He finished third out of the 700 who participated.

Arnold and other top scorers traveled out to IBM's mainframe facility in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where IBM lined up interviews with some of its customers. He received two internship offers and a job offer with IBM to provide mainframe support, which he took. He starts his training in July.

Arnold is clearly aware of the changes in IT and the growing use of offshore workers, but he hasn't really examined what those issues mean yet. In the meantime, he said he sees a good future for the mainframe, adding that 'for now, I'm happy I got a job.'