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.
Michael GabryschOver 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. Michael Lestik III