IBM Mainframe Forum

Hello All,
I am a mainframe Application progammer and working since 3 years.But i am planning to move to system programming and want to make carrer as sys pgmr.i know JCL,cobol pretty well.Have been learning CICS sys pgming through a friend,and want to jump to this area.Kindly can anyone explain the responsibilies of CICS sys prgmr and what topics do i need to have hands on experiences.I believe this query might have been asked earlier but i request seniors to guide.BTW I am based in India.
Thanks in advance.

mf_learner
India.

Hello,

There are many different responsibilities assigned to a "cics system programmer". This often depends on the size of the orgaization (1000 IT developers will need more cics support than and organiztion with only 20 developers.

For starters, i'd ask your friend who is helping you get started.

I would also look at online job listings for these positions - in your geographic area as well as others to see what multiple organizations cosider the resposibilities for this type of work. Often these listings include a "laundry list" of what the organization is looking for.

Do not be discouraged if the list seems extensive. They post what they want to hire, but quite often hire a candidate who does not have "everything".

As far as i know, there is no single "list" that provides the specifics you want.

Thanks D.sch.
You r right.I happened to see a job posting where the skills reqd went on for a whole page.I wondered, to acquire that much skills the candidate must have min 15+ years experience in various areas.Slowly making me sense that it was a 'Laundry list'.

In smaller companies the system programmer is an allrounder, that means he works with many different areas (maybe DB2, CICS, HSM, SMS, z/OS, ....) while a larger company may have serveral system programmers for just one sub system (for example CICS, or for DB2, or Data Storage, ....)

Hello,

I wondered, to acquire that much skills the candidate must have min 15+ years experience in various areas

Yes, often senior sysprogs have much more than 15 years. Many have more than 25 years. . .

And as Mongan mentioned - some small organizations may have only 1 or a few sysprogs. There is also the other end of the rainbow. . .

One of my recent clients has a "Technical Support" staff of over 125 people (which includes Operating Systems, CICS, several Database Management systems, Storage Management, and Security Administration). This organization runs 12 z8/z10 boxes with 36 or so lpars and 350+ cics regions (the numbers go up every few months). There are more than 200 terabytes of data spinning on the floor and more than 1/2 is for databases. Before the migration/comversion to V-tape, the "tape" inventory was over 2 million volumes.

IIRC, no one in Tech had less than 10 years experience - most had more than 20. When they hired (or rented as in my case - there were several contractors as a requirement can usually be met quickly by bringing in a contractor and not going the entire interview/hiring process) they needed someone who would be productive as soon as they had id's/pwds