Certification - November 2008 - (Page 49)

tic career, for especially a woman with children, because they can pick and choose.” TTA also stresses the importance of work-life balance. Employees are allowed to bring children to work on holidays and vacations, and the company even occasionally provides baby sitters and movie rooms. And it appears that this approach works. Melfa said since she started the company in 1994, the number of female contract trainers has increased from 5 percent to 35 percent. When accounting only for in-house staff trainers, the number shoots up to 58 percent. While Dunn and Melfa said areas such as networking and trainer roles are good options for women, the NCWIT report shows job roles especially wanting for females include computer hardware engineering and network administration. Support and analysis roles tend to have the highest number of women. To better recruit female IT workers, companies can reach out to these lesser-represented areas. And women already in the industry can help by serving as role models to those considering the industry through events and organizations that support the cause. Men also can help in the recruiting efforts. Snyder stressed the importance of male encouragement. “Having the guys there [at ‘We Are IT’] and having them even run the breakout sessions shows the women that it’s not a field that men are afraid of them coming into — that men do want women to be there,” she said. 8 Looking to the Future Although the number of women in IT still is alarmingly low, the situation has improved during the development of the information age. “When I first came into the industry, the only women around were, for the most part, either secretary or – Meagan Polakowski, meaganp@certmag.com support people,” Dunn recalled. “Particularly when I reached the executive level, I might have been [the only woman at the 06STS0011 1/23/06 1:40 PM Page 1 top]. But I’d say in the last 10 years, that’s shifted significantly.” Melfa said the situation was similar at the beginning of her career, when she left behind a career in the retail industry to find another passion in the technology sector. When she started working for her father’s IT company, she said only one of the 12 IT trainers on staff was a woman. Today, Dunn said it’s a great time for women to join the industry. “I think that what’s happened to the industry [is] we have become broader in our reach,” she said. “It gives you a very diverse space to start a career. We [at Cisco] think it’s a prime time for anyone who thought that IT might not be their gig in the past to start looking at IT as an area where they actually could apply themselves very well, get paid very well and have a great future, a great career that’s pretty stable.” Scientists have determined that we only use 10% of our brains. Make the most of it. There’s only one way to prepare for your next certification exam and that’s with Self Test. It’s the only tool you’ll need to improve your IT IQ. Self Test Software helps you figure out what you know and gives you the answers to what you don’t. Hey, you’re already smart. We help you be smarter. w w w. s e l f t e s t s o f t w a re . c o m · 1 - 8 0 0 - 2 4 4 - 7 3 3 0 © 2006 Kaplan IT, Inc. All rights reserved. SELF TEST SOFTWARE® Kaplan IT, Inc. All rights reserved. be smarter http://www.selftestsoftware.com http://www.selftestsoftware.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification - November 2008

Certification - November 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Tech Careers Dear Techie Virtual Village Data Stream Academic Connection Troubleshooting What We Like Look Ahead The Gender Gap: IT Lacks a Woman’s Touch IT for Free: Volunteering Today Interface Technical Architect: Learning, Growing, Innovating Inside Certification Endtag Ad Index

Certification - November 2008

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