Monday, November 15, 2004
Recap of My EBIG WIG Presentation
Last week I presented to a group of women at the monthly meeting of the EBIG Women's Interest Group.
The presentation is one I've given on several previous occasions "Advancing in a Technical World...without a technical degree."
Every time I do one of these events it reminds me how much I enjoy public speaking, especially when you get some good give and take going. I spiced up my presentation with several new illustrative anecdotes, and it's instructive that for every tale I told, there were women in the room with similar stories.
Certain issues seemed to resonate: acknowledging the need to be politically savvy within an organization, learning to manage UP, working on the all important intangible "leadership" qualities that so often are cited as shortcomings when there's nothing else to fall back on.
I've learned there are some incorrigible people who will always think in their teeny tiny engineering-centric, narrow-minded box (dare I say it: especially when a woman is involved.) If you can identify such people and avoid working for them...rather than trying to win them over...your life will probably be much more stress-free. But most of the world is, how shall I say it...corrigible? And it's worth it to think outside your own self-limiting box and go after what you're interested in, even if you have t do a little more proving of yourself along the way.
The presentation is one I've given on several previous occasions "Advancing in a Technical World...without a technical degree."
Every time I do one of these events it reminds me how much I enjoy public speaking, especially when you get some good give and take going. I spiced up my presentation with several new illustrative anecdotes, and it's instructive that for every tale I told, there were women in the room with similar stories.
Certain issues seemed to resonate: acknowledging the need to be politically savvy within an organization, learning to manage UP, working on the all important intangible "leadership" qualities that so often are cited as shortcomings when there's nothing else to fall back on.
I've learned there are some incorrigible people who will always think in their teeny tiny engineering-centric, narrow-minded box (dare I say it: especially when a woman is involved.) If you can identify such people and avoid working for them...rather than trying to win them over...your life will probably be much more stress-free. But most of the world is, how shall I say it...corrigible? And it's worth it to think outside your own self-limiting box and go after what you're interested in, even if you have t do a little more proving of yourself along the way.
// posted by ElisaC @ 9:23 AM 
