Going into any process where you are spending money on training, the concern is always whether you will get value received for the money you spend. I can say without a doubt that we got that value and more from imPower Technologies and Jim Buck. The classes were great. They were very detailed and comprehensive. I spoke with my new hire Programmer trainee, who had no previous RPG experience, several times during the process and his responses about the classes were always positive and he was impressed. I think Jim is both down to earth in his engagement during the process, and very knowledgeable.
I have been an RPG programmer for 41 years and it was amazing to see our young trainee grasp knowledge that put him ahead of even me after all this time.
Overall, on a scale of 1-10, I would rate the classes and the process as a 10. I seldom give 10 ratings, but I think this case warrants an exception.
Thanks to Jim and his company for providing training that will yield a very valuable asset to our company, that we will realize for many years to come.
Allan Mortenson
Vice President, Information Technology
Burgers’ Smokehouse
Prior to enrollment in Jim’s imPower RPG Programming class, my 5+ years of experience as a programmer was almost exclusively in vb.net web apps. I had some experience using the AS400 but never programmed in RPG. I spent some time trying to learn RPG on my own, but it proved difficult to find both hands-on exercises and how to utilize the more modern tools available. I’m beyond thankful my employer found this class and was wiling to make the investment to enroll me. I appreciate Jim’s teaching style – down to earth – he cares about students retaining information and mastering concepts.
The programming exercises are cleverly designed. I had “ah ha” moments with all of them learning what to do and what not to do. The hands-on work was my favorite part of the course. There is no substitute for the resources (example programs, test data, etc.) you’re given access to with the student account, such as how to leverage the RDi development environment. My RPG developer experience now is a lot better than I ever thought it would be based on my initial impressions. Not to mention the end of the course opened the door on how we can use our existing RPG programs and data in a browser environment.
We now have a brand new, burgeoning intranet site. I give my highest recommendation to this course for anyone in need to learn RPG programming.
Thank you, Jim!
“Jim’s courses were the perfect solution in my transition from an end-user on the IBM i platform to a developer of our programs and business logic. There was and continues to be tremendous value to our business in modernizing older RPG code to take advantage of SQL and other tools to improve processes. I’ve been able to take several examples from the course and put them into use for us. Outside of the courses, Jim went above and beyond to help with questions I had and programming projects I was working on. If you’re looking to train developers and bring value to your IBM i driven business there’s no better place to turn.”
I am a programmer who learned COBOL in college and began my career with an insurance company that had most of their policy admin systems and accounting systems written in COBOL. I spent several years as a COBOL programmer and eventually VB.Net, before leaving the workforce to raise a family. When I decided to re-enter the workforce, my new company needed an RPG programmer and I was enrolled in the imPower RPGLE class.
This class was a great introduction to the RPG language, RDi, and the IBMi in general. The class is online and you are able to move at your pace which I enjoyed. The videos are very easy to follow and the programming examples allow you to practice the techniques that were just introduced. Jim provides many sample programs that you can access and use when working on your assignments. There is a weekly meeting with Jim and other students where you can ask questions and learn from others that are taking the class. By the end of the class, I felt comfortable coding in RPG and even viewing existing programs at my company and following the code.
This class is detailed enough for a brand new programmer to learn not only the language, but basic programming concepts, while also being fast paced enough that an experienced programmer would not be bored learning the language. I highly recommend this class for anyone needing to learn RPG and the IBMi.
I’ve been a java programmer for years. Due to my company’s requirement I have signed on to Jim’s RPG class online. With Jim’s online video lessons which including both concept and sample programming that has step by step explanation on how to code efficient RPG program using RDi, how to debug etc. It helped me quickly to understand and become RPG programmer. Both Jim and Michelle have been very quick responders whenever have question during the class. The Wednesday Webex Team online meeting, which is more like question and answer time, can learn a lot from other students’ questions and watching teacher fixing either myself or other students’ program issues.
Overall, I enjoyed very much Jim’s RPG online classes and very appreciate Jim and Michelle’s afford to make this RPG class easy to understand and can be quickly get into the RPG world.
Thank Jim and Michelle very much!
I had been programming in PICK or uniVerse for about 28 years. After starting to work for RAE Corporation, I needed to learn the IBM i system and RPG as quick as possible. I had been looking online and was not finding the information I needed, but thankfully I found imPower Technologies. Jim Buck and Michelle Lyons have put together a wonderful program. The IBM i Concepts and Programming in ILE RPG classes were a great help to me. I can truly say Jim wants his students to be successful. The time he spends with his students, past and present, during the Weekly Webex meetings prove that. Keep up the good work Jim and Michelle! It is needed!
“My current employer needed another programmer to help with the large amount of pending projects that we have. The Director of my department asked if I was willing to learn RPG despite the fact that I have never seen a single line of code in my life. We reached out to Jim and he gladly took me on as a student. His courses were well organized, simple enough to comprehend, and challenging enough so you can really test what you’re learning in each section. On top of having a full blown online course to learn off of, Jim makes sure all your questions are answered in a timely matter and hosts a weekly 3 hour nonmandatory meeting for all his students so we can ask questions and learn as a group. I’m very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from Jim. He cares about his students and always goes above and beyond in order to see you succeed in this career path.
As a new developer freshly out of school, I had never heard of RPG before I started to work for my company. With the help of Jim’s class and his book, I managed to quickly grasp this language and how it is used in today’s world.
Thanks to him, I also learned to use and setup tools like RDI to work more efficiently. Jim put away all the apprehension I had about using RPG and gave me the confidence to start my career as an RPG programmer.
Thanks to him, I also learned to use and setup tools like RDI to work more efficiently. Jim put away all the apprehension I had about using RPG and gave me the confidence to start my career as an RPG programmer.
When I first heard about imPower Technologies at a conference and the courses they taught online, I asked myself “How is it I had never heard of them before?”. The logical answer is I did but since I did not have a need at the time, I just did not give in much thought.
Well shortly after that conference, the need did arise and I did remember about imPower Technologies.
I just wanted to let you know what an outstanding online course (Programming in ILE RPG) that imPower Technologies teaches is. To take a person with no programming experience but with a desire to learn and turn them into a junior programmer in just a matter of months is remarkable.
I like the fact they are able to do this at their own pace but you make sure they stay on track. The progress reports and updates I received from imPower Technologies as he progressed though the course was great. This gave me a real good idea how things were going.
He has already finished a couple of projects and is really enjoying programming.
I would highly recommend this course. I plan to send others through this course in the future.
We are a company that has had one main IBMi Operator / RPG Programmer for decades. As he faces retirement, we found the ability to hire new programmers to be very difficult. We finally settled on a new hire that has no programming experience to become our new developer. We started his training by putting him on a different training course that consisted of audio tapes. Although this course was a good introduction to operating the IBMi, it was outdated on the RPG programming side.
In our search for an alternative to the audio tapes, we found imPower Technologies. This was an actual course with live meetups and homework! This was a fit for our needs, and the results show it. Since taking your course, we have been able to get him involved with some ambitious projects that allow our field operations to generate and update work orders on their tablets while in the field. He is also working on a program to control and maintain inventory and equipment.
Apart from being a valuable learning resource, I can tell you that our new hire really enjoyed his time in this class. The weekly meetups were encouraging, the assignments were challenging and helpful. A lot of work was put into the examples and assignments, and it is clearly paying off.
I am a new programmer that is still in college for programming. I “lucked out” in finding a job with Rogers Water Utilities. They are a company that uses the IBM I system and a single programmer to develop all of their software. I was thrilled to get a job in my field of study but overwhelmed at how much there was to learn with the IBM. I quickly realized that just operating the system (let alone programming it) was very different than anything I was used to. I learned a few basics with the archaic audio tape training, but a lot of the material didn’t apply to modern IBM Power systems (I literally learned how to install IBM clients on Twinax cable).
The imPower Technologies RPG class was a different story. Not only did it teach the most modern RPG coding skills, but also saves you from the pain of figuring how to set up RDI, how to navigate the green screen and it demystifies the compiling process of a bunch of RPG modules. These things can all be road-blocks to one’s success in learning RPG. It isn’t as simple as throwing source code into an IDE and hitting run. Jim Buck removes these road blocks with a carefully structured course that holds your hand through the system as you learn to code in RPG. The weekly meetups are where he will personally walk you through a program or a problem that you may be experiencing.
If you are a company that is hiring new programmers to keep your RPG environment cranking on all cylinders, do not make the mistake of supplying your employee with a book or stack of audio tapes to learn from. There are many things that have to be figured out and skills that must be acquired when new to an IBM system. Learning how to code in RPG won’t be enough if I can’t check my spool file, or run a simple query to validate my program, or deal with system error codes. Jim Buck will get your workforce on the right path.
ImPower provides a hands-on learning experience that will prepare you to use the latest RPG tools and techniques employers are looking for. Take this class and learn from Jim Buck, one of the best trainers in the IBM application development community. The class runs over around a ten-week period and there’s plenty of personalized attention. I lost my last position due to a corporate reorganization. It only took a couple of weeks after ending Jim’s class for me to land a new position. It was a super experience and the ImPower process is much more effective than a one-week boot camp. I highly recommend ImPower for training that provides high value at a reasonable price.
When we decided to hire 4 young people with no programming experience to become our new group of Junior RPG developers, I wasn’t sure where to start with their training. After searching online for options, we found your online training class and thought it looked like a fit for what we were planning.
In just 5 months, we’ve got all 4 junior programmers working on different types of projects. All are showing a great understanding of programming logic, RPG programming, CL programs, RDI and the IBM iSeries in general. They are so far ahead of our expectations that we truly couldn’t be happier with the results we’ve seen. Because they were allowed to progress at their own pace, two of them were already working on projects in just 2 months!
The results we’ve seen and the understanding into programming that these new programmers have gained from your class has been amazing. To take 4 non-programmers and turn all 4 into Junior RPG developers in such a short time has been a huge help to our department. We appreciate all that you did to help our new people become productive employees and look forward to working with you again in the future.
My name is Michael and I am an IT Manager at MBI, Inc. a $300 million consumer products company in Connecticut that has just celebrated its 50th anniversary. We are an IBM i shop with two divisions plus corporate each running their own applications on a partitioned system with three separate supporting teams of application developers. Our applications are written in ILE RPG Free utilizing extensive SQL and using Rational Developer (RDi) as our development tool.
Over the years it has become harder and harder to find talented RPG developers especially ones with the drive and excitement to take on new technologies. Along with ILE we are using SOAP and REST web services, PHP, XML, HTTP and JavaScript to build more modern applications and interfaces. We needed to find employees to support our growth and it was at the fall COMMON User Group conference in Pittsburg last year that I met Jim and heard about his company and its mission.
At the conference I met with a group of young developers, new to the IBM i, and was very pleased to see their enthusiasm about our system. These developers came from a variety of technical backgrounds, .Net, Java, etc., but all were now working at IBM i shops. The common thread for these developers was that they had gone thru Jim’s courses to help get them up to speed on ILE, CLLE, RDi, DB2 and our very amazing operating system.
I got home from the conference and convinced upper management here at MBI that this was a very viable approach to addressing our staffing needs. Approval was given and I immediately started working with local agencies to find non-ILE talent interested in adding IBM i to their skillset. In February 2019 we found and hired Laura an experienced developer with C#, MVC, .Net and JavaScript experience. She immediately started taking Jim’s courses ‘IBM i Concepts and Operations’ and ‘Programming in ILE RPG’.
By mid-April Laura had completed the on-line courses. She was an active participant in their weekly online group sessions and she got timely and effective support from Jim and his team. imPower was effective in keeping me abreast of Laura’s progress so that I could feed her appropriate assignments to reinforce her education.
Laura has taken her new knowledge and become a contributing member of our team. We are only three months past the formal education phase and I am pleased to be able to report to both Jim and my management that this has proven to be very effective solution. I highly recommend Jim and his company’s on-line education offerings and would be glad to talk one-on-one with anyone considering taking this approach.
“imPowers’ online courses (Programming in ILE RPG and IBM i Concepts) turned out to be an excellent solution for my company to train two new employees. Because of an unforeseen retirement we were put in a position where we had two new programmers starting at the same time. They both had programming experience but not on the IBM I platform. We had them both taking the online courses almost immediately. By the time they completed this course they both had a strong starting base in both ILE RPG and RDI. They were able to establish this base very quickly (5-6 weeks). They were able to start working on some actual programs in our system much sooner than I expected, mainly because of these two courses. I would highly recommend imPower.”
“Like most IBM i shops, I have experienced many issues with trying to hire entry level RPG developers. Over the past few years our need to expand our IT development was limited to consultants or those with 25+ years of experience. It has been impossible to find someone with RPG knowledge, just beginning their professional career and that have had some exposure to other developmental languages. Earlier this year I was fortunate to be able to hire a recent graduate (Francis) of a local school that focused intensely on JavaScript and User Interfaces. Prior to his hiring I reviewed your on-line RPG class and recognized right away that this was the right path to follow, hire someone really good at JavaScript and teach them RPG. I had no hesitations in selecting imPower Technologies to provide this education. Francis’ goal when hired was to complete the on-line class within his first 90-days. It was amazing to see his progress. Not only was he learning RPG, but he was fully embracing the entire language and the IBM i. The progress and feedback from you was also very helpful. Once he completed the course he was ready for real world programming. After just 3 months, I now have a developer that can program in both RPG and JavaScript. This would not have been possible without your help and on-line class. I read so much about how IBM / RPG is dead and out dated. This experience proves how wrong that is. With a solid logical background and the ability of taking your comprehensive on-line class, RPG is alive and well here at Banyan.”
“My experience throughout Jim’s ILE RPG and IBM i class has been nothing short of spectacular. Each chapter in the books are filled with great and detailed information on the specific topics, and the video lectures he supplies online are a great reinforcement to the readings. The sections are completed with either a lab or programming assignment, which was a awesome way to apply what you learned in the chapter into a real world problem. Although I took this class online, Jim was heavily engaged in my learning of the language and always reached out to see what more could be done to not only improve my ability to learn, but what could be done to improve the class for others as well. Jim was always eager to help in any way possible and pushes you to put yourself in a position to exceed. In a matter of 3 months, I went from not knowing what RPG stood for to being able to build full-on ILE RPG programs. Within 2 days after completing the course, I was able to get down to business and begin helping my current employer with building and maintaining company programs. All of this could not have been possible without Jim and his classes, and I will be forever grateful for the experience. “
“What Jim offers fills a needed gap. It is a great answer to training resource with required skills. We have had a couple of staff members, including a student take Jim’s class. After doing so they have been able to hit the ground running in a short period of time. A student with the desire and aptitude can take Jim’s class and be a valuable part of your programming team quickly. The class is great quality at a great price. Well worth the investment. The class format, material and structure is very professionally done and well suited to the purpose. Jim goes beyond and above and truly is making an impact on meeting the need to train the next generation on IBM i.“
“I had never heard of IBM i or RPG before meeting, Jim at MITEC. I took his RDi course, and soon will be getting certified for it. I am so fortunate to learn from Jim. He did a lot of one on one with me and helped me understand RDi to further my education goals. I now work for a company that does consulting on the IBM i platform, all due to his lessons. The RDi course will open your horizons, and Jim will bring you to it. I strongly recommend this course and instructor to those who wish to further their career. ”
Jim Buck’s education program is among the best in the world. This has been proven time and time again as he continues to produce desirable students for IBM i companies. Jim’s passion for education coupled with years of business experience and a well-developed curriculum has helped make my career successful. His program is widely recognized as being effective and I strongly recommend it to anyone that is serious about learning the IBM i.
Jim is a rare instructor; one you will not forget. I had the privilege of learning RPG programming from him, and though his knowledge is extensive, it wasn’t just technical elements that stuck; he cares about his students and works assiduously to see them succeed. I personally credit my highest levels of success to Jim and his tireless drive. Give Jim a pint and he’ll give you the Great Lakes.
Jim Buck first taught me that RPG does not stand for Rocket Propelled Grenade, and I haven’t stopped learning since. I’ve been working for a company as a Programmer, then Programmer/Analyst, for nearly five years since graduating. I even met my current employer through WMCPA, which Jim was heavily involved in. I’ve had the opportunity to provide for my family using the knowledge that Jim helped me acquire. When I was in school, Jim pushed us all to be better. He didn’t accept excuses because we were better than that. He knew we could work through the issues that we came across, and helped us get to those solutions rather than providing them for us. It was tough – He was tough. And he’s been the most influential person in my life because of his dedication and passion to the students he’s helped. I will forever be grateful to Jim Buck for the support, motivation, and confidence that he has given me over the last six years.
Jim Buck is probably the best instructor I’ve ever had. His knowledge base and real world experience is outstanding in the IBM i world. Renowned author of several textbooks, and his personal involvement with his pupils make him a great educator. Jim’s knowledge in IBM languages such as CL, RPG, COBOL, and DB2 make the interaction of these programs with one another almost seamless in the programs I’ve built. Without his instructions and carefulness to make you adhere to properly constructing you program this would not be possible. The way he instructs you to write programs with the new modernization techniques will have your programs running faster and more efficiently saving your company processor time.
Jim Buck, what can I say – he is truly an IBM i Champion. Jim started out as an Instructor of mine and over the years has become more of a brother to me. Jim cares about more than just filling seats and the numbers – he cares about the student being able to learn and utilize the knowledge that he is passing on. I started the program at GTC in 2004. As an instructor at Gateway Technical College (GTC), Jim was tough. He had the highest standards. I am beyond grateful for Jim’s constant pushing to help me become better than ever. It was Jim’s strict standards and constant pushing that helped transform me into the person that I am today. Jim taught me much more than just RPG. He taught me how to think like a Software Developer, think about the impact of what I was doing, and think about the system as a whole. Since graduating, I have been able to transfer the skills that I learned into the “real world” and utilize them to become very proficient at my role as a Senior Software Developer. I have always felt that I had the tools to do whatever needed to be done (future, present, and past). If there was a way to do it, I would be able to figure it out. If you completed the program at GTC, the odds were very good that you would become employable in the field. Not because Jim was going to get you a job, but because you now have the skills necessary to earn a job in this field. Jim is very involved in the IBM i community and I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the best through him – Dr. Frank Soltis, Steve Will, Tim Rowe, Alan Seiden, Mike Pavlak, Larry Bolhuis, Charlie Guarino, Aaron Bartell, Jon Paris, Susan Gantner, and the list goes on and on.
As a Gateway Technical College graduate, I had the honor of being mentored by Jim Buck. Under his mentorship, I gained the necessary skills to build a successful career in IT. It was under his guidance I became a programmer for an amazing company. Jim was the recipient of the 2007 IBM System i Innovation – Education Excellence Award. In 2012, 2016 & 2017, he was named an IBM Champion for Power for his influence and mentorship helping others make the best use of IBM software, solutions, and services. I attribute my success to his abilities as an instructor, and the expectations he has of his students. There is no one who I hold higher or more deservingly has my respect, trust, and admiration. Jim, thank you for your patience, determination, & enthusiasm as a teacher. You are truly one of a kind.
Jim Buck was my instructor for RPGLE at Gateway during the 2009-2010 academic year. As head of the IBM I program at Gateway, Jim took as many aspiring programmers as he could from classroom to the software industry. He taught us not to simply copy other developer’s code, but to think about the best way to use RPG to write well-constructed, lasting and maintainable programs. He ushered students like me into the community by taking us to WMCPA meetings and introducing us to big names in the IBM i industry, like Scott Klement, John and Susan Paris and Mike Pavlak. Most of all, he posted job openings weekly and made it a priority to bring software company recruiters to us. If it were not for Jim, I would not have landed a job at Master’s Gallery in June of 2010. Since my school years I have kept in contact with Jim attending WMCPA conferences, meetings and working on IBM i projects like the standardized certification for RPGLE that is now distributed at COMMON. I have never seen anyone in the industry more dedicated to the advancement and preservation of the IBM i platform.
Without Jim Buck I would not be where I am today. When I first met Jim, I had just dropped out of high school. Now I have an excellent career in programming at a great company and I owe it to Jim. Jim is the the kind of teacher who pushes his students to succeed. He genuinely cares whether or not they are learning . He is one of the most knowledgeable iSeries administrators that I have ever met, and his relationship with so many iSeries shops in the Wisconsin area means that his lessons have a business focus that many lack.
I was a student at Gateway Technical College and took Jim’s RPG classes. He taught me everything I needed to know about RPG to successfully maintain and build source code as well as navigate the system. He is a big believer in modernization, so as a student I learned the most current form of RPG and embedded SQL. We also used the most current tools like Profound UI and Arcad. In his classes I successfully created programs that have the same logic that I use everyday at work now. Without Jim and the knowledge he has given me I would not be where I am today.
Jim Buck’s courses were the most important classes in my career. He wrote the book RPG and teaches the language from a business use-case scenario. Students are learning more than how to write a new language, some are learning how a business runs day to day from creating inventory reports to creating tools to manage inventory. Over the years he has taught and helped students to become programmers where some go on to succeed to become business leaders.