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COBOL Developers

Hire COBOL Developers

Updated on:
16 Jan, 2024

Hire COBOL Developers

COBOL stands for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, and it is one of the most used programming languages today. Even though COBOL was launched in 1959 and we have come a long way since then, COBOL is still an integral part of many Fortune 500 companies. When it was introduced, COBOL’s competitor FORTRAN was meant for scientific use. But COBOL came as a language meant for businesses and allowed the programmers to write code for programs that could run on more than one type of operating system. 

So, what we see today with cross-platform programming, COBOL is the beginning of it all. COBOL may not be used in the up-and-coming organizations, but most of the government organizations in the US are using COBOL. This is because it is easy to use and highly portable. A COBOL developer is responsible for writing the program code with this programming language. They are tasked with designing, developing, and configuring the code to build the programs and then testing it to assure performance and efficiency. 

When you want to hire COBOL developers, you will find yourself in an uncanny situation. This is because the young developers do not prefer learning and working with COBOL, as it is an old language. So, you are most likely to find some veteran programmers who have been working with the language for a long time. Finding young talent who works with COBOL is rare. 

However, when you are associating with Skuad, such issues will not arise. We have expertise in finding the right people, even if it is for legacy languages like COBOL. We are here to help you expand your team without delegating a special team to find the right people. Skuad’s experience and expertise in the employee management and onboarding process are befitting for every company and industry while ensuring smooth of every industry and organization.

COBOL Developer Development Technologies

Visual Studio

Visual Studio and COBOL make up Visual COBOL, and this technology mix allows creating native COBOL applications along with managed .NET apps. The developers will use Microsoft Visual Studio IDE to develop, build, and debug the application that is written in COBOL. As an IDE, it provides everything required by a developer to build COBOL-based applications. 

They can use COBOL templates for projects meant for Windows or other operating systems. Along with this, the developers can work on colorization, background parsing, debugging, setting breakpoints, querying, etc. 

GnuCOBOL

GnuCOBOL is an implementation tool of the COBOL programming language. It works as a transcompiler to C by using a native C compiler. As a result, the COBOL developers can produce native and executables from COBOL source code to make the program work on Linux, Windows, macOS, and other operating systems. 

So, when you hire COBOL developers for your organization, assess the candidate’s on their understanding and experience of GnuCOBOL. The latest stable release of GnuCOBOL came out in 2020, which means that it is a developing technology, and the developers will need to work on learning its new updates and concepts. 

SQL/DB2

DB2 is a relational database, and SQL or Structured Query Language is the standard language for gaining access to the data in relational databases. Both these concepts are used in COBOL programming in the form of embedded SQL statements and perform SQL operations. 

For COBOL-DB2 programming, the SQL statements are delimited between EXEC SQL and END-EXEC. These might be a bit technical aspects for a non-technical recruiter, but they are one of the important things you need to ask from the candidate.

Endevor

Endevor represents an integrated set of management tools tasked with automating, controlling, and monitoring the main system of software development. It helps track the applications and their version, along with giving the developers an easy way to maintain them collectively. 

As it is an integral part of the software development life cycle, Endevor takes note of the actions taken by the user, called Elements. Simple functions like Add, Update, Move, etc., are performed in the foreground and in batch mode. These actions are submitted in batches for processing described with Software Control Language (SCL), which is the language of Endevor. 

COBOL is an old language, and the programs developed with this language are facing issues, especially in terms of slow processing speed. As a result, the implementation of the programs associated with the language is delayed, and the users are at the receiving end of these issues. 

Hence, there has been an increase in the demand for COBOL developers in recent times. As more companies want to hire COBOL developers to enhance their programs and systems, the demand for these developers is on the rise. However, there is a talent shortage in the industry of COBOL programmers, which makes hiring them for your project even more difficult. 

Working with Skuad means you will be able to hire COBOL developers with speed. Moreover, we will also help you with onboarding the right person for the job as we understand your requirements, culture, and needs before assessing the list of candidates in our database.

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COBOL Developers Development Industries

Banking and Financial

Some of the long-standing banks and financial institutions in America have been using COBOL for numerous years. These institutions have built complete software and systems used in everyday banking with COBOL. As the employees and the systems are accustomed to it, migrating to another language is easier said than done. Hence, we have institutions like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Fiserv using COBOL. 

Government Institutions

The Department of Veteran Affairs, Department of Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, etc., all of these and many more are still using COBOL. As a result, there is a huge presence of this programming language in the government-run institutions. This makes finding COBOL programmers for your project difficult because no one would want to leave working for the government for a startup or a private organization. 

We can name a few private institutions like Vivarejo or private companies like Streamlabs that are also using COBOL. But their usage of this language is kept to a minimum. Having said that, the importance and usage of COBOL has gained attention since the past year, when the institutions using the language require an update on the firmware. 

As a result, there is a new demand of COBOL developers in the market to handle the aging systems in place. The old mainframes running the systems powered by COBOL are seeking help from programmers to formulate a solution. This has led to a sudden increase in the demand of COBOL developers. 

At Skuad, we understand your concerns, and as a company dealing with an old programming language, you cannot use the DIY approach here. Hence, you need intelligent and highly skilled COBOL developers. Skuad can help you build a team of COBOL developers for on-premises or remote work. We understand the requirements of a COBOL developer and use that knowledge to build contracts for the COBOL developers working in your organization.

Hard Skills Requirements to Hire COBOL Developers

  • Experience in creating and enhancing legacy code targeted towards accepting the new market requirements. 
  • Work with the new technology and merge it with the existing mainframes to create a better operational system. 
  • Work with the existing Legacy Code Enforcement System and its integrations. 
  • Experience in working with COBOL software designing, building, and maintenance. 
  • Can provide system analysis and testing data-centric applications built with COBOL to suggest the required changes. 
  • Can successfully write COBOL programs for the organizational requirements and needs. 
  • Knowledge of mainframe technologies apart from COBOL. These include JCL, CICS, VSAM, DB2, MQ, etc. 
  • Can work with COBOL IDE like IDz, IBM Debug, Code Coverage, Changeman, OmegaMon, etc. 
  • Update the existing documentation, including Functional Specification Packages and Program Requirements Packages. 
  • Create program design with Visual Studio and Visual Basic. 
  • Experience with handling application performance enhancements that includes retrofitting, unit testing, and product implementation.

Soft Skills Requirements for COBOL Developers

  • Is able to work with older mainframes and has the patience to wait as the systems might be slow. 
  • Has strong leadership skills and can take up the responsibility of junior COBOL developers. 
  • Can deliver own responsibilities and takes accountability for the work completed. 
  • Has a strong personality with a commitment to producing efficient work. 
  • Can think logically with effective analytical skills towards creating an innovative solution. 
  • Is able to handle work pressure and can manage the time accordingly. 
  • Stay updated with the latest industry trends and upgrade the current skill set to become a better programmer. 
  • Is able to learn quickly and get a hold of things efficiently. 
  • Strong communication and interpersonal skills required to interact with the team, clients, and stakeholders. 

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