Breaking the Legacy Myth and Building IBM i Unicorns: Early-Career Insights From Megan Olson
Megan Olson, software engineer and product manager at Fortra, joins Charlie Guarino on "TechTalk SMB" to discuss the critical role of mentorship in the IBM i community and dispel myths about the platform
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Charlie Guarino: Hi everybody. Welcome to another edition of Tech Talk SMB. You can see on the screen here that I have a wonderful guest today, Ms. Megan Olson. Megan is a software engineer and a product manager from Fortra. Interestingly, Megan is a bit of a newcomer to the IBM i community. She graduated school with a degree in software development in 2020, and yet in just five years later, I consider her to be a very considerable driving force in this community. I have seen her accomplishments, I’ve seen, and we’ll talk about all these things. It’s really an interesting story. Megan, thank you so much for joining me here today.
Megan Olson: Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Charlie. I appreciate it. I’m happy to be here.
Guarino: Absolutely. Oh, that’s awesome. Thank you. I’m so glad you’re here, Megan, as I continue reading some of the bio here that you have here, Megan is actively involved in the platform’s future, which is absolutely amazing. But what caught my eye, more recently joined the boards of QUSER and the Southeast Michigan User Group, IBM i group, as well as the N2i committee, which is unbelievable, and we’ll talk about some of these things also. But really the thing that caught my attention the most was Megan is deeply passionate about programming on IBM i, mentoring new developers and contributing to the platform’s continued growth. That says a lot. So why don’t we just stop there and just give me a little bit of background on some of that and then I have lots of questions for you, but let’s just start even with what I’ve said so far. So first of all, welcome again. Thank you and thank you for joining me. So talk about what I’ve even talked mentioned over here. You started only five years ago with your degree in software development. Yet here we are today and here you are speaking at conferences and things like that. It’s amazing. So why don’t you go now.
Olson: Definitely when I first started, I had such an impactful career, I guess, start just right away from the amount of mentorship I had, and it really drove me to as soon as I could basically kind of turn around and start making that a priority to keep that mentorship mentality going for everybody else who’s starting. I don’t think I would’ve been able to get where I am if it wasn’t for all of the people around me and all the mentorship I had. So I really want to help drive that to continue because we have so many other people like myself that are getting started and they’re going to need the same thing and I want to use my career start to help show what can happen if you give somebody the right mentorship and the right start is possible for a lot of other people to get started too.
Guarino: So let’s take a step back. You talk about mentorship and I know even speaking for myself, I’ve had mentors who’ve put me on certain tracks and I’m forever grateful to them. I know there was at least one person you told me that really made a big difference on you. Why don’t you talk about that one person and why they’re so special to you?
Olson: Yeah, definitely. Char Parker was the professor at the college—I got my degree in software development, but she specifically taught IBM i courses and at the time I didn’t know what a unique, awesome thing that was, that we had that opportunity. But she not only did that, she actually helped me find software development as my career path as well. She picked up on my interest right away and was very much like, here’s all of this awesome things. Here’s what you can do, let alone, she did punch card programming back in the day and she started telling our class about that. I was absolutely amazed. She was just such an amazing person and inspirational and she really helped solidify this as my career path and helped me get started. She actually helped me also find my internship at Fortra, which is where I’m at today. So she really made a big difference and it was amazing to me. That wasn’t just me, it was so many people that got started on this platform because of her teaching those courses and helping everybody get started.
Guarino:
I never had the chance to speak with Char. I mean, I know Char, but I never had the chance to speak to her about this very topic, but I suspect that there might’ve been somebody even in her life or career that put her on a certain path to pay it forward in that regard.
Olson:
I would imagine. So it seems to be like when somebody has that experience, they kind of tend to want to do the same thing. So I like to think of it that I’ve had such great experiences like that. That’s why I want to turn around and do the same.
Guarino:
I am sure that Char Parker would be thrilled to know that you’re continuing this legacy, if you will, or this momentum that has been started even before I joined the platform, before she joined the platform. And now surely there are people, and we’ll talk about your speaking at some of the events, but there must now be people who are even now younger than you or just starting out where you were five years ago perhaps, that now we’ll be seeing your name as their inspiration and their mentor. What do you think about that?
Olson:
That would be amazing. I really hope that I can give somebody else the same experience that I had really. That would be so amazing to hear.
Guarino:
I wonder what it was about Char, I can tell you for me, for my mentors, it was always their passion, which is really infectious passion and commitment and excitement, things like that. If you could distill it down to there’s a couple of, was there any one thing that your mentor Char brought to you that really were a light bulb? Did you have an aha moment or a light bulb went off?
Olson:
I had say for me it was really her confidence in this whole platform in that this was a good trajectory for anybody. She was very confident that this is somewhere that we would all go and succeed and she’s a very smart person. So when you felt that confidence that she had that this was a good path for us to take you really, I believed that and she was right.
Guarino:
I think that’s great. Yeah, mentorship for sure, and I find it in this particular community, I find a real strong commitment. There are many mentors that are out there, some people deliberately and some even by accident, you don’t realize that you’re inspiring people you might hear years later. I mean, I’ve told people years later in my career, you were one of the people and they said me, what did I possibly say? Well, no, you said there was one thing that you said that stuck with me and that’s really, that’s what it’s all about. So thank you for recognizing Char and I’m sure she’d be thrilled. We’ll make sure that we let her know about this. That’d be great. Well, let’s keep going because I want to talk about your, where you’ve come in these short five years, as we said.
So I’ve been speaking in the community for a long time at common events including the most recent COMMON Navigate, and your name was on the speaker roster, which is absolutely amazing and I was thrilled to see you, but I’ve seen you at other events as well. And the name of your session is Beyond Legacy, thriving in a modern IBM i career. I have been saying for years how this system is modern and we need to get newer developers, but more importantly that it is, it’s a very robust and capable machine, but somehow it sounds different. I think when you say it, and I mean that in a good way because now people can now see it through new eyes and maybe it has a different meaning or has a stronger meaning. Perhaps. I’m just going to read one or two sentences from your assistant abstract and then we’ll talk about that because this really fascinated me. IBM I platform is often seen as a legacy system, powerful but dated, and now this is you talking as a young developer who entered the space I encountered, I encountered that perception head on, but what I found was a vibrant, evolving platform with modern tools, active communities, and incredible opportunities for growth. I think that one paragraph right there, you can almost say it wraps up your whole five years already, right?
Olson:
Absolutely.
Guarino:
So what things, obviously you said it already, but let’s explore some of that more. First of all, well, we basically, your mentorship of course, but how was your message received when you gave that session at Navigate?
Olson:
Honestly, it was amazing, and that was my first time speaking at all too. So I was a little bit terrified, but it was great. I was so taken back by not only I was expecting there to be maybe a couple students. That’s kind of what I was thinking in mind of, I just want to let these guys know, hey, this is a good “look at me” kind of thing. But there was also a lot of, I’d say people who were in the other position of looking to get other people onto the platform as well, and it was really kind of like you just said, they’ve all been saying it, but kind of feeling like it’s not getting across and for whatever reason, I feel like I’m saying the same thing they’re saying, but when I say it, it means a little bit something more just because I feel like, Hey, I’m proof. I’m right here. This is what just happened to me. It’s not just me saying that. When I’ve been here for 30 years, my experience getting started was a little bit different. So to see somebody that is still here and doing the same thing, but I also went through more recently the getting started part of it. So I feel like it resonates more with the people who are getting started to see that and know that it’s possible.
Guarino:
And how was your first speaking experience?
Olson:
Awesome. It was way better than I expected. I didn’t realize how much I actually, it was more like having a conversation with a lot of great people that were interested in the same thing I was. So it was really exciting and mostly there was a couple students in there that I got to talk with after that waited and they said, that was really great to hear that, and it made an impact on them, and that was enough for me to like, okay, I want to do this more. And that’s exactly what I want to do is to just be an example to them to show them, Hey, you can get started here. And it’s definitely a great place.
Guarino:
It’s definitely addictive. Once the bug bites you, it definitely becomes addictive and you want, yes.
Olson:
You can make a difference like that. It’s exciting and you want to keep doing it.
Guarino:
And you can oftentimes see immediate results. People come, as you said, as soon as the session is done, they come right up to you and they will give you some kind words and that’s what keeps people going and wanting to do more. Absolutely. One of the things that we spoke about prior was even for example, when you were speaking at Navigate, there was this notion, this statue that you said you admired. It was the fearless girl, and I wrote that down because that’s on Wall Street in New York where I’m from, and I’ve seen that statue and that statue really symbolizes courage, determination, resilience and hope, particularly for women, for young women especially. And I’m just curious why you gravitated even to that, what was it about that message that really captivated your interest?
Olson:
That definitely when I was trying to think about explaining what it was like to get started, and as I was trying to work on creating that presentation, I kept thinking, well, a lot of words on this paper, well presentation, it didn’t get the message across. So I kept trying to think of ways to put in some imagery and that statue came into mind when I was trying to describe what it felt like to just even initially try to get in the door, because you feel like you’re already facing a huge obstacle just because of the stigma around the platform. So you already have a lot to learn. You’re already getting into a lot, but then let alone you have this negativity that you also have to face at the same time, so have to be prepared to face a lot before you even get started.
So to me, it felt very much like that, let alone you have the, being a female in the tech area is a little bit challenging as well. So there was just a lot of things that I felt like I had to face right away, and obviously the second I got through that, it’s been amazing, but I had to be prepared for that and I had to face that because it’s very easy to just turn the other way just from the negativity alone. I had people tell me I needed to learn something else as a backup because this was going to be a dead end, and they’re confidently telling me that. So it’s very hard to just be sure of yourself and what you’re doing when you have that opposite kind of reaction from people ,and then it’s still hard to get started learning and you’ve got to be able to, it’s hard when you have your mindset is so important when you’re just getting started learning something and then you’ve got that negativity building on top of it.
It’s hard. It was hard for me, but everybody else that’s getting started in this platform right now is facing that same thing of really there’s a lot of questioning around the future, and if you’ve got that on top of it, it makes it so much harder for everybody to get started. So that was a big thing of why I wanted to start speaking and helping others. I want to kind of counteract that negativity and give them a voice of positivity around getting started here, so it makes it easier for people to see this as a career path opportunity.
Guarino:
Yeah. You mentioned this negativity, but it’s not what you found once you made that first step and opened the door, all that perception was seemingly incorrect based on.
Olson:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And it such a wild, so contradictory to everything that I heard in was told when I got started. It was like, I don’t understand what these people are complaining about. This is absolutely not what I’ve seen already. And I’ve only been here a couple years. I’ve seen so much evolving already in just my little time span.
I’ve seen things evolving, let alone when I started, it was like everything’s green screen, green screen. I get here and I’m like, wait, that’s one tiny piece of what we’re capable of. We can plug into all these modern things. This is just not even right. I was pretty mind blown at the capabilities. I was not given that impression at all. And then I get here and I see, wow, this is amazing. We can do all kinds of stuff. How is everybody so wrong? And it makes you want to be louder a little bit to Yeah, it was crazy to me.
Guarino:
One of the terms I heard you mention once, and it really stuck with me, and I think I’ve even used it a couple of times because really encapsulated everything you said. It is the paradox of the platform. That’s what you said that is self-describing of course. But why don’t you elaborate on that because that’s such a fascinating way to talk about this platform. What is the paradox of this platform?
Olson:
Yeah, to me it’s such a paradox saying that it’s a legacy, but really it’s modern and it’s just perceived as legacy just because it’s been running for so long. But that is not at all, it doesn’t equate to it being this old dying thing just because it’s been running for a long time. It’s stable and it has all these things that you should boast about. It’s running so many critical applications and it’s so stable and it’s been going for so long. That’s amazing. That is not at all something that just means it’s a legacy and the fact that it’s evolved, it’s continued to go and we have modern things. We can use modern languages. Yes, there’s things that are older, but that’s not all it’s capable of, let alone the system behind it. And I didn’t quite understand, and I’m still learning about the hardware side of things and the capabilities of the whole system. It’s amazing. And then when you learn all that and you see that it’s capable of doing all these things that are absolutely modern, it just does not fit at all with what that initial perception that I was given was.
Guarino:
Yeah, you said something else to me that also, there’s a couple, you have a lot of good one-liners, I suppose is the right word. One of them is a paradox of the platform of course, and also your discovery that what a well-oiled machine it is, and it truly is. I I’ve seen many, many companies, large and small, get real high value added machine. But the other thing that you said to me was maybe somebody said to you once, oh, that’s a machine where careers go to die. That’s what you said to me. I wrote that down while we were talking because, and that’s so far from the truth.
Olson:
Yes, absolutely. I probably did when I was talking about when I get started, I had multiple occasions of people when you say, what are you going to school for? What are you going to do? Well, I’m learning software development and I want to go be on the IBM i. “What? Are you sure you’re learning something else?” I just got so much of this impression that it was not the right thing to be doing and that was a dead end. I needed to learn something else and here I am learning everything and absolutely no end in sight in my mind. So not at all what it was.
Guarino:
So was there a breakthrough moment for you when you finally said, “wow, I really do belong here”? Was there something that, was there an event or a moment or a project? Was there something that you said, “wow, these are my people, this is where I belong”?
Olson:
I’d honestly say that I felt that before I got started, almost one of the bigger driving forces in me when I got started and I learned software development, Char was very well-rounded in what she taught us. I learned different languages, so I could have gone in different directions with that. She also took students to conferences and I went to one before I finished school actually. And I saw the community there and I met people and I talked with people and I was blown away by the fact that here I am, the student that knows absolutely nothing useful. I’m in no value to anybody there. At that point, I didn’t know anything. People were interested and coming up and talking to me and asking me what I thought about things and everybody was so nice and willing to teach other people that wanted to know, I was immediately drawn into that and that was before I even got here.
So I feel like it’s just been a continual, it just built up from there. So after that experience, when I got started here at Fortra, it was very much the same thing When I came onto my team, I started on a Robot HA. There were senior developers on the team that also helped me get started, and they were absolutely amazing mentors and it was the same thing. My experience everywhere I’ve gone has been that continual really great mentorship. Everybody wants to help you learn and I’ve just had that the whole time I’ve been here and it’s amazing.
Guarino:
Over and over again. It repeats over and over again.
Olson:
Yes.
Guarino:
So what do you tell people, young developers, especially I guess who might be hesitant to join a user group, which is obviously a microcosm of a large conference, but even going to a large conference, let’s say a common navigator, common power up or even larger than that, what’s your advice to people who have not experienced one and maybe have some pushback about even attending one for a variety of reasons there shyness or—
Olson:
Don’t wait and do it as soon as you get here, even if you think that you don’t provide a value or you don’t have anything to give, it absolutely does not matter and that’s not what everybody else wants you to be involved for. So when I first, I was hesitant at first to get more involved just because of that. I felt like, well, I’m just learning. I don’t know anything. I have no value to give that everybody’s so smart and they know all these things and I don’t know anything. So I kind of held myself back and then now that I’m finally getting more involved and I’m looking around, I could have been doing this the whole time. Nobody cared if I was able to. They just want to help me succeed as well. So it’s the same thing. These are user groups. We don’t need you to be there to give us something. We’re here for you. We’re trying to help everybody else succeed. So don’t wait to get involved just because of that, get involved right away because it will help you grow and succeed as well.
Guarino:
And I say it again, so you talk about what can I possibly offer to the community and trust me, this is a community that I’m very involved myself, so I get what you’re saying. But your journey, the journey alone, forget the technical part. The journey alone is a story that needs to be heard by many people. There are many who are even less ahead of you than where you are today, and you’ve taken those first steps already and you can even shine some light on the potential landmines if you want to call them landmine. But here’s a path that I took and it is a very viable path. It’s got a strong foundation. So that’s high value. And I say this to anybody, even somebody with only one year, that’s high value. So I think it’s great. And you talked about that coming to the groups. Well, let’s talk about user groups. Those are much smaller than attending a large conference. I know you’re involved with the board with two groups in particular. What do you see your role or the role of user group still today in the community? What value are they still providing newcomers, for example?
Olson:
Absolutely. To me, it’s like the bridge between what do you need and what’s available in the community. We’re trying to gap that layer in the middle of, okay, what do you want to learn about? What do you need from the larger IBM i ecosystem? We’ll go out and find that and bring you the sessions, bring you the technology, the education that you need on those things. So we’re just trying to figure out what everybody is looking for. The new, trying to keep everybody up on, there’s a lot to keep up and running, just doing that alone and trying to make sure that we’re getting the right resources for everybody to continue to grow here. And that’s exactly why everybody just starting needs to get involved as well because we just want to help you as well. So you got to let us know what you want. So I think it definitely, to me, it’s kind of like that bridge between, and
Guarino:
I’ve been going to conferences for a long time and more recently I should say that I am thrilled that I’m seeing a lot more younger talent, younger faces there. And that’s important. That’s very important to me to see that. But sometimes I speak with some companies and they might be a little reluctant, I think maybe to hire somebody who’s fresh out of college who doesn’t have many, many years experience. And the big joke that’s in the community, if you will, is that everybody wants the unicorn. They want somebody who’s in their 20s or in their 30s, but they want somebody who also brings 30 years experience, the unicorn. Right. So is there a message that you might want to offer given that you obviously have a lot of associates who are younger than me in your age? I hate to say it like that, but you know what I mean. What message do you have to the veterans in the community or the employers to better understand a younger developer’s perspective?
Olson:
You absolutely don’t just get to cherry pick and get your unicorns. You build them. And I think that’s exactly what was different and what I hope everybody else will continue to do about where I started with Fortra being, I didn’t have much to offer, but the desire to learn and to want to figure it out, I was probably useless the first year I was here. I was just learning. But the freedom to do that made me such a strong developer in the end because I was able to just focus on learning and they fully accepted that I did things. I made code changes and I built things, but it was more so take your time and learn. And that mentality was huge at my ability to then take off and start doing things faster. In the long run, had I just been pushed to produce output and not learn anything right away, it wouldn’t have been the same.
And I think everywhere needs to understand that it’s so important for everybody else getting started to have that succession planning of like, here, this person’s retiring. Give them a year with somebody new before they go. They need that time in between to learn. Just having that time to learn, then you can get your unicorn out of that, but you have to build that. It’s not something you just go out and find and get, you build it. Everybody is capable of doing those things. Just because they can’t write out of the box, go and run and do it doesn’t mean that they aren’t capable of doing it. You need to give people time to learn and you can have that, but take some low patience.
Guarino:
Yeah, I think some of the veterans that are out there, they sometimes, some of the companies I should say, I don’t want to say any people of course, but there were some veterans out there perhaps sometimes they forget that they were a young developer at one point too, and somebody gave them a chance and the company and look at you now you’re a project manager, product manager, I should say product manager at Fortra, which is pretty amazing. So I think that’s wonderful. And that’s a good message to, I think it’s a perfect model. You have to build a unicorn, create a unicorn. It’s doable. I mean, you’re proof positive right here.
Olson:
Yeah, definitely. I didn’t know much at all five years ago when I started. So it’s definitely possible. And if it wasn’t for a place like Fortra giving me that opportunity, I wouldn’t have been able to get started. And I think it’s everybody you have to put in that work to get that output. So they put in the work in me and I’m where I’m at, and now I’m able to give back. But they gave me that time to learn and build up and do those things. And I think everywhere, every company, everybody looking to get more people, you owe them that as well to get started. You’ll have a better performing person in the end if you do that.
Guarino:
Yeah, props to them for believing you also, obviously, and giving you the space that you needed to learn and to thrive in their environment. I think that’s pretty awesome. So let’s kind of wrap this up, but if you could speak to anybody today, a young developer say who is, let’s say they’re just starting their education even or somebody who has some development, let’s say a newly minted graduate, but now they’re just considering IBM i or there’s something that they’ve heard of but not quite sure what it is, things like that. What would you tell them about the opportunities that await them potentially?
Olson:
Absolutely. Take a chance on that. There’s so much opportunity here and it’s only growing with the amount of retirements that are coming up. Essentially. There’s a lot of job opportunity in a lot of areas here and it’s such a great say like a niche market, but there, there’s such a community here, it’s amazing. And you’re not going to get that anywhere else. I mean, that was one of the things that really attracted me to this. I love the technology and I wanted to learn, but having that community behind your back makes, if you’re going to do this for the next 30 years, you want to be somewhere that you love and with people that you like working with. And I don’t see that anywhere else. And it’s something that’s so unique here and it really helps when you’re up against learning a huge technology that has all this history and you’ve got a lot to do to have those people behind your back. And it’s a great career path for that, and it’s really important to find those people right away.
Guarino:
That was perfect right there. I want to capture that and just take that message and just keep screaming it from the rooftops because it’s just so important and you said it so perfectly. So thank you for that.
Olson:
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity to share it.
Guarino:
Again, I’m so thankful that you joined me here today. I’m so glad to see your career just progressing as it is. It’s fun to watch it. And anybody who’s considering going to or being at an event, make sure you check out one of Megan’s sessions. I can guarantee you you’ll get inspired. It is quite a story to watch somebody who has the passion and also just, it’s a good thing. We’ll leave it at that. It is fun to watch.
Olson:
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Guarino:
Sure. All right, we’re going to wrap this up. Megan, as always, great to see you. Thank you very much for everybody else in our TechTalk community. It’s always great to chat with you and we are looking forward to seeing you again down the road. Thanks everybody. Bye-bye.