COBOL Developer

As a COBOL Developer at Oddball, you will work closely with engineering and product teams, facilitating communication with customers while handling technical support activities. Your key responsibilities include addressing incoming customer requests, providing insights to prospective customers, and configuring setup tasks to ensure a seamless experience with our platform.

To succeed as a COBOL Developer at Oddball, you should have experience in mainframe programming using COBOL and a solid understanding of software application development, design, coding, and testing. Familiarity with the software development life cycle and project management principles is essential. It is also advantageous to have experience in healthcare processes and knowledge of Scaled Agile methodology.

In your role as a COBOL Developer at Oddball, familiarity with ISPF, ENDEVOR, IBM Debugger, and JES2 is required. Experience with VSAM databases and an understanding of programming languages like Java or REXX/CLIST are beneficial but not mandatory. It's also important to be comfortable using productivity tools like Google Suite, Confluence, and JIRA.

At Oddball, we prioritize learning and growth. As a COBOL Developer, you’ll have opportunities to expand your skill set, take on more complex projects, and potentially move into leadership roles within the engineering or product development teams. We also encourage participation in learning programs and offer a tech and education stipend to help you develop further.

Oddball fosters a positive and collaborative company culture where innovation is celebrated. As a remote worker, you will enjoy flexibility while being encouraged to communicate openly with your teammates. We value diverse perspectives and believe that great ideas come from working together—this is especially true for our COBOL Developers who play a key role in driving impactful changes in our projects.

When preparing for this question, focus on your specific projects and experiences with COBOL. Highlight the challenges you faced, how you solved problems, and any tools you used. Providing quantifiable results or improvements you achieved can greatly enhance your answer.

In your response, emphasize a structured approach to debugging. Discuss gathering requirements, isolating issues, using debugging tools like IBM Debugger, and validating fixes by testing. Sharing an example of a challenging bug you resolved would make your answer memorable.

Discuss the importance of implementing coding standards, thorough documentation, and unit testing. Sharing an example of how your attention to detail prevented issues in production can illustrate your commitment to code quality.

Explain your familiarity with Agile methodologies and how it facilitated better communication and collaboration within your team. Mention a specific instance where Agile practices contributed to a successful outcome in your past projects.

Reflect on specific challenges like scaling applications, ensuring data integrity, or navigating legacy systems. It's important to show your problem-solving skills and how you overcame these obstacles while keeping the customer's needs in focus.

Highlight your organizational and time-management skills. Discuss how you assess project deadlines, customer needs, and the overall impact of each task. Providing an example of how you successfully managed competing priorities can strengthen your answer.

Discuss the importance of thorough documentation for both current and future developers. Explain the types of documentation you produce, any tools you use, and how it aids in knowledge transfer and project continuity.

Emphasize your belief in incorporating feedback to improve software. Share an example of how customer insights led to meaningful enhancements in a project you worked on.

Prepare a detailed case study of a complex problem, explain your thought process, the steps you took to solve it, and the outcome. The more detailed and structured your response, the more impressive it will be.

Align your passion for developing impactful software with Oddball's mission. Discuss how your skills and values match with the company's objectives and culture, and express your excitement about the opportunity to contribute.