Women Share Secrets To High-Tech Success

While information technology is still largely a male-dominated field, women are making inroads in this arena.

For example, a recent survey of women in California's Silicon Valley is one indication that there's cause for an optimistic outlook. Collaborative Economics of Palo Alto and Field Research for Community Foundation Silicon Valley surveyed more than 800 randomly selected women age 21 to 61 employed there. It found that more than half work in the technology sector, 40 percent in management.

Employers' interest in attracting women to IT isn't motivated by issues of equality; it's based on a very real, continuing need for skilled professionals. The top five fastest-growing occupations through 2008 are computer engineers, computer-support specialists, systems analysts, database administrators and desktop-publishing specialists, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Projected growth rates for these positions range from 108 percent to 73 percent in a 10-year period from 1998 to 2008.

There's no doubt that the number of opportunities available are drawing women into the field, but its strong earnings potential is also a powerful lure. The computer and data-processing industry is expected to have the fastest wage and salary growth through 2008, according to the BLS.

Career Resources for Women in IT

Sherry Barretta: CEO

Sherry Barretta, 50, is chief executive officer of VisionCor Inc., a content-development, e-learning and knowledge-management company based in Charlotte, N.C., with offices in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Fla.

Ms. Barretta's educational background, while not in computer science, led her to IT just the same. "I have a B.A. in English and writing, which is how I got involved in the documentation end of things," she says. Plus, she has a master's degree in education.

Ms. Barretta says that when she began her career in the 1980s, there were fewer women professionals in technology. That's changed in recent years. "Opportunities are there if women want to take advantage of them," she says.

Central to her success, she says, has been hard work and determination, plus her interest in current technology and its direction. Establishing credibility in the field also has been critical. "While sometimes men tend to think that you can't do certain things because you're a woman, I find that if you prove that you're capable that's often half the battle," she says.

Her advice: "Women have to be confident enough to seek out the opportunity and be courageous enough to do it. It's an exciting field, and it isn't going to go away. The information age is here, and it isn't just national, it's global. Believe in yourself and do it."

Anne Kobus: Webbie

Anne Kobus, 44, says she can relate to young women who feel somewhat alienated in what's perceived as a man's field. "My undergraduate degree was in architecture, and I was one of three women in a freshman class of 100," she says. "It was difficult."

Now vice president of strategy and product for IDEV, a Web design and consulting agency based in Silver Spring, Md., Ms. Kobus says she sees numerous opportunities in IT for women. For one, she says, there's great demand for professionals with technical skills who also have communications and relationship-building abilities -- traditional female strengths.

She counsels young women eyeing a career in IT to earn a bachelor's degree in computer-science and then a master's degree in business administration. "You'll have both broad and deep skills," Ms. Kobus says. Passion and a curiosity about how things work is also essential, she says. "The cornerstone is curiosity," she says. "You can never lose your curiosity. It's absolutely required to succeed in this field."

Ms. Kobus' own curiosity led her from architecture to 3-D animation for CD-ROMs and then to Web programming and Web management. Ms. Kobus was recently the executive producer of the Gore/Lieberman 2000 campaign Web site, an IDEV project.

Nelly Yusupova: Cybergrrl

Nelly Yusupova is a young woman on the IT fast track. A Russian immigrant, Ms. Yusupova earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Queens College of the City University of New York and is working towards a master's degree in management information systems. "However, having a technical education isn't enough to really make it in the IT field," says Ms. Yusupova. "The real knowledge comes from hands-on experience by actually working."

As an undergraduate, Ms. Yusupova landed a tech internship at Cybergrrl Inc., a New York City-based media and entertainment company for women and girls. After a few months, she was asked to join the staff and became responsible for some of the programming and system support. She left to take a position with New York financial-services firm Paine Webber, where she helped upgrade brokerage applications and provided technical support. Then a technical-lead position at Cybergrrl became available. "I jumped at the opportunity," she says.

Ms. Yusupova oversees and implements the technical strategy for Webgrrls International Inc., a networking organization for women. She organizes and manages team projects and makes sure they run smoothly. It's challenging, she says. "Webgrrls International is a group of very technically savvy women and, with Webgrrls around the world as our users, there's a lot of pressure to execute incredibly well," she says.

Ms. Yusupova says she's encountered a few challenges as a woman in what's still perceived as a man's field. "I've worked with many men who thought I knew a lot less than what I do and a lot less than my male teammates when, in fact, I knew a lot more. However, after working together for a little while, they quickly learned when to defer the lead to me. Projects always run more smoothly when functional leadership is practiced," she says.

Ms. Santonocito is a writer and communications professional in Rutland, Vt.