Why females should work in computer jobs.

Why more females should go into computer jobs. This is a trending topic. Lots of opinions but here is the best reason: because I am lonely. Let’s skip all the practical reasons you should already know. This is an emotional reason. My entire career I have been either the only female, or one of 2-3 females in a department of men. They treat me with respect and include me in their discussions about Star Wars/Lord Of The Rings/smoked meats/sports( it’s true!). I do not include them in my thoughts about families, aging, travel, fashion. Now that I am old enough to be their mother it can be even more isolating. And on top of THAT my area of IT is data, which is always a very small segment of any IT department. So I work alone, eat alone, attend professional conferences alone, worry about keeping my mind sharp alone. Coworkers outside of my department seem to really like The fact that they can easily approach me with requests. My personal female friends often ask me questions about computers. Face it, we ask for help from people we think will not make us feel stupid for doing so. Maybe I am not as intimidating as a man when it comes to lack of computer saviness (is that a word outside of Utah?) which may be because my response to their request is never “Really? You don’t know that?”. Women of the world UNITE. You are smart enough to work in the STEM fields. You have persona skills that would be valuable there. There are few Barriers to education or employment because there are shortages of qualified workers in IT. It has great pay and benefits. And I miss you. Let’s go to lunch and talk about this.

Too poor to eat at home

Because of my participation in the current economic crisis I have no earned income but do receive unemployment pay. Our payment for COBRA, to continue the health insurance I had with my former employer, has been reduced about 60% thanks to all you tax-paying, employed people. Every day I check the mailbox to see if random money from the government has arrived. It hasn't yet but I'm sure it will. I only wonder what the currency will be.

Unemployment compensation is just a few hundred dollars a week. It's not enough to live on but between that and my $6.80 an hour for substitute teaching we have managed to pay most bills. We have been eating a lot of the food we had stored for an "emergency." In my book, this qualifies.

So we have no money but we have plenty of time around the house. Can't afford to go shopping or to a movie. We have been cleaning out drawers, shredding boxes of old papers, vacuuming under the bed. I can honestly say I see no need for doing that last item ever! No one sees it, and once I cleaned out that crust of dust my whole bedroom was colder from the cold seeping up from the ground. Dust (in large quantities) makes great insulation!