Girls' High

Well, after a post or two ranting about the need for more women in IT I figured if I was willing to moan about it I should be willing to do something about it as well. And so, for once, I actually did. Stunned...

I spent yesterday at Palmerston North Girls' High School talking to the students in a new Computer Science class about what it's like working as a Software Developer and how to get there. As a bonus, I was even paid to do so as my work were good enough to give me the time to go.

The class was a varied bunch of year 12 and year 13 students (i.e. 16-17 year olds) who seemed very happy to listen to me for an hour and were even good enough to laugh at my attempts at humour. The year 13s especially asked some really good thoughtful questions about what other subjects they would need to do and the relative benefits of different degrees and institutions. I gave them all a business card each and told them to feel free to email me with more questions - I'm very interested to see if any of them will do so...

I spoke a lot about it being ok to not know what you want to do and to change your mind. We also talked a bit about how the university system works and how you can do quite a wide variety of papers and try lots of different things. I spent time telling them stories of the crazy antics we get up to at work, the type of projects I work on and the way our teams are structured. I also wrote a quick EatCake(Cake c) method on the board (I need practice with whiteboard pens!) to reassure them, after they asked, that I didn't work with zeroes and ones!

Overall, I was pretty impressed - they were personable, showed interest, listened well and thought things through. There's hope for the future yet!

One of the girls stayed to talk to me afterwards. She's doing a new programme the school is running called 'Gateway' where she gets to do some work experience in the direction of her chosen career as one of her subjects at school. I think that's fantastic; it's really good to see schools recognising individual needs and offering some interesting options. The sad thing is, the company who took her on aren't helping her at all. Apparently, the office is dead silent with everyone just staring at their own screens and no-one is spending any time with her to help her learn. I could get really angry about that. It's not fair on a young girl to agree to take her on as part of a programme like that then just leave her to her own devices. If you're not willing to put in the time, just say no in the first place! It's less cruel... and less likely to put her off IT altogether. I said I'd have an ask around and see if anyone knows of another company that might be more helpful, hopefully I'll be able to track down something to help her out... Makes me sad to see keen young people who want to try things unable to because adults can't be bothered to give up a bit of time.

Palmy Girls' was where I went to high school and it was interesting going back. Nothing has really changed and I still feel like I could find my way around blindfold. I had tremendous amounts of fun sitting in the staff room during the break and watching many of the teachers do a double-take as they walked in - first seeing a strange person in a suit sitting there, and then realising it was me! Nice to catch up with people I hadn't seen in a long time and good to reassure them I had finally grown up and made something of myself... having been one of those students who drive teachers to despair by being obviously bright but not bothering to do any work.

Now they want me to go back and speak to the physics students... and the chemistry students... and the girls in the extension programme... Sounds great to me! :)

Note: I gave the girls the address of my blog so they could have a look. If you're one of them, post a comment and say hi!