IT

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500 GB External Hard Drive

OK, I admit it, I’m a gadget person. Can’t have enough of them, but my pocketbook does put limits on it, so am not out of control.

A couple years ago, bought a 160 GB HD for my daughter, a year later, a 320 GB HD for my son, and last year a 500 GB HD for myself. They all cost the same. Funny how the price of these things goes down so fast.

I use that 500 GB Hard Drive for work related things. Put all sorts of utilities, isos, backups, etc. that I may need while going to a client site.. especially helpful when the Internet connection is not the best to download these things. I think it’s really cool to have all this “stuff” in such a small container. Even bought a case for it, so if I drop it (which I have), it doesn’t break. This is one of the most useful items I’ve had in the tech arena and it’s really not a complicated item….my husband thinks I love it more than him and told him that sometimes it might be true :-).

Not sure why I’m so enthralled with this, but I am….. those little netbooks are running a close second at the moment. And if I were an Apple person, I might consider the iPad, but not till next generation.

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Women in IT

I’ve worked in the IT field exclusively for a little over 10 years. Prior to that I worked as a medical technologist/microbiologist in a hospital lab. I made the change to IT due to hours at a small hospital lab… too many rotating shifts in short time spans really gets to you healthwise as you age :-). A hospital lab is a pretty computerized environment, so the transition wasn’t that bad, tho’ I did spend most of the first year studying almost day and night.

One thing interesting about the transition was the “battle of the sexes.” I went from a work environment that was predominantly female where I was in the majority to one that was predominantly male where I was a definite minority. Interesting to go to workshops/events where you are either the lone female or one of two in a roomful of testosterone.

There are some striking differences in how males and females approach problems. I think women definitely multi-task better, but guys generally appear to be better at focusing on one problem until it gets completed and then move on. Guess there’s something to be said about each approach. Most of the women I’ve worked with in the lab are much more detail/documentation orientated than the men in the IT field, but that may be more due to training and fear of lawsuits in a medical field than gender based.  That trait has served me well in the IT field also.

I think women will work harder to make sure we’re “good” at what we do than a guy will. I remember taking a lot of cr– from the guys where I work when I first started. Hence my studying day and night to make the cut. I think I do pretty well now (based on my billing and customer feedback), but I still always worry about it. Maybe I’m just insecure by fault :-).

I could go on and on about this topic, but I might offend too many folks (including hubby and three sons), so will leave it at that!