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I started in COBOL back in the 90s. When I was working in that shop, one of my older co-workers told me about a guy he knew. That guy left his service/repair gig at IBM to start his own shop, he knew how to fix punch-card machines.

For the decade I worked there, my buddy told me that his pal made a very good living repairing those machines, even though they were long out of fashion and 'there was no market'.

Seems the same is true for software, too.

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I worked in an IBM shop in the early 1990s, at the time they had a big chart on the wall titled "Punch Card Elimination Project." It was one of those big thermometer charts like United Way drives use to document how close they are to their contribution goal. As I recall it was at about 70%.

Fashion is such a driver for IT study. Just try to find a good book on modern AIX -- they aren't really out there. But AIX is still very much in use at the enterprise level.

Computer trends and actual use don't always match up. Which can be a boon for those who realize they can specialize in unfashionable technology.