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Thinking a lot about...
Mar. 24th, 2007 09:39 amthe whole women in IT thing this week. It's a pretty sweeping topic so I'm still wrapping my brain around some parts of it. But Jana and I were talking earlier this week about why doing QA as a contractor seems to really work for me and I've been hanging with other women who do what I do so I thought I'd unpack it a little.
On the one hand, it's been really fun getting down with my inner bad geek self. Before I got into IT, I had no idea I had one. Now I'm sort of the software testing version of watching your car get stripped down and put up on blocks in under 45 minutes - I can break just about any application code, quickly and dramatically and in ways that pinpoint stuff that wants fixing. I can usually tell what's causing it as well. And I'm a lead so I also dole out work, problem solve, babysit the business, work with the developers and try to make the trains run on time. I can honestly say that other than writing, it's the first thing I've found that requires me to be fully alert and engaged on the job. Which is mostly cool.
Balanced against that, I work in a very high stress environment in what is still a male-dominated industry with not much in the way of job security except what I can pick up on the fly and network my way through before the next outsourcing disaster strikes. I get paid a fair amount less than a guy with my skills, in part due to my own crappy salary negotiating. I'm getting better but I've still got a long ways to go. I also work for a firm that used to function on a patronage model (think The Mafia or medieval feudal structure) but is now moving quickly and ineptly toward a corporate model (think body shop). So I'm wrestling my way through this and looking for where to land next.
Meantime, I'm wondering about what it means to keep my politics intact while I do this kind of work. I can't do military contracts or Homeland Security, fortunately, since even if I didn't find it morally repugnant, my arrest record (at demonstrations, not murder one :-) ensures that I can't pass that level of security clearance. But what about working at a company that is mostly floating their annual budget on sweatshop labor? Or one that fleeces its retirees? Am I less of a feminist because I resent watching another less skilled woman get promoted over me because she's young and pretty? What about the fact that I now have to undergo a credit/background/drug check every time I change companies?
Something in here cries out for a book proposal so I wish my track record on nonfiction projects was more successful. Still mulling it over though.
On the one hand, it's been really fun getting down with my inner bad geek self. Before I got into IT, I had no idea I had one. Now I'm sort of the software testing version of watching your car get stripped down and put up on blocks in under 45 minutes - I can break just about any application code, quickly and dramatically and in ways that pinpoint stuff that wants fixing. I can usually tell what's causing it as well. And I'm a lead so I also dole out work, problem solve, babysit the business, work with the developers and try to make the trains run on time. I can honestly say that other than writing, it's the first thing I've found that requires me to be fully alert and engaged on the job. Which is mostly cool.
Balanced against that, I work in a very high stress environment in what is still a male-dominated industry with not much in the way of job security except what I can pick up on the fly and network my way through before the next outsourcing disaster strikes. I get paid a fair amount less than a guy with my skills, in part due to my own crappy salary negotiating. I'm getting better but I've still got a long ways to go. I also work for a firm that used to function on a patronage model (think The Mafia or medieval feudal structure) but is now moving quickly and ineptly toward a corporate model (think body shop). So I'm wrestling my way through this and looking for where to land next.
Meantime, I'm wondering about what it means to keep my politics intact while I do this kind of work. I can't do military contracts or Homeland Security, fortunately, since even if I didn't find it morally repugnant, my arrest record (at demonstrations, not murder one :-) ensures that I can't pass that level of security clearance. But what about working at a company that is mostly floating their annual budget on sweatshop labor? Or one that fleeces its retirees? Am I less of a feminist because I resent watching another less skilled woman get promoted over me because she's young and pretty? What about the fact that I now have to undergo a credit/background/drug check every time I change companies?
Something in here cries out for a book proposal so I wish my track record on nonfiction projects was more successful. Still mulling it over though.