I did, my first job out of college was mainframe cobol at a bank in 2002. It was a huge mistake. The mainframe apps were a cost center the company sought to minimize. Salaries were low, raises were zero to 3%, no bonuses. It was a dead end job. I recall sitting in a group meeting when the VP announced the offshoring initiative. The plan was to replace attrition with offshore developers, max 10%. A few quarters later same VP told the same group the same plan, only this time the target had risen to 20%. Ding ding!

That’s when I got out. When it came to switching jobs I had zero experience in current tech and had to take an entry level position and a pay cut. A few years later that same company had massive layoffs and all development outsourced by 2008 or so.

So yeah whenever you hear about opportunities in mainframe cobol don’t believe it. I’ve got 2,000 former cobol developers from that company alone who will attest that its farce. What puzzles me is who’s behind this idea and what’s their goal in promoting it?