Women in IT

Would feedback from men be acceptable?

Some of the issues you mentioned apply equally to both women and men.

For example, the lack of a college-degree is something that has been discussed in several other areas. And I think I've seen a few discussions concerning career paths and not feeling challenged enough at your current position.

There might even be some side benefits from the discussions in terms of professional networking.

But it is your call...

Well I am not a women but I have noticed that this field, Like most other technical fields, is sadly devoid of female participation. You could probably trace it back to the "I'm in school and I'm not expected to excel in the math and sciences because I'm a girl." Personally I think it would be great to have more women in the field. You seem to have different ways of thinking of things and different points of view. Anyone who has ever troubleshooted hardware or network problems will tell youthat half the time the guy who looks at it a different way figures it out in a few seconds after the other guy has worked on it for a week. Either way I'm all for you. Also if you are worried about not having a college degree. There is not a single person in my current department with a college or university degree. Experiance is the key, not that shiny paper. Find a way to prove you have the experiance and you are set.

Thanks,
Thomas Solway

I am surprised that this post did not receive more activity. I am a 37 year old woman that has been running a successful computer repair/system build/network admin and support/whatever you need company for about 14+ years now. It has not always been easy, but it has had rewards over the years. I am self-taught, but I do have a degree (Psycology)and a military background (Quartermaster with a fuel specialty) I think it is more important to really know and enjoy what you do than to have the paper on the wall. I will hire a tech that has some hardware experience before I would hire a "paper tech" that has a cert from a school and tells me that they have built their own computer once. I not only run the company, but I am also head tech. I have 3 men who work for me also, a tech and 2 MSCE's on staff, one with hardware background and one without. What is interesting to me in this field is that the older men want me to work on their computers while the middle management females always want one of the guys. Not what I expected. Hardware is only one area of this arena, but being female really makes me stick out in the crowd.

If you want to pursuit a career in this area, just do what you enjoy and don't let the little people tell you that you can't. I have met many men and women over the years that were great at their jobs, and many that weren't ... I really don't think that gender has much to do with it.

I know that I really can't relate to getting a job in another company, I have only worked for myself in this industry. I'm not sure that I would know how to interview for a position with an outside firm, haven't been on the receiving end of that one in awhile! I would like to hear from more women IT people also. How do you juggle family (I have 2 small boys), work, study time and all the other things that go with the IT area?

Vickie

I have been working in IT for 20 years and see dozens of women in the field. Maybe you are in a niche that is dominated by men. But, in the application development arena my guess would be that it?s at least 50 / 50 and possibly more female. Also,there tends to be many IT business analysts who are female. I have an associates degree in programming and a bachelors degree in MIS. One of the reasons I chose this career path, 20 years ago, was statistics that indicted pay for women in the IT field is more equitable than many other fields.

After saying all of that, I will add that I have been in many a meeting where we were hammering out a heavy duty technical problem and most of the players were male, but I was the one leading the meeting. And I understood all of the issues on the table. Did I know everything to solve the issues? Not necessarily, but I did not need to know that level of detail. I was there to make sure the appropriate people solved the problem.

I actually started in Avionics (9 years), but I got tired of working on autopilot amplifiers that were filled with electron tubes, so I switched to computer hardware about six years ago. Along the way I have learned networking, server support and administration, and have taught some hardware classes, but mainly I am a hardware technician.

I just turned 36 today, have no degree and only one cert (Novell 3.12). I am usually the only female in my department, and the guys treat me as an equal. Customers reactions range from "I REALLY appreciate your appearance!" to "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" but some of the guys get that, too. Since I have worked component level electronics, I usually get the monitor repairs that the guys seem to be afraid of.

The downside is, I get paid in peanuts. I have started going to night school and I will graduate with a BS in Info Tech this May. I do a lot of self study for my certs, 'cause schools are way too proud of their courses and I can't afford them, but I can't afford to test for the certs right now, either. So the certs will have to wait.

I don't have much software training, though, and I think that is hurting me as far as job searches. I recently learned how to make a Powerpoint presentation (for one of my classes). I also learned how to create an Oracle database and develop a form for it so you can input data into the database (also for a class) but I would never presume to be competent enough to take on Oracle Programming as a job. When you look at jobs online and they say "experience generating Chrystal Reports" or "SQL Server experience a must" I know I'm pretty much screwed. I, too, end up with the same job everywhere I go.