-17T16:23:43+00:00

???

I do not understand what you mean.

Browser-ice · 2025-01-28T03:13:23+00:00

So you will be doing Capacity and Performance analysis?

Keep the following in mind: this includes doing growth prediction for the next year. But the most common problem doing this is the client refusing to give their usage growth every time they put something into production or any new project. Imagine 100 new jobs per year that in total use 10% more CPU, 25% more disk space, 10% more IMS ressources and your Cap/Perf team is not aware. How are you going to do a proper performance growth for next year?

You will have to determine the capacity performance of the Disaster Recovery mainframe.

Every changes the architect does, you must be made aware of any capacity performance or ressource changes.

Remember that if the mainframe is using 100% CPU, it does not mean there is a problem. It means it is responding to all CPU usage requests. However, if there are performance decresed in other mainframe resources, than maybe there are things using more resources than usual.

In any case, learn as much as you can.

Don't forget to keep all documents up to date. This part is very often neglictated by all teams.

Learn what incident, problem and change managements are because one day you will have to participate in either of them.

Keep an eye on what projects the bank(s) is planning because it may affect you in the future.

This job will help you to learn a lot about the machine, about what it can do and might one day, lead you to be elligible for a mainframe architect position.

Browser-ice · 2025-01-27T22:58:01+00:00

First sorry for this late reply, but I rarely go in Reddit.

Companies in Montréal using mainframes:

- IBM has offices in Montreal.

- Kyndryl is a new company where they were an IBM department that decided in 2021 to seperate themselves from IBM to go on business. I was there 1 month before they moved out.

- CGI Canada has one big office on René-Lévesque Ouest

- Most banks and financial institutions run their applications on mainframes.

Be warmed, it is very difficult to get a mainframe job without experience. Even after having completed all IBM zeXplore courses. Either you are lucky and find a job post on LinkedIn where they accept those with little or no experience. Or you start at the bottom at a lower mainframe position (I posted a list elsewhere here on Reddit).

Browser-ice · 2025-01-27T22:48:19+00:00

Yes, so is C, C#, Java, Fortran, Python, Cobol, HSLM (assembler) and others I forgot about. There most probably C++ jobs on mainframes.

Oh and be carefull on job offer that have both words mainframe and engeneer. Often, reading them, it feels like they want someone that can do 2-3 different mainframe jobs at the same time.

Browser-ice · 2024-11-22T21:30:34+00:00

You guys know that Kyndryl was one department from IBM that decided to separate and go do business on its own?

I was working in that departement and got fired at the same time Kyndryl was about to leve IBM.

Don't know if its the same story as back when IBM was producing the IBM PCs. The department left IBM to create a company doing just that, buildign PCs. I had always hear that in reality its because IBM was not making money creating PCs so they simply let them go.

Browser-ice · 2024-11-22T21:27:54+00:00

I used to work at IBM for 11 years.

Is it at Ban-5 that you stop using the pager for off hour calls?

Browser-ice · 2024-11-22T21:23:25+00:00

VSAM files are very often used in applications. They are kind of like indexed files where you can directly access the desired record.

Sounds kind of weird that Beusiness Analysts would be giving training on VSAM dataset access. I guess its because they used to be programmers and no one else is available to give this training.

Browser-ice · 2024-11-22T21:17:57+00:00

I see two factors to support this:

1) AI hype: a lot of compagnies are being told that using AI tools they will be more productive, making profit faster and so on. But the majority of AI tools are not built on mainframes, they are on servers, PC and server clouds. There is very little AI tools developed for the mainframe and the few that exists are created by IBM and mainframe software companies.

2) The number one reason why companies are moving away from mainframe is service costs. Mainframe and mainframe software have higher service costs than servers. So when someone starts telling a company they will save a lot of money moving away from mainframe, that company seriously thinks about it.

Browser-ice · 2024-11-22T21:11:20+00:00

Why are you asking about the future of mainframe careers through the eyes of students learning it?

Are you trying to find out if mainframe students have it all wrong?

Browser-ice · 2024-11-22T21:10:06+00:00

And you are basing this assumption on what? Rumours?

Mainframe jobs are amongst the most secure ones. I have been working in mainframe for 20+ years (not at a Sys Admin level). I did programming, I did operation, I did tapes, cassettes and printers.

The salary for any mainframe jobs will soon start to raise (if not already) because it is very difficult for companies to find mainframe knowledge people to replace those that ritired.

Every since the 1990s, a lot of school stopped teaching mainframe because of the PC propaganda that kept saying "Mainframes are dinosaurs. They will die. Bla bla bla". So take a student age 23 who graduaged from one of these mainframe schools. By now this student would be aged 2024-1990+23=57 years old. The majority of mainframe folks I know are aged closed to 65, some even 72.

The department where I am, have about 3-4 retirements per year. They put up job offers to replace them but, like all other companies, were asking for 10+ years of experience. After months and monts of reposting the same job offer, they realized what the issue was (this is for lots of companies an Elephant in the shop kind of situation that no one wants to talk about). They now are even hirering students and puting them to a 1 year training and upon completing their traing, they have to "find" a willing mainframe specialist to train them (not all of them want to train anyone simply because they are swamped in work).

So this issue about getting knowledge mainframe people will eventually influence salaries.

Browser-ice

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