Thursday, March 14, 2013

Women In InfoSec

In high school, I studied business courses and architecture because I wanted to design and build homes. In my final year of high school, I took part in a Junior Achievers (JA) program, which was sponsored by a local high-tech company. Long story short - a mentor in this program suggested studying Information Systems because it covered "everything to do with computers" at the time. I read up on it, it was new and sounded interesting, so I figured why not and changed my college focus.

While taking this program, the number of women also taking this program was slim - maybe 4 in a class of 40 people. Did it bother me? Not one bit.

In my work life I have done the following:
  • Provided technical support for a technical documentation department
  • Provided support, training, and documentation for clients of a product data management product
  • Provided technical support and provisioning services at an internet service provider (ISP)
  • Developed and delivered various technical training content
  • Developed developer-focused documentation
In all of these roles, I have worked directly with approximately 20 women and I can name them all. Does it bother me? Not one bit.

Why do I not care about how many women I work with? I want to work with people that speak the same language, know the same stuff or more than me, and enjoy doing what they do. If women are not interested in the IT field, then fine. There are lots of other occupations they can pursue. 

As with any occupation, pursue whatever interests you and do what it takes to get there.

Who knows, perhaps I will go back to designing homes as a career instead of a hobby. 

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