Cobol crippled my job opportunities

Legacy programming skills are somewhat required, but do not think all skills are
needed (Look to the future, letters.computing.co.uk).

I got my first job as a Cobol developer, which I have had for three years since graduating. I wish I had stayed away from Cobol and so should all graduates. It does not matter whether or not there are 70 billion lines of Cobol if you cannot get a job in this area.

I have been looking for work and finding it very hard to get a job. I am a first-class graduate with a masters degree, and even with these academic qualifications three years of doing Cobol has crippled my chances.

All you have to do is type Cobol in a job search and there you have it - the last time I received just 40 hits. Cobol is dead in the job market. When you narrow down your search to London, there are only about seven hits.

Some developers say Cobol is not dead and that they have recently got a job. These people have probably been programming in Cobol for a lifetime, so everyone is competing with these guys for a handful of jobs.

A company might give people with Cobol skills lots of money to fix a bug, but how often do these bugs cause faults? You could be unemployed for years before anything goes wrong, waiting for your one-off big contract payment - it is too risky an investment.

I have three years' experience in Cobol and if another candidate has three years of Java, C or C#, I am out of the competition. Do not listen to those who say it does not matter what the language is, because it does.

I am now hoping to build on my skills at university and will keep trying to apply for jobs. I am also hoping to do some courses to refresh my knowledge in areas I have neglected over the past three years. Cobol should not be taught at university.

Peter, submitted on the web