They use a programming language that is 65 years old and charge $100 an hour

Neither the most sophisticated Artificial Intelligence chatbot in the world nor the most sophisticated platform to manage millions of data: one of the fastest growing technologies in the world and that offers very high salaries for those who know how to use them, was born in 1959 and it is dominated by people who have been working on it for more than four decades. How is it that a language that many thought was retired is still at the center of everyday innovations?

This is COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), a mainframe technology that It is at the heart of the main systems of the financial and banking worldin addition to being very popular in management software, insurance companies and some government sectors.

According to the TIOBE programming community index, a monthly ranking that records the popularity of programming languages, in May of this year COBOL appeared among the twenty most usedsharing the bill with Python, Java, C and other contemporary developments despite being more than six decades old.

And time does not seem to be a problem for this language. Bill Hinshaw, who already blew out 75 candles on his last birthday, is the founder and CEO of COBOL Cowboys, a Texas company that supports the banking industry with unprecedented demand. This American programmer started working more than half a century ago and does not even dream of retirement.

COBOL Cowboys offers support for dozens of companies in your country and has a full staff of specialists in that specific language. In Hinshaw’s own words These are “young people” but the average age is around 50 years old. They all charge at least a hundred dollars an hour. And they can’t cope.

Although there is no doubt that many of its functions could be updated, The truth is that COBOL has proven to be very robust and replacing all the architecture created around it in those critical industries would be very complex and, above all, very expensive.

“Just because a language is 60 years old doesn’t mean it’s not good,” explained Donna Dillenberger, head of IBM’s COBOL training area, whose mission is to train new programmers to replace those who will inevitably be retiring. despite the vitality that teams like Hinshaw’s showed.

In our country this language is also used in a wide range of applications and is in high demand. The IT company Patagonia, for example, has for years had a comprehensive COBOL training and mentoring program with which it seeks to respond to the demand for new talent, regardless of age.

Known as “cobaleros”, It is a profession that supports million-dollar industries but it is not always attractive to young Argentinians. That is why it is also an opportunity for the older ones to remain active and to transmit their experience.

“We believe in the power of intergenerational collaboration and the value of sharing knowledge to build a solid future in the technology industry,” explained Carolina Olivera, CSO of IT Patagonia. And, despite fashions and trends, old people resist.