Girl Developers, College, and "When I Grow Up..."
May 04, 2005 @ 10:34 AMI need to be careful with this…
I came across a dashboard plugin for Mac OS X Tiger that I really liked called DashBlog, whose purpose should be easy to figure out. But upon looking into the author, I discovered it was written by a 22-year old gal. That always fascinates me because girls don’t usually get into the computer science field. I was just at two users groups and I saw about 100 guys, no girls. So coming across a girl that’s in my field - especially one that’s good at it - it’s an oddity worth mentioning.
Now, my cautious disclaimer… I am in no way saying that girls can NOT succeed in science fields. I personally know of several girls smarter than I.
... When I Grow Up… I was thinking the other day about what makes people want to do what they want to do. I know there are a lot of people that go through college with no real idea what they want to do, but a lot of people just know and they do it. But it’s just a weird thing to me because I can’t imagine doing what YOU do, and I’m sure YOU can’t imagine doing what I do.
Here’s an example: I am a software developer. Squire is a computer hardware tech. Jessica currently works in HR, but would love to study - help me out here - Neuropharmacology??... Jill wants to be a doctor (pediatrics I think??)... AJ runs his own company… I’m not even sure what DG does, but is currently studying to get into computer software (I think?)...
I’m glad that we all want to be different things, but it’s still strange to me…. what makes someone want to be what they want to be?
... Another College Rant…
I have lamented before on this blog about how not having a college degree bothers me. I won’t go back into that here. However, that constant sore subject drives me to constantly look at ways to achieve a college degree of some sort. I have gone back to school for a couple quarters at a time several times over the last few years… but never made anything of it. The one good thing is I’ve been able to prove to myself that I can do good in school. I ended up with a horrid GPA when I finally left SPU - for lack of any interest in trying - but my grades in post-SPU classes have been fantastic, and I knew they would be.
Anyway, I came across a pretty cool program. I can’t do anything about it now, but it’s one of those things to file away as a possibility someday. Portland State University offers a 5-year double-major program. After 5-years you graduate with a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Biomedical Informatics. How cool would THAT be??
I don’t subscribe the the theory of massive outsourcing destroying the American IT industry, but in case I’m wrong - as I am sometimes, rarely - biomedical informatics makes one very attractive to an industry that isn’t going anywhere.
Anyway, a zillion things would have to happen before I could pursue that, but it’s an interesting concept.