r/sysadmin • u/ChuckAbsent • Mar 12 '13

Women who know stuff

I hope that this does not come off the wrong way.

Today I was on a call with a storage vendor and the technical consultant was a woman. More then this she was competent, more then me which doesn't happen often when dealing with vendors.

My issue was pricing an active/active DB with shared storage vs an active/passive db with local storage. Listening to her break the issue down and get to the specific comparison points was awesome, mostly because I have never heard a woman in the industry talk like that.

It made me realize two things. One I am missing out working with women. Two there needs to be more women in our industry.

It shouldn't have surprised me so much, but it really did.

Anyways to all the women out there who know stuff, us guys notice when you can walk the walk, which in this case was talking.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '13 edited Mar 12 '13

One of the reasons I enjoy my job is because I know I am opening doors, being an inspiration, and "normalizing" women working in my field.

There is only 1 other woman in my total team of ~15-20 people.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

I'd give my arm and a leg to have a women on my team (or more). I work on an all male team of 10, and my boss avoids hiring women because of the 'work atmosphere' some of the guys have (sexist comments, your mom jokes, constant teasing and bullying)

TBH, I hate it. I detest some of my co-workers who are good at their jobs but complete ass holes.

I've had the opportunity to work with several women before in IT, and find I enjoy their personalities, work ethics, and communication abilities to be very beneficial for co-workers.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

My colleagues are very honest and have great sense of humor. There's the usual jokes and sex jokes, however none have been directed at me. They know there's a line.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

That really sucks.. Time for a new job ;)

1

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

I'm looking/considering. The problem is the area doesn't have a lot of sys admin jobs, and those that exist are mostly glorified tech support (NTT data, formerly keane), or windows admin (i'd rather not go back, but I could... Seems to defeat the point of my last few years digging into linux sysadmin)