Sorry for the delay. Mostly midrange (AS/400) consulting at manufacturing plants, then full time jobs at a heavy machine dealership, and a bank. Changed to PC development after about 15 years of that, then management, and it hasn't been the same after that, ha ha.
I think the technical freedom plays a big part, not because you're chasing the shiniest, but because you're choosing the tools that will hopefully outlast you. One of my former employers was 'modernizing' their IBM i (former AS/400) systems by porting them to Java and Windows Servers, and they were having all kinds of problems. Couldn't even get the EBCDIC to Unicode conversion quite right. I was lucky not to be there anymore.
I think the technical freedom plays a big part, not because you're chasing the shiniest, but because you're choosing the tools that will hopefully outlast you. One of my former employers was 'modernizing' their IBM i (former AS/400) systems by porting them to Java and Windows Servers, and they were having all kinds of problems. Couldn't even get the EBCDIC to Unicode conversion quite right. I was lucky not to be there anymore.