Post a comment

Story: Why are women in IT an endangered species?

In answer to Ian Lincoln, I think that's totally it! I am a female computer tech working in a job doing long distance techsupport either by phone or over the 'net for clients all over the US, Canada, Hawaii, Britain, India, and even a couple clients in Russia and Saudi Arabia. The company I work for has spared many people from having to unhook their pc to take it into a local shop for many reasons. AND, we're based in Canada, not some offshore location that can't speak English very well inspite of potentially having a very sharp technical understanding.

However, when I was taking my A+ practicum several years ago, another young lady came into the shop I was working in, having freshly completed her MCSE at a university in Nova Scotia, where she had little to no hands-on training, it was almost entirely theory. She spent two weeks with us before realizing she couldn't stand the job. I felt so sorry for her.

By personality, I think I'm a tomboy! "How does it work, why does it do that, what if I do this?" are questions I've always asked, and sought to answer, and that before becoming a tech, meant alot of calls to techsupport because of breaking things on the computer trying to answer those questions years ago.

I'm also a loner. Sitting in front of my computer doing webwork or fixing issues for other people can cause me to lose all track of time, and my kids have to remind me on occasion that its time to cook dinner, or that I forgot about their bedtime routine. Fortunately their old enough now to handle some of that for themselves.

But yes it does take a certain mindset to become a geek of any stripe, whether its programming, webdesign, techsupport, systems management, security management, whatever the job title might be. If I had more time, I would be brushing up my programming skills and going into programming contracts. But I don't have that time available.

If a woman has the right mindset, she'll go far in this industry.

Full Talkback thread