I don't know if it is a coincidence or not but it seems that people that work in IT (Information Technology) or related areas have a tendency to be transgender or crossdress more often than other non IT individuals, or is it just that we feel more comfortable expressing our ideas on a computer?
I myself have worked all my life in the IT (or as we oldies us to call it DP, for data processing). First as programmer, then analyst and currently as an IT consultant.
What do you think and maybe we can have a show of hands?
Emily
I raise my punch card in the air...Late into it, quit my job, went studying, moved into IT and stayed for about 10 years most of which was running my own business...working from home and onsite small business...
Guilty as charged. I spent most of my career in IT.
I always loved technology and as soon as I saw a computer when I was a child I knew that I want one. I went to the best secondary school in our country which had an IT class and I always worked on projects related to computers and IT. But I'm quite sure that if I hadn't been outcast from a very early age I would have spent faaar less time around computers.
I think transgender people tend to choose IT or related fields and not the other way around.
IT can appeal to trans* people because it can be an endless source of distraction from reality, you don't need other people to do it and you have freedom to do whatever you want.
Punch card, paper tape, magnetic tape here. All my after school work has been in fortran or assembler, mostly assembler. I am stubborn and I enjoy it when I can beat the computer at it's own game.
I was pretty much of an introvert and a job where I didn't have to deal with people appeared to be a big advantage. That kind of all fell apart with my current job because we have over 100,000 lines of assembler code written by several programmers and before I got to it, it was really buggy. I need to learn what each programer had in mind before I could clean up the mess. Sometimes communication was pretty poor because they didn't know what they were up to so I needed to hit the books before I fixed stuff.
I have also noticed this. I have about 10 years of experience in IT. As a network admin, tech, desktop support, programmer. Just all over the place really.
I recently quit my day job and changed careers, but I have noticed this too. :)
Another IT peep here. I never planned to do this, I wanted to be an architect or race car driver. No seriously. Programming had always just come naturally to me from the first Z81 computer my uncle gave me.
Somehow after the Air Force I managed to turn my hobby into a career.
Yes, I have worked in IT for 30 years .. kind of burned out now
and until recently have lived mostly as male. I've never thought of the
connection here for tg but it is interesting
Kath
I am in the IT field as well! Guess when I was young and online, I always told people I was a girl, not for any hookup reasons, just felt like that's who I was. Makes sense to me to love what made me free.
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Yep, IT field since 1995, and did some IT/Programming work for the University I was attending at.
Me too, pushing 30 years as an IT pro.
Well in my first job I was a materials scientist that became a software engineer, so not quite IT, but computers played a big part, and I am certainly familiar with punch tape and front panel bootstrapping etc. I had an interesting job too, although not one that I tend to put on the CV for reasons you will soon understand. My apolgies for a slight diversion which I hope may be amusing.
I was working at an American company who were contracted to NASA to develop a testing protocol for certain elastomeric samples. I developed the testing programme and the machine plus data were delivered to NASA (or their supplier) and we all thought no more of it until the day that Challenger blew up... :o
Yup! I was the young engineer who developed the test that had been used to test THOSE O rings - and for many years until the enquiry reported and confirmed that the testing HAD revealed the flaw in the material before the launch I lived under the fear that perhaps my formulae had been wrong in which case the death of seven astronauts would have been directly down to my programming skills - or lack of them.
Some time later the fear of being indirectly responsible for a death if my software malfunctioned lead me away from that field and a I retrained as a BBC Videotape editor. Somewhat Ironic that I am now back in "line of fire" as a trainee medic.
Quote from: Rejennyrated on September 05, 2015, 04:17:51 AM
I was working at an American company who were contracted to NASA to develop a testing protocol for certain elastomeric samples. I developed the testing programme and the machine plus data were delivered to NASA (or their supplier) and we all thought no more of it until the day that Challenger blew up... :o
Yup! I was the young engineer who developed the test that had been used to test THOSE O rings - and for many years until the enquiry reported and confirmed that the testing HAD revealed the flaw in the material before the launch I lived under the fear that perhaps my formulae had been wrong in which case the death of seven astronauts would have been directly down to my programming skills - or lack of them.
Your program preformed without a flaw. The limits of the material where well understood before the launch but NASA was more worried about getting the bird off the ground than the possibility of an O ring failure. In addition, there had been past failures but they weren't as destructive so NASA figured the risk was minimal. The decision to launch was political and not science based.
I had a boss who as a condition of employment calculated the the cost of moving families between military bases for the companies who did the moving. Every so often, they would send him a fresh batch of numbers which he would plug into his program and then the moving people would spend a day in the office reviewing the numbers. The last time he did this, the company sent in a flawed batch of number causing all the work to be way under priced and nobody caught the error so the moving company took a real hit. Even though it wasn't my bosses fault, it scared him so much that he decided to stop doing the work on the side.
Yep, been in the IT field professionally for about 20 years now.
I've always been good with computers and officially went into the IT field about 7 years ago. I've tinkered around on them for about 18 years though.
I keep a box of gender changers on my desk for comedic effect, lol.
Quote from: KristinaM on September 05, 2015, 11:07:09 PM
I keep a box of gender changers on my desk for comedic effect, lol.
I guess I was more into reassignment surgery because I had a connector punch tool and would grab a soldering iron whenever that problem came up. :o
I have 8 years of service as IT in the United States Army, mainly networking, and a little bit on the administrative side.
Networking dealing in ipv4, Cisco systems, and now dealing with Brocade.
Though on a path to completely 180 my career into forestry and wildlife conservation.
Kate <3
Yes I've been in IT for as long as I remember, almost 20 years in it now starting with part time jobs at computer stores.
Oldest computer I've worked on was an IBM System/36.
Now I do Unix systems administration but also some engineering on the broadcast side.
All my life and still in IT... 41 years
Just started at another Major after a very long break... and will transition in role after the required new hire periods. Assuming there is stability this time...
So I am guilty of IT too ::)
OK started of as a CE (Customer Engineer)
Then a regional support (guru)
Then managed a DC and teams
Then a CTO and services manager
Then lots... eventually moving into Leading Architectural Solutioning/governance/commercial in outsourcing for last 6 ~ 8 years - Geez dinosaur teeth
Oh Kate I used to be a wiz on Unix too, after the VMS trips ;)
Katy xx
In my support group there are 2 EE's, 3 programmers/IT folks, a tech trainer (All she can say nod nod wink wink), another is an automated controls guru, and a wannabe IT person in training. Add to that a few with technical, albeit mechanical, skillsets.
Oddly, no real artsy types or people who sing show tunes. Go figure
I'm a majorly creative/artsy person with a liberal arts degree who has been shoehorned into computer work since around age 14. I've been trying to get away from computers in every job I've ever had, and my skills just follow me and I end up being the "IT person."
I'm very excited to start my welding program. :)
I've been programming since the early 80's but didn't 'transition' to programming until 1998. I think programming is interesting because there are many ways to go about things but there is a right answer. Maybe we all need some certainty. There is something calming about programming. You move slowly and steadily towards and endpoint while hopefully not going down any dead ends. This IT connection is an interesting observation.
Dori.
Software engineer here. Learned to code by writing BASIC on scraps of notebook paper, because we couldn't afford a home computer (hey, it was the early 80s, and they were expensive!).
Dunno. Fell into hole (IT)... will escape soon.
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In my first attempt at college in 1980, I asked the computer science department about testing out of programming courses. They'd never had anyone do that, so they set up exams and programming assignments. I got my credits (in ForTran and BASIC), but ended up dropping out of school. Worked in repair of arcade video games and later computers over the next ten years, then software development at one company for 25 years.
I can't point to anything that connects tech and transgender for me. I'm not saying there isn't something; I just don't feel strongly about any reason they might be connected.
Quote from: pogo on September 08, 2015, 12:38:06 AM
Software engineer here. Learned to code by writing BASIC on scraps of notebook paper, because we couldn't afford a home computer (hey, it was the early 80s, and they were expensive!).
Haa me too... and assembler coding too, ohh and some mini cobol :o
Katy xx
VOIP DOES THAT COUNT?
Jessi
Network Engineer. Currently working on earning my CCIE. I have been doing networking since 2000 when I started the Novell Netware (before switching over to the Cisco NetAcademy) program at SCC (now SSC).
Got my first computer (Apple ][ plus) in 1978. Starting as a tech in 1980 and never looked back. Can break 'em, fix 'em, program 'em, database 'em, network 'em, virtualize 'em, etc.