Four Year Universities, CS Degrees, Social Classes, Misogyny and Me.

I am a woman in IT. I don't have a four year degree. I have never been enrolled in a CS program. I had a blue-collar upbringing. I've had to fight for fairness and equal pay in the workplace.

The reason I got into IT was partially because of the IT guy who serviced the computers at the walk-in clinic where I worked in 1999. He was one of those IT guys who acts like he has this expanse of knowledge that you couldn't possibly understand, so he wouldn't deign to explain to me what he was doing to the PCs or why. His condescending nature really irritated me, so I did some research to see what he really had to know to get a job like that. Turns out, the only prerequisite for his job was an A+ or CNA certification.

The local vocational school had night class program for the A+, Net+ and Cisco Networking Academy. After wondering if I'd maybe bitten off more than I could chew, I went to a meet the teacher event at OCPS to see what the school offered. Mr. Vanderpool was exactly what I needed to get started. He has a very calm demeanor, explains the subjects thoroughly and has an extreme amount of patience with all of his students. Whenever I'm back in Orlando, I make a point of stopping in to say hello! He was instrumental in setting me off on the right foot. At the time, I had a Windows 98 home grown PC (built for me by a dear friend). Its power supply was going bad and I was running the PC with the case off to keep it from overheating. After a few weeks of night school, I was confident enough to swap out the power supply without fear that I might break something else in the process. It was my only computer and I didn't want to destroy it by hooking up something incorrectly.

My parents left a lot to be desired when it comes to educational/life guidance, exposure to new ideas or financial assistance. Recently, Keith Parsons posted a link on FB to an Economist article titled "Parenting in America: Choose your parents wisely". The article got me to thinking about my own upbringing and how I've turned out. My dad ran the machine press at Western Electric, making the Model 500DD plastic telephone parts. My mother was a hairdresser at a nearby retirement home. Neither of them had a High School diploma, let alone a graduate degree. Going by the data in the article, the one thing my mother did right was reading to me at a very young age.

I've read dozens of articles lamenting the lack of women in CS degree programs at four year universities. The problem with the statistics in these articles is they're only looking at four year universities. There are many paths that can lead into a career in IT. Enrollment in a four year university CS program is only one way. Those statistics are misleading because so many other viable paths to an IT career are not considered in the studies. At least one manager at Microsoft is trying to set the story straight.

I have negotiated for pay raises and stood up for myself when blame was being tossed around the workplace, but I have never been subjected to the sexism that would appear to be rampant throughout the coder, hacker, gamer and tech startup communities. Perhaps the crowd at Cisco Live is a bit older, perhaps the desire to avoid career limiting moves or maybe I've not been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In conclusion: Don't let people tell you what you can or can't be based upon how you grew up or which social class you come from. A four year CS degree is not an absolute must. If you love what you do and continue to grow your professional skill set, it can lead to good things. The biggest thing keeping you from being the best you can be is you telling yourself that they're right, or that you'll start that career change tomorrow. There are dozens of people (probably quite a few that you haven't met yet) who want to see you succeed. Believe in yourself and hit the books. Statistics be damned!

Related to this post, I was interviewed by Josh O'Brien for his WhoIs series. I touched on some of these subjects in that interview, but felt it was finally time to put my thoughts into writing.

The WhoIS Podcast: You Have a Bigger Impact Than You Realize

I just finished listening to the fourth edition of Josh O'Brien's WhoIS interview series. If you're not familiar with this podcast series, it was created as a way to get to know more about people in IT who you've probably interacted with online and might have met in person. Josh asks each person the same questions, and the answers are often very different.

This time he was interviewing Tom Hollingsworth. I think a few things Tom said bear repeating. The question was "Should every engineer blog or be active in social media communities?" Tom's answer was an emphatic yes! He says everyone has at least one good blog post in them. Tom goes on to describe how the encouragement of his mentors helped him to achieve things he never thought possible for himself.

As a side note, we can never be fully aware of the impact we have on other peoples' lives. The words of encouragement you give someone today can have a far bigger impact than you might ever realize.

The third edition of the podcast was Josh's interview with me. We barely scratched the surface of the issue of women in IT, but I did touch on the uphill battles I've faced in my career. I got my start into IT by taking night classes from Mr. Vanderpool at Winter Park Tech, but the catalyst that got me there was the IT guy who acted like the information he had was a priceless gem he couldn't share. I thought "What could he possibly know that I can't learn?"

Episode two in the series was with Stephen Foskett of Gestalt IT. Stephen describes how he got his start in IT via salvaging Convergent Miniframes from the dumpster at his college. They'd been damaged in a fire but cleaned up nicely and still worked, so he and his roommates built their own Unix powered BBS in their dorm room with the salvaged gear! That experience helped Stephen land his first job as a Unix administrator.

I'm looking forward to the next episode of the WhoIS series. It is interesting to hear people tell the story of how they got their start in IT and hear them talk about what motivates them today. 

Josh's WhoIs podcast can be streamed/downloaded from his website.