‘Everything Is Just Totally Different’: How New Mainframers Adapt
With formal mainframe education a rarity, learning the platform often means learning on the job
By Andrew Wig
‘Everything Is Just Totally Different’: How New Mainframers Adapt
With formal mainframe education a rarity, learning the platform often means learning on the job
By Andrew Wig
Thrown to the wolves. Baptized by fire. Drinking from a fire hose.
Whatever your preferred metaphor, entering the mainframe space for the first time and apprehending its intricacies (and idiosyncrasies) can be a startling proposition, a transition so radical that even veteran developers are often given pause.
At least, that's how Jakub Balhar's mainframe career started. Balhar had already amassed about 15 years of experience as a software developer on other systems, but when he discovered the mainframe, he was met with an alien landscape.
“Everything is just totally different,” Balhar observed in an interview with TechChannel.
To do something about that, he joined the Open Mainframe Project’s Zowe team. As chair of the Zowe Technical Steering Committee, he helps shepherd an open-source modernization tool set that eases the transition to the mainframe for newcomers.
It may sound silly, but one of the most difficult aspects for me starting off was remembering vocabulary and application names, as oftentimes they’re referred to by their acronyms.
—Katie Juhala, technical support engineer, Broadcom Mainframe Software
On-the-Job Training
Based on experiences reported by early-career mainframers, the existence of modern development tools doesn’t negate the fact that transitioning to the mainframe requires a hunger for mainframe knowledge. Most often, that transition happens not in the nurturing environs of higher education, but in professional settings where there is less room for error.
According to a 2024 report from BMC, having adequate staffing and skills continues to be top-of-mind for organizations, with 39% of survey respondents listing it as a top priority, behind compliance/security (64%), cost optimization (49%) and AIOps/operational analytics (45%). In addition, 79% of organizations said staffing limitations hindered efforts to meet business objectives, according to a 2025 report from Pop-Up Mainframe.
Skills: A Perennial Concern
39% of organizations list staffing and skills as a top priority
79% of organizations say staffing limitations hinder business objectives
One reason for the skills shortage? “A lot of the universities really aren't teaching mainframe. … We need to do a better job at that,” Pat Stanard, a Distinguished Engineer and U.S. mainframe architect at Kyndryl, told TechChannel. Of course, that is not to say that such instruction doesn’t exist at all. Stanard, himself, is a university adjunct professor and mainframe instructor. He said the shortage of such educational opportunities is “one of the reasons why I got into teaching.”
Evan Westman
Broadcom Mainframe Software
Even Westman, recognized as a standout early-career mainframer in TechChannel’s Rising Stars program, said he learned nothing about the mainframe in college, despite his wide-ranging computer science education. “I studied electrical and computer engineering in college,” he wrote in his Rising Stars application, “and while my degree did a great job teaching me technical fundamentals for a wide variety of subjects, as well as critical thinking, it contained little-to-no curriculum that was directly applicable to the mainframe.”
Olivia Ecock
VM Workshop
Olivia Ecock, another Rising Star, was discouraged from even trying to learn mainframe skills while in school. “I was told not to waste my time by learning COBOL or any mainframe skills, as they were antiquated. If only the professors took the pulse of the mainframe job market,” she wrote.
Modernize Your Mainframe Data — Without Compromise
Streamline operations, boost resilience, and ensure compliance with BMC AMI Cloud.
Watch how it works ...
Connect with an expert →
Challenging the Cream of the Crop
No matter their past accomplishments, it’s easy for new mainframers to feel overwhelmed when they first take on the challenge. This much is clear from the following accounts from other Rising Stars.
Niall Ashley
Vertali Ltd
Having previously worked as an engineer at Airbus, Niall Ashley already had an impressive tech resume when he took a job at Vertali as an associate consultant. Despite that, he felt “an unrelenting sense of imposter syndrome” when he began working in the mainframe space, noted Ashley, who now works as a security consultant for Vertali.
Katie Juhala
Broadcom Mainframe Software
For Katie Juhala, a technical support engineer at Broadcom Mainframe Software, it helped to remind herself that she didn’t need to be an expert in everything. “I just need to have a basic understanding of how it works,” she wrote. The trick, she elaborated, is to know what questions to ask.
Asking the right questions starts with learning the vocabulary, and on the mainframe, newcomers might find that it helps to have a stomach for alphabet soup. “It may sound silly, but one of the most difficult aspects for me starting off was remembering vocabulary and application names, as oftentimes they’re referred to by their acronyms (I still sometimes accidentally mix up ICSF and ISPF when speaking),” Juhala wrote.
Kim Peelman
Broadcom Mainframe Software
In echoing that sentiment, Kim Peelman, an engineering manager at Broadcom Mainframe Software, demonstrated the vast differences that exist between the mainframe industry and other tech sectors. “I had worked in software for over 10 years, yet I had never used terms like ‘GA’ and ‘PTF,’” she recalled.
Skills That Translate
While the mainframe is rich in esoterica, there are still common computer science skills that can prove useful on the platform. For instance, many technologists coming out of school already know languages that run on z/OS, like Java and Python, Stanard noted.
Where programming language barriers do exist, generative AI (GenAI) code assistants offer help. Other GenAI tools, like ChatGPT, can be a boon for new mainframers attempting to learn about complicated mainframe systems. “It's just another tool and it's going to help you. It's going to save you time,” Stanard said.
While these new resources are making the mainframe more accessible to a wider swath of technologists, assimilating into the mainframe ecosystem still requires help from flesh-and-blood humans who have the ability to inspire.
If the mainframe shuts down, guess what? The economy stops.
—Pat Stanard, Distinguished Engineer and U.S. chief mainframe architect, Kyndryl
Winning Hearts and Minds
“The mainframe is real a launchpad for innovation,” Stanard said. “ … It’s the most optimized, progressive, intelligent platform in the world.” That’s the kind of message he preaches to his students when selling them on the mainframe. If that doesn’t paint the picture clearly enough, he might invoke this doomsday scenario: “If the mainframe shuts down, guess what? The economy stops.”
For mainframe boosters like Stanard, such motivation tactics are all in a day’s work—and part of the spirit of mentorship that is so deeply embedded within the mainframe community.
