Comments on: What do you do for a living? http://gminks.edublogs.org/2008/12/22/what-do-you-do-for-a-living/ Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:45:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: MadKat97 http://gminks.edublogs.org/2008/12/22/what-do-you-do-for-a-living/comment-page-1/#comment-225 MadKat97 Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:49:33 +0000 http://gminks.edublogs.org/?p=128#comment-225 "girls can't be in IT" is just way to broad. I've known a number of women in IT (at least in software development ... operations may be a different story.) The question to me is: why would a woman choose IT rather than a different line of work? And what's IT anyway? and here we go again... “girls can’t be in IT” is just way to broad. I’ve known a number of women in IT (at least in software development … operations may be a different story.) The question to me is: why would a woman choose IT rather than a different line of work? And what’s IT anyway? and here we go again…

]]> By: gminks http://gminks.edublogs.org/2008/12/22/what-do-you-do-for-a-living/comment-page-1/#comment-224 gminks Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:55:12 +0000 http://gminks.edublogs.org/?p=128#comment-224 I think your side note gets at what I am thinking of....we're in the field so we inherently understand that a UNIX admin and the research guy do two different things, but still do "computer stuff". I think your side note gets at what I am thinking of….we’re in the field so we inherently understand that a UNIX admin and the research guy do two different things, but still do “computer stuff”.

]]> By: Dave Spencer http://gminks.edublogs.org/2008/12/22/what-do-you-do-for-a-living/comment-page-1/#comment-223 Dave Spencer Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:45:15 +0000 http://gminks.edublogs.org/?p=128#comment-223 I would think that any professional field that requires specialized education and is then a sub-specialization requires a lot of explanation, unless it's something people interact with every day (say, a doctor, or a dentist). This is especially true if that education is in the sciences. Think of the same question being asked of someone who works at CERN. I think you could certainly make an argument that because these fields are relatively opaque when it comes to the average person, that the average person has little opportunity to be drawn to these fields. (As a side note, there are a lot of answers to "what we do" because there are so many of "us." A UNIX sysadmin and a pure research guy working on genetic algorithms are both "computer people" to their families, but we know very well that their education, background, and working environment are different.) I would think that any professional field that requires specialized education and is then a sub-specialization requires a lot of explanation, unless it’s something people interact with every day (say, a doctor, or a dentist).

This is especially true if that education is in the sciences. Think of the same question being asked of someone who works at CERN.

I think you could certainly make an argument that because these fields are relatively opaque when it comes to the average person, that the average person has little opportunity to be drawn to these fields.

(As a side note, there are a lot of answers to “what we do” because there are so many of “us.” A UNIX sysadmin and a pure research guy working on genetic algorithms are both “computer people” to their families, but we know very well that their education, background, and working environment are different.)

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