
Women in Science (2015) - jackpirate
http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science
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Scaevolus
> Are you introverted? Want a job where you seldom have to meet anyone new?
> Want to sit at the same desk or bench year after year and work mostly by
> yourself? Get most of your satisfaction from solving puzzles? Have we got
> the job for you: industrial scientist! If you are extremely introverted, you
> might prefer to work as a computer programmer.

> Most workers, however, get a lot of satisfaction from meeting new people,
> working with others collaboratively, being thanked by customers, teaching,
> having a direct positive impact on other people. Jobs such as medical
> doctor, lawyer, schoolteacher, airplane mechanic, and plumber all provide
> greater amounts of these satisfactions than most jobs in science. In fact,
> the only science job that regularly offers any of these satisfactions is
> professor, which we've already discussed from the point of view of salary
> and job security.

I find this to be the primary false stereotype about programming jobs that
ought to be dispelled to bring in more people that are well suited for it.
Many introverts develop computer skills at young ages and become programmers,
but the _actual job_ tends to involve large amounts of teamwork and can be
extremely collaborative, especially in some companies.

The common perception of the isolated programmer doesn't do justice to all the
work being done at companies that use various high-communication techniques
like agile or pair programming. If you want to be even more social or have
higher status, there's always the technical management track.

Enrollment numbers suggest that smart people are starting to understand that
smart people are understanding that a CS degree can get you similar amounts of
money to a medical degree in less time, and with far less stress.

~~~
RandomInteger4
(1) At the end of the day, programming involves one person thinking to
themselves in peace and quiet trying to solve the problem they've been given.
Yes, there's communication in between, but programming is done in the
headspace of an individual.

(2) Why would you want to divert folks away from the medical field? Please
don't try to convince people to switch; we desperately need those doctors,
nurses, etc.

