The author of the original article is Lisa Obritzberger — a female data engineer. She is just an ordinary female programmer, so I think her experience is very valuable for reference. Here is a translation of her article to share with you.
Honestly, when I decided to be a programming girl, I had no idea what I was doing. I had never written a line of code and had no technical background. I went to a secondary college and majored in languages (not computer languages). My friends have a variety of professions, most of them are not to engage in law, is to be a teacher, and some went to the kindergarten work. When I told them I was going in the technology direction, they all laughed at me (now that you mention it, I want to laugh at you too).
Looking back, there are many friends who wish they had thought about their decision. I, on the other hand, thought I’d made a brilliant decision, and it was fun to fiddle with the data. There are three reasons why I love this job so much.
Programming is like playing a puzzle game
When I was young, I especially liked to play puzzle games. When I was at school, I especially liked mathematics, which is logical and suitable for me. I feel the same way about the work I’m doing now. It can be very frustrating at first. You don’t know where to start, and you often have no clue what to do with difficult problems. Little by little, I solved one problem after another, and then pieced them together into a whole piece. It was a great inspiration.
Your friends often tell you you’re a genius
As I said before, my friends didn’t have a technical background and they didn’t understand what I was doing. Believe me, I’ve explained it to them a million times, but it’s all gone in one ear and out the other. They always think I can do anything on a computer. I’m sure there are a lot of engineers out there who are in the same situation as me, friends who have computer problems and just throw them at me to solve them. If you solve their problem by accident, they will be even more convinced that you are a genius. The truth is I’m just better at Googling (so honest).
It’s tough, but it’s worth the challenge
I have a fairly balanced team of men and women, but women are still in the minority in the software industry as a whole. That’s why I’m so passionate about my work, to show them that women can do well in the male-dominated tech world (Zam zam zam).
Unlike me, there are many women who are terrified of this field. Although gender boundaries are becoming more and more blurred in modern society, there are always some jobs that are particularly suitable for women or men. From childhood to adulthood, our brains have been conditioned to think. If we go to get a haircut, the barber will be a woman (we Chinese are the opposite). If we’re going to fix a car, it’s going to be a guy. The same is true in technology. If you were to imagine an engineer right now, it would be a man. But there are a lot of great women in this field, and I’d like to see more of them in the future (I’d love to, too, it doesn’t matter).
If it’s something you’ve never done before, don’t be afraid. As MENTIONED, I studied linguistics at a secondary college, and it wasn’t until college that I wrote my first line of code. Even so, I found I could keep up with the teachers easily. What’s needed in this line of work is rational thinking and a strong desire to do new things. I hope more women will try it, and maybe coding will become your true love, like me.
Readers: What is your company like, and how many female engineers are around?
More exciting, wechat scan the above TWO-DIMENSIONAL code to follow my public account “code hole”