Giordano Sannino

Looking back over the last two years, the junior system programmer can appreciate the strides he has made while looking forward to the road ahead. The one thing he especially loves is the versatility of the IBM Z platform, and what he’s learned over the last two years excites him about his future on the platform.

Finding inspiration

Giordano’s success was not without its share of challenges. His biggest challenge, at first, was joining a new team as the junior member during the height of the Covid pandemic, when the over-the-shoulder learning that would normally take place had to take a back seat to personal safety. He recalls the initial IBM online courses were a great help during that time, as they provided him with excellent basics as an initial foundation.

While working from home, Giordano found inspiration from his teammates. Each colleague he works with is an inspiration for him. Seeing the enthusiasm and dedication his more experienced colleagues continue to have in their mainframe careers is the greatest form of inspiration to him as a newcomer.

Never a dull moment

Today, Giordano is an important member of the mainframe team with the responsibility of tracking CPU costs for internal users as part of his company’s cost accounting measures. This role involves not only dealing with system management facility (SMF) records, but also experience with the statistical analysis system (“SAS”), IBM Db2 database tables, and in the near future, the VS Code extension that will be available with the Zowe open-source framework. His work experience has also helped in his pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in computer science. This June, he presented his thesis based on a SAS use case that was inspired by his work as a junior system programmer.

Giordano doesn’t need to look far for inspiration. The mainframe continues to provide a rich source of new ideas and experiences for the innovative programmer. The mainframe design principles of security, stability, scalability, and performance have never ceased to amaze him. The mainframe is always evolving and there’s always something new to learn.

Tapping into the mainframe community

For those who would follow Giordano’s fortuitous footsteps into a career in mainframe computing, he has several pieces of advice. 1) Start with the basics, such as IBM’s mainframe practitioner course and the IBM Z Xplore learning platform to get a solid foundation. 2) Create a personal network with other mainframe beginners to share information and opportunities. 3) Tune into the informative webinars designed for mainframe beginners, such as New to IBM Z webinars.

In addition, Giordano believes the supporting mainframe communities are a great source for inspiration and information, specifically the IBM Z and LinuxONE Community, and the New to IBM Z User Group. “As long as there is a passionate community of people who connect, share and collaborate to bring out the best of platform use cases and innovations, there will always be a strong future for mainframes,” he says.