Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!pag00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com From: pag00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Pria Graves) Newsgroups: comp.society.women Subject: Re: The Technical Core in Computing Firms Message-ID: <11307@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 23 Jun 88 19:10:47 GMT References: <11101@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <11165@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA Lines: 30 Approved: skyler@violet.berkeley.edu (Moderator -- Trish Roberts) Comments-to: comp-women-request@cs.purdue.edu Submissions-to: comp-women@cs.purdue.edu In article <11165@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> marla@Sun.COM (Marla Parker) writes: > >The practical aspects of how to switch from being an unemployed history >graduate to an employed software engineer are another matter altogether, >one that I know nothing about. Tech writer->tech support->engineering >seems to work for some people, but maybe someone who has transferred >into software from a different field could write about how to do this. Actually, I found it easy. When I first started looking for work in '75, there were no jobs around here (electronics industry recession) so I took my BA in philosophy and got a job as a secretary/office manager. After three years I got fed up with being paid nothing for lots of responsibility (signatory power on both payroll and general checking accounts etc.) so I started calling customers who knew and respected me. One said "how would you like to be a network technician?" and I responded "what's that?" So I went to visit, and he explained about the business of keeping a data network running and I thought it would be interesting so I gave it a try. Later I shifted into system maintenance, data network design, network operations management and finally into software engineering. At all phases the key has been a willingness to learn and people who were willing to bank on that. Somewhere along the way I got an MBA but I don't think it ever helped me much. The main thing was jumping in and learning fast! -- Pria ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amdcad,nsc}!amdahl!pag00 (408) 746 7539 (Disclaimer: even I don't necessarily agree!)