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Do You Know Cobol? If So, There Might Be a Job for You


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The Cobol logo.

The Common Business-Oriented Language (Cobol) remains the most widely used programming language in the financial services industry worldwide.

Credit: Hackr.io

Although it was developed in the late 1950s, the Common Business-Oriented Language (Cobol) remains the most prevalent programming language in the financial services industry worldwide.

Software programmed in Cobol powers millions of banking transactions every day and forms the foundation of critical computer mainframes. This is likely to remain unchanged, as banks and other companies have realized that implementing new mainframes would be expensive and complicated.

However, Cobol is not popular with new programmers, and as a generation of Cobol experts prepares to retire, there is an ongoing search to find new coders to service the technology.

Several companies continue to teach programmers Cobol; said Derek Britton of Micro Focus International, which offers Cobol programming training to 400 colleges, "We don’t see that demand going anytime soon."

From The Wall Street Journal
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Abstracts Copyright © 2018 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

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