Having a background in applied linguistics, I never thought I would do anything related to tech. My love for languages and linguistics took me to South Korea in 2014, where I started a career teaching English.
On my first day, I walked into an office humming with dozens of desktop computers and printers. But as the new guy, I was given an old, dusty laptop running an operating system that was already a decade old. It was miserably slow and struggled to open basic documents. I spent most of my precious prep time staring at the hourglass on the screen.
Eventually, I decided to try to fix the computer and get it running faster. The only problem was that the operating system was in Korean, which I had yet to learn. I decided to try anyway. Armed with a Korean-English dictionary on my phone and an online tech guide, I got to work.
After a couple of weeks of playing tech support during prep time, the laptop was whirring away and keeping up with my co-workers’ desktops. Success! I really enjoyed the process and thought doing this kind of work could actually be fun, but it seemed like an unrealistic prospect. I quickly forgot about it.
Rediscovering an Interest in Programming
Fast forward to 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The private tutoring business I had started was suffering because of lockdowns, and because of that, I suddenly had a lot of free time. I felt pressure to have a “backup” career plan, so I started taking online programming classes–and loved it.
I later heard about LaunchCode and the bootcamps they offer. Around that time, I was also planning to move back to the United States. Things finally started going the way I had hoped when I was accepted into the bootcamp in spring 2023.
That is, until our instructors informed us that the bootcamp-to-job pipeline was slowing down, as was tech hiring in general. Still, I kept my head down and pressed forward.
Discovering the Vitality Program
In the fall of 2023, I found out about the Vitality Program. At the time, my mental image of a mainframe was a room-sized computer from the 70s. However, the idea of systems programming appealed to me, so I applied.
All the spots had already filled up. Disappointed, but not willing to give up, I threw myself back into my web development capstone project.
Then, in early 2024, I received an email about applications for a new Vitality cohort. I stumbled over myself to get my application in. When I got the call that I had been accepted, I was over the moon. Years of work were starting to pay off.
Learning the Mainframe
The Vitality courses were no walk in the park. We worked hard in collaboration with amazing instructors, learning how to use ISPF and write JCL, COBOL, and REXX, among many other things. Our Vitality supervisors consistently encouraged us while also pushing us to greater heights.
I went through a five-week OPS/MVS course and absolutely loved it. Things were starting to make sense. OPSREXX was getting easier to write and understand.
Then, the opportunity came to pivot to IDMS. Switching products was intimidating, but once again I had the opportunity to learn through Broadcom’s Learning@Broadcom courses and from wonderful people on the IDMS team at Broadcom.
Six Months Into a New Career
It has now been six months at my new position with a large life sciences company. Every day brings a new challenge, but the Vitality Program gave me the tools I needed to learn and grow.
I am fortunate to be working in collaboration with the Broadcom Expert Program and to learn and solve problems alongside a veteran IDMS mainframer.
I was, and still am, incredibly grateful to Broadcom and the Vitality Program for taking a chance on someone without a tech background. The best part is that I still get to interact with OPS/MVS and use multiple dialects of REXX in my IDMS work.