I need advice!
Hello everyone.
I'm still in school and currently co-oping with IBM and I have been for 7 months.
I would really like a job where I'm coding all the time. The title of my current job is "Software Engineer" and I have been coding some but not all the time.
Very little people even get to code at IBM, its like 90% of everyone is doing test or automation which I don't want to do.
Are all jobs like this? Where your not doing Software Devlopment?
At my job I really want to keep expanding my programming skills and knowledge and currently I'm not.
I learned 1 new langauge (ReXX) and did 1 Java Network program, and did alot of coding in ReXX now. I'm also doing alot of mainframe stuff with z/OS.
But still its not the devlopment I was hoping for.
I was hoping to be working with more high level things such as C++ or Java/JSF/JSP or .net stuff.
If I keep co-oping with IBM I'll be stuck in this department (Tivoli) which does more mainframe applications (meaning low level coding which I don't like)
But If I try to move to another department in IBM my manager said it would be really hard for me to get back at his department or get rehired at his department full time.
Also if I go to another company and internship he said it would look bad on my part showing I wasn't loving what I was doing at IBM which is true, i'm not exactly.
So what should I do? Just keep working at IBM and get hired there for a first job and then just devlope my skills on my own and look for another job while having a secure job at IBM?
or should I look for other company's to co-op with while i'm at school and loose the security that I will be hired when I graduate?
[1828 byte] By [
voidflux] at [2007-11-20 11:14:30]
# 1 Re: I need advice!
There was a saying quite a few years ago, which still may hold true to this day.
"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"
although that was in the mainframe 80's market.
I would stay where you were for a few years and learn what you can.
# 3 Re: I need advice!
Thanks for the responces!
PeeJAvery,
I understand that, and I enjoy testing and debugging but I don't want my only job to be just Test.
At IBM, there are so many people, there are 3 levels of test and debugging, where their whole job is only to test/debug no coding at all (I gues there is some coding with JUNIT testing but not much, its mainly automation). Thats what I don't want to get stuck doing.
ha "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"
They are firing people like crazy, they pushing for a "global workforce" and outsourcing a ton of jobs. In fact just 2 weeks ago about 30 people lost their jobs at IBM to Russia.
The people who lost their jobs have worked 20+ years some of them, and their main job was dealing with mainframes z/OS environment.
Right now at my job I feel excited when I get a job programming because so many people aren't programming and that is what bothers me, its not challenging me at all.
I want to gain skills that will be transferable to other company's if I wanted to leave, and it seems at IBM the skills i'm learning are so so outdated.
I remember talking to another person at IBM and they asked me what i was working on, I told them Rexx and some mainframe stuff, and they said rexx? When I was a co-op 30 years ago I learned that, they still use it?
Thanks for the advice though, even though I don't like what I'm doing, its a job and I'll stick with it so I can get income and look else where when the time arises.
Maybe if some of you could post what your day is like at the office or what types of projects you are working on I could get an idea of how involved you are compared to what I've seen at IBM.
Thanks guys!
