I completed my networking degree in Septemeber 2001.
Of course, the bottom fell out of the market after 9/11.

Between; the pratice of combining jobs, eg., networking/programming, a poor market, exporting technical jobs and the importing of inexpensive technical staff from other countries, the only job opportunities were poor paying level one customer serivce jobs. I have no problem starting at the bottom and working my way up, but the pay was literally one-third of my current job. I still have to pay the mortgage and eat.

I would love to work in IT. I now do a lot of helping friends and tutoring. I even did another internship with a federal government agency to brush up my skills a couple of years ago.

I am not surprised there are not many women in IT, and even fewer as IT CIOs.

Thanks,

Kim

I am curious to know if part-time IT Management positions were included in the study. As a full-time Mom I transitioned from full-time IT Manager to part-time after the birth of my first child, this coincided with a need to cut-costs by my employer back in 2003 so it symbiotic. I remain part-time while maintaining complete managerial duties of a 50 user network and website, remote access is a godsend.

I think it may be possible that the decrease over the last decade of women in IT could be attributed to the family cycle of women. In the last decade these women graduated from school and began their careers contributing to the boom of women in the industry. Once married many of these women may have began planning families and transitioned to working part-time or as consultants while their children were young. It would not be surprising to find an upturn in the number of full-time women in IT in the next five to ten years when the children of these women are entering high school and college.

Since generation x marked the beginning of the technological career boom I think subsequent generations will fill the gap when their predecessors are attending to family obligations. I suspect in the next ten years women in IT will begin a steady and stabile increase in numbers.

Over the last 25 years, I have seen more women in IT. At the highest levels, there are still very few women.

Typically, the only ones who make it to the IT executive suite are those that either (1) decided not to have kids or (2) postponed having kids until their IT career was fully established and their credentials hard to beat.

Having to work many weekends to get ahead no doubt contributes to this trend. Even so, I still see a distinct doublestandard when it comes to women in IT. I usually see very skilled women in IT called "not technical" or "lacking focus" or "lacking leadership qualities" or "overly aggressive" while I rarely see those criticisms of comparably talented IT men. I often see IT women lower-tracked if they get pregnant.

I received my BS in Computer Information Systems in 2003. I graduated with honors with a 3.85 out of a 4 grade point average. Since then I have been unable to find a job in the IT profession. I very seldom obtain interviews. I have had to take a position as a customer service representative and am not using my degree at all.

I did not go back to school after an absence of many years to sit here doing something I could have done before I went back to school.

I love to program and know how to collect requirements, etc. It seems like companies are more interested in hiring foreign temp workers that someone who is just as qualified but native to the U.S.