[Info-vax] Just when you thought the VAX was dead...

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 1/21/2022 9:46 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> I was bored this morning and it's too cold to even go the the gym,
> so......
> I was looking at the job market in various skills I have.
> 
> Amazing how many VAX/VMS jobs are still looking for people considering
> that VAX VMS is officially dead.  :-)
> 
> Reminds me of how people like to use Indeed and Monster as proof that
> COBOL is dead even though most of the jobs posted have boilerplate
> descriptions written by people who probably have no idea what the
> requirements for the job actually are.

We know that there are still some VAX'es running at places - either
very old HW or emulated.

Usually due to various dependencies.

So there has to be some demand.

But note that VAX/VMS may just mean VMS. Those wording the
job ads may not know much about the formal name changes of
VMS over time.

In the Java world it is still common to see job ads asking
for J2EE and most of them are probably on something newer
(for the non-Java people: the technology was called J2EE
1999-2006, Java EE 2006-2019 and Jakarta EE 2019-).

Some may smile over that, but it is not a big problem, because
people with VAX/VMS skills will also be able to work with
VMS Alpha and VMS I64 (and people with J2EE skills
will be able to work with Java/Jakarta EE).

I am more skeptical about the Java or Python ads really
wanting Cobol. Because the typical Java or Python programmer
will know absolutely zero about Cobol. Which will force the
hiring manager to complain to the recruiters.

That would be like putting up an ad for Linux/Windows
admin when really needing a VMS system manager. Doesn't
work.

Arne