Nerd Girls Community

how many girls do you work with?

2008-07-20T18:35:35-06:00

i love this site because it presents this romantic image of, like, a sex & the city bond between girl engineers. definitely a noble goal! it’ll happen, it’ll happen.

but for now… i work in a group of ten guys, and I’m the female. there are a few others in my department but we’re so spread out we barely ever have time to get together. we have the occasional girl lunch meetup and it’s awesome! but seriously, I’m talking about like four women working with 100 men… and whenever we hang out together, the guys think we’re conspiring against them.

we do get along fabulously though. when we can get together it’s great.

how is it where you work? are you the only woman? have you been able to seek out others and support each other? I think a little sisterhood goes a LONG way in this world, I didn’t know what it’d be like until I got out of college, out of the girls dorm and into the workplace where I’d go weeks without speaking to another female. it’s really nice to talk to someone and not feel like the different one.

Fashion Help Needed…

2008-07-25T19:23:36-06:00

Ok, I work I home pretty much exclusively right now. I can do my work in pjs if I want to. I mostly wear shorts and t-shirts all summer and jeans and t-shirts in the winter.

Next week I have to go to a on site meeting and meet my boss, my boss’s boss and so on for the first time.

I know I can’t wear jean/shorts and a t-shirt, but I am really struggling with what to wear to make the right impression. I have been told the meeting is business casual.

Suggestions? Could I get away with capri pants and nice sweater sets? Should I go with nice slacks and blouses? Are Tevas for foot wear out? :(

Are there any Consultants out there?

2008-07-29T19:12:35-06:00

Hey Nerd Girls I was just wondering if anyone else noticed any double standards in regards to getting payment for services rendered or drawing up contracts for yourselves. I am not sure, but I think I’ve been noticing a bit of a double standard about payments for certain projects I’ve done. Sometimes it feels like the guys I work with don’t think I am going to be just as serious as they are about getting paid, like they are surprised and put off that I am really serious about that stuff and until I get payment worked out, like how much I am getting and when I am getting it, I don’t let it go. Should I be more relaxed about this or is it good to be this way?

Part of it is because I am so nervous about not being taken seriously. My field (like everyone else’s on this site) is a man’s field, but I’ve seen other guys get more respect for being super hard about the fees they charge. I’ve also seen guys AND girls get screwed for being too lenient. Is there a happy medium? I think I really need to learn some finesse in this area, but I don’t want it to be so relaxed that I NEVER get paid. I am really professional about it and try to be nice, but it’s my livelihood. Could it really be that I am just a girl? I don’t know… But I need some experienced advice. If any of you have done any consulting work or anything like that, could you drop me some know-how?

How Are You Viewed in the Workplace?

2008-07-17T21:39:55-06:00

For all of you interns, fresh out of college and some not so fresh (like myself), lets talk about how you’re perceived in the workplace as a woman engineer. Does it affect you day to day or do you feel that its slowly becoming a non issue?

23,000 lines of data left to analyze by tomorrow

2008-07-23T21:34:33-06:00

I just gotta vent, I’ve been singing the 99 bottles tune all day, but it’s gone something like this:
23,000 lines o’ data left to do 23,000 lines o’ data, take one down brain function’s not sound
22,999 lines o’ data left to do
22,999 lines o’ data to do 22,999 lines o’ data
take one down, don’t DARE sleep right now
I"VE GOT 22,998 more lines o’ data to do.
I’m tired and my eyes are crossing and I really want this song to NOT be stuck in my head all night…

Title IX for the sciences

2008-07-21T10:54:50-06:00

I came across this article this morning.

http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000690.html

What do you think? Will this really get applied to all the sciences? Will it be a good thing or a bad thing for women?