Started adult life studying a hardcore IT University trail and graduated in Business Information Systems. During my studies worked freelance in a variety of IT jobs ranging from BIOS programmer, IBM PC developer and trainer, mixing these short term contracts with worldwide travelling. After a few short stints as travel guide in Vietnam and scuba-dive guide on the Maldives, I finally settled down on the platform that we talk about today IBM mainframe (3090 at the time). Performed in many different roles for major companies like DOW Chemical, ABN-AMRO, ING, Telstra, SHELL and a host of government departments in the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the USA; mainly Finance, Mobility and Logistics. Being Dutch therefore not afraid to learn new languages, I have extended that vocabulary with computer versions like FOCUS, IEF (aka CoolGen, CA Gen) and all the usual IBM/Z platform languages and tools. The last 10 years in the USA I have become a master of IBM-Z application development, coaching development teams on programming techniques and SQL/DB2. Advocating a more modern approach of development on the mainframe. Ultimately being one of the people trying to push the envelope in true DevOps on the mainframe. I now work for a company that enables me to show the world how that can be achieved!
Email: erik_Rijks@bmc.com
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-rijks-9341a79/