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Here in Jacksonville, FL the COBOL market is very much in demand. There are companies like transportation, financial, and insurance companies here that have mainframes using COBOL and hire COBOL developers. I believe I remember hearing that these companies have even funded a COBOL program at one of our local universities so they have more talent available, which means they are open to entry-level developers. I don't want to mention any of the company names on the chance that I might misrepresent them (and some of them are my customers), but you can easily find them by searching job boards like Indeed. I'm sure if you mentioned to a recruiter with national/international connections that you wanted a COBOL job you could find one, although you might have to move.

What are these companies like culture wise? When I think COBOL I think of companies requiring a suit and tie in a Dilbert esq company, is that the case? This puts my off more than the language itself.

The people I've met coding Cobol are all stuck in strict 8-17 jobs, with no flex time and weekend stints, with really rigid bosses who do not allow you to take family leave.

The money seems ok though, but flextime and two hours less per day is worth a lot of money to me.

> I have been interested in this language for quite some time

Out of curiosity: do you mean you find the job prospects interesting, or the language itself? Because I'd understand if it's a money thing, but... I used to work with COBOL and I wouldn't wish the language on anyone.

> I used to work with COBOL and I wouldn't wish the language on anyone.

There are worse things. I'd rather work on Cobol than in PHP4, or in a project where I have to deal with front-end stuff done using JS and back-end stuff that relies on the NPM package ecosystem.

Good point about NPM! I'd rather not work with either technology.

I vowed to never work in COBOL. Then, a consulting gig in RPG III convinced me otherwise.

When I used to ride the train to work a few years ago, one of the happiest appearing people I met on the train was a young (30 something) COBOL programmer. He was examining a green-bar fan-fold printout of COBOL code that was part of the back-end of a gas station point-of-sale system. He told me that there had been an issue with a transaction the night before and he was going to try to solve it that day.

Sure, I spent my time figuring out COBOL code (thankfully, code printouts were already going out of fashion back in 1998, when I had that job. I can't for the life of me picture someone reading a printout today. Then again, I still occasionally see middle-aged people reading printed emails in the subway. Go figure) and of course solving problems is exhilarating!

I'm just saying being forced to use COBOL sucks, because it's uninteresting and outdated technology, and mostly nobody would choose it of their own volition, so most COBOL use falls in the category of "being forced to use it". Interest in retrocomputing aside... and there's better retro stuff to be interested in, anyway!

> (thankfully, code printouts were already going out of fashion back in 1998, when I had that job. I can't for the life of me picture someone reading a printout today.

For me, the best way to review source code is to have it printed, where it is easy to annotate.

In fact i think i will buy me a printer at home for the very same purpose.

Make it a dot matrix printer that you can hear from 2 floors up.

Tractor feed, 11x17 fanfold greenbar FTW!

I cast a +1 one-upmanship spell and invoke the line printer. Those things probably had lead ingots in the bottom so that they wouldn't walk across the room.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1403

It's easy to annotate code using modern interactive tools, and even easier to share these annotations with other people. Plus, modern tools also let you inspect the code, analyze usage, etc.

I think the greenbar fanfold was a great way to review code. Instead of being limited to ~100 lines on the screen, you could see the entire file at once, jumping from piece to piece, and annotating it with a pen.

I prefer to use an IDE with tooltips showing types, usage discovery, and where I can jump to a definition with just a click.

Seriously, code printouts are an outdated -- and worse, wasteful -- tool. Maybe they were suitable in COBOL's heyday, but not today.

I think the best way to get into this area will be through networking. Perhaps work on finding a good conference or meetup group where you're likely to meet a Cobol developer.

Now, as the exactly what sorts of events you're likely to meet a stereotypical Cobol developer at....I'm not sure. Perhaps look up your local shuffleboard and canasta clubs and go from there. :)

I'd love to give it a shot. I'm a retrocomputing enthusiast (don't get me wrong, COBOL crowd) and I'd love to get to know more about how mainframes, their care and feeding.

Put it on your LinkedIn and you will be contacted. This is the reason I removed every reference to it (not because of the language perse, more because of the culture of the companies & departments that will wanted to hire me). Expect to only be allowed to work 9 to 5, on prem, have the stricktest of duty segregations, sit at an old desk and lunch with 'the team' from 11:27 till 11:49 sharp. Where COBOL coding will not get you a date, it will pay rather decent.

https://www.indeed.ca/jobs?q=cobol&l=Vancouver%2C%20BC

Which part of the world do you live ? been working with Cobol for a decade . Not that sexy , but hey , it pays the bills.

> I don't have relevant experience working with COBOL which seems to be killing my opportunities.

Amazing.

Not a job board per se, but you might get some mileage out of poking around the /r/cobol sub-reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cobol/

not ever been a mainframe guy, but also part of the thing is not so much cobol but understanding all of the various mainframe arcana for whichever system is used.. you might try to 'sneak in the back door' e.g. via java-on-mainframes and get systems experience on the big iron, then step slowly over to the cobol side of things..

DST System in Kansas City hires a lot of them

Try Wawanesa insurance out of Regina.