Entrepreneur (own company: Exact Match ) |
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Angelika Goeszler | self-employed coach at agami systems integration | Vienna, Austria
Name: Angelika Gößler
Age: 31 years
Education: Gymnasium (Austrian high school) with focus on modern languages (English, Latin, Italian)
Studies of Engineering Mathematics (not finished)
Job Orientation
When did you decide doing vocational training in IT?
I decided that very late. I started my Math studies with a focus on business and changed after 3 years.
Why do you think did you choose this specific education?
I am a very analytic person, and I like playing with numbers and solving logical problems. On the other hand, I never learned something else :)
Who supported you doing your career decision phase?
My teacher at high school called me to participate at the Olympic Games for Mathematics for pupils when I was 15. That was the beginning because I got encouragement for Sciences just at the right time. Up to now I do not know why he did that, because I was quite a lazy pupil and my remarks with Mathematics where quite average. But when I finished the high school my remarks where excellent and during the first terms at university I had a quite easy life.
What is needed to change career counselling?
To me Mathematics is one of the core issues for getting women in IT. But as long as every mother and many fathers are telling their children “You are so bad in Mathematics” and “Maths is horrible difficult”, so long each career counselling trying to convince girls for Science studies will fail. We have to convince the parents, that Sciences are fun.
Educational training
Did your expectations and wishes about the vocational training come true?
In this sense I did not get a vocational training. I got a very fundamental base at university and I trained myself on the job.
What is it what you especially like in your study?
I will never miss the theory I was confronted with at the university.
Would you choose the same study again?
Nearly yes, I would choose other focuses.
Now you have the chance to do advertise for your profession. Please give us some good reasons why to choose this job.
Even if I work in an Engineering environment I work with human beings. I support them and I develop tools so that their live gets easier. I often call it “hand work”, we are a production company. Such jobs are very satisfying jobs. One of the most important things is – there is no day I do the same.
Differences between women and men
Women are still underrepresented in IT professions, why do you think this is the case?
I think it is worse – women are more and more underrepresented, once there were more women in the IT. I think one of the main reasons is, that there are to few interesting offers for Sciences at school. I guess the second reason is that many career planners are telling women, that they can not have a family when they are doing career in IT. I admit it is hard, but it is not impossible.
What are some typical prejudices which may be also appeared to you?
When I was at university girls were told to subscribe to IT courses to get their boy friends there. And when we did our programming exercises, it was very hard to get the chance to do the programming by ourselves. When I asked somebody for help in the public computer rooms I had to fight for my keyboard many times – when some good willing male colleagues just said: “I help you - let me do that for you”. It was very hard at the beginning to get answers instead of ready made examples.
What kind of advice could you give girls who want to go into IT?
Don't go to the IT because anybody tells you about high salaries and best chances.
If you like organisation, numbers and efficient work, if you have good remarks in Mathematics then IT will be a good job for you. If you sit in the metro and think about reorganizing for example the advertisement viewer to get them more efficient, or you enter your online account at your bank and you wonder why you have to click so many times to get your account listing and you develop a better way in your mind - if you think about better solutions for different problems of daily live all over the day, then you will do an excellent job in IT.
Further role models you find in the PRO::ICT database
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