You Get Out What You Put In

At one point in her long IT career, Nellie Scott's superiors didn't want to train her female staff because they thought women were more likely to leave the company, particularly as they approached motherhood. Scott, now a manager at Lenovo, gave a winning argument back, ending with, "What if you don't train them and they stay?" That line finally got her superiors on the ball with training her entire staff.

How to get more women in IT and how women in the industry can use different resources to shape their careers were the topics of discussion at CompTIA's Advancing Women in IT Community meeting today at Breakaway 2012.

Stephanie Young, VP of distribution at Xerox, has worked remotely for her entire career, and she advised attendees, "You're only going to get out of an organization what you put into it. Your company, your associations, your networking groups – you only get out what you put in."

Mary Ellen Grom, U.S. marketing VP for Synnex Corp., commented, "Every person that you meet is an opportunity."

The panel noted that often women aren't aggressive enough in pursuing their career goals. John Mehrmann, CEO for Zylog Systems Ltd., remarked that in his company, men are more likely to ask what they can do to further their career, where women wait to be recognized for what they've done. Mehrmann encouraged attendees to step forward and ask their company executives what they can do to move forward.

Scott built on that thought and commented that women at home often tell their spouses, "Well if you don't know what I did, then I'm not going to tell you." Scott said that doesn't work in the business setting. "We need to do self-promotion."

To bring more women into IT, Scott asked that the industry take a page from military recruiting. Go with the message of "Be the best you can be. You can make a difference." Scott added, "IT makes a difference in companies, in society and in everyone's daily lives."