There are challenges
and benefits of being a female in IT.
There are times I do
get frustrated because of some of the guys that I have to deal with.
At some conferences it seems that guys don’t seem to see any female
and they just think they are the only ones at the events. I have run
into some guys that think if you are at an IT event and you are
female you are basically in marketing or don’t know anything about
IT. At one event I was actually run into by one guy because he wanted
his lunch and didn’t care about anyone else. He did hear from me
because I wanted to ensure that he knew he needed to respect everyone
else at the event. I have a lot of fun at some events because my
name tag shows me as a reseller so I do get treated as marketing by
some vendors but other vendors treat me as I am in IT and I can
influence the purchase of products.
There are times that
being female is an advantage at IT events. At most events there
aren’t many females so the lineup in washrooms are extremely short
compared to the men’s washrooms. At some events I can be the only
female which doesn’t bother me anymore. At first when I got into
IT I was very uncomfortable being one of a few females at events but
now it doesn’t bother me at all.
Some guys, who are
in IT, do treat females special because of how few females there
seems to be in the industry. Yes there are more women now in IT but
at events it is still a very low number. I have found that I am
normally treated well by most guys at events. I find that being a
strong female does help me as well as I am not afraid of standing up
for myself which I really think helps. As a female if you can make
sure you appear confident it will go a long way in getting the
respect.
Yes being a female
in IT does have its challenges but it also has its advantages. My
biggest piece of advice is just be yourself and most guys will treat
you fairly. The other thing that helps is having some of the latest
“toys” and if they don’t know about them you can pull them out
and how them. This has helped a few times so now when I go to events
I make sure that I have some of these new things with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment