by Robert Sample » Sat Jul 09, 2011 6:41 pm
Broadly speaking, there are three areas of mainframe usage: operations, programming, systems support. Operations people run the daily / weekly / monthly / etc jobs, monitor the console for messages, get tapes into the system and out of the system, and so forth. Programming people write and maintain code to perform functions for the business. Systems support people update the operating system and products, install new products, ensure the machine is running as efficiently as possible, resolve problems, and so forth.
The three groups are all important and have very different skill sets. Saying you are interested in mainframe technology is not telling anybody anything -- it's like saying you're interested in plastics but not telling if its chemical composition, manufacturing, commercial usages, industrial usages, consumer usages, or something else where your interests are.