career option ?

[Richard]

Hi all,

i am a 2005 passout enginering graduate in ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.

I was doing business with my uncle after i completed my college for about

a year..i never attended any interview..but attracted by the Booming IT

field i thought joining a MNC..and i got selected in the first company itself

I am paid for a descent salary..and i have been here for the

past one year..I am happy with the concern..but at the sametime I am

afraid about my CAREER!!! the problem now is ''at my work i will be

asked to do PROGRAMMING IN SAS(STASTICAL ANALYTICAL SOFTWARE)

LANGUAGE & we use JCL for submitting the jobs in mainframe..

other than this we write SQL for pulling some data from the ADB2 tables.

thats' it ..I dont have knowledge in any other language or programming

or tool other than JCL,SAS & SQL.

I know there are various job profiles in the mainframe domain like

Applications Programmer/Database Administrator etc etc.. I am not sure

which category i fall under with the work iam doing? Also

all the companies which i see in advertisements are asking experience

in VSAM,COBOL,CICS,DB2..can anyone help me how can i develop these

skills for being in par with the industry? Also please advice me which of

the IBM certifications will be suitable for my position..

please advice..thanks in advance!!

[Veera]

Richard,

Well you are an Applications Programmer.

Database Administrator profilewill be different in terms of the nature of

the job one performs.Like mostly DB Administrators will be resposible for

handling the database of the system. I mean DDL(DATA DEFINIATION ) it

involves creating TABLES , TRIGGERS ...etc.....and defining the strucural

DB. And mostly maintenance part of it in terms of stats..and performace

tunning related to KEYS of table..etc. This is just few of it what i have

listed.

What kind of PROGRAMMING do you do IN SAS, i mean anything specifc

like REPORT generation etc.. ???. SAS is specifally used in few companies

but i am really not good at it so i do not have much info.I hardly wrote

one or two pgms using SAS for some reporting ..so i do not have much

idea on it.

Yes these are very much essential VSAM,COBOL,CICS,DB2., if you are

looking at carrier in MAINFRAMES, normally all the APPLICATIONS do rely

extensively on these skills. What i would suggest is that if in your

company you have any different projects with deals with any of the

above skills its the right time for you to ask ur PM/TL for a change in the

project so that you get some hands on on the above skills.

The primary reason for it is all the APPLICATIONS relying on Mainframes

are legacy system..so more or less it deals with COBOL,VSAM and DB2.

Since you said that writing SQL is also part of your job its good sign.DB2

is nothing but putting some set of SQL's together and coming up with a

program ...so if you have good knowledge in SQL then mastering COBOL

+ DB2 should not be a problem at all.

So firstly i would suggest to start with the basic COBOL and VSAM stuff

and then move on to COBOL + DB2. CICS is altogether bit differnt

conceptually so better once ur done with rest you can start with it.

Developing the skills will only be possible when you deal with real time

projects but yes mean while till you get ur chance you can go thru some

books and manuals and get aquiainted with the basic systax.

IBM certifications -> you have DB2 700 SERIES basic certifications, you

can start off with it..and move on as your skill level enhances.

I WOULD STRONGLY RECOMMENED TO LEARN THE OTHER SKILLS TOO,

ATLEAST COBOL , VASAM AND DB2.

IRRESPECTIVE OF ANY LANGUAGE AND DOMAIN ITS HARD TO SURVIVE

DEPENDING ON ONLY ONE LANGUAGE.

its just my Perception...

Well you have links to study material in this site you can go thru those

and post queries when ever you need some assistance in understanding.

Thanks,
Veera.

[Richard]

thanks veera ..that was quite informative and was helpful in starting off