Hi there. I was a dev for 10+ years, and now manage a team of devs. There are a lot more women in software since I started, but it's still dominated by men.
I would offer a few bits of advice to anyone getting into the business, but for women especially:
1) Just be yourself and enjoy the coding. Don't get hung up on other people's hang-ups.
2) You will almost certainly earn less than your male counterparts in the early years. When you have experience, find an employer who grades you on skill, and can back that up with data.
3) Ignore the whiny shits like u_fail, who seem to blame women in general for their inability to get a date.
4) If you meet u_fail in the workplace, treat him professionally. If he hassles you, though, let your boss know, and go to HR if it's still a thing after that.
CS guy here, you have to see out side. The little interaction we get with girls, makes it hard for us to meet girls. Where as girls have to make no effort to meet guys, because guys are the ones that have to put themselves out there and face rejection. So you'll have no problems meeting guys. So basically Fuck you.
Girl here. You might notice that being in engineering I have a myriad of male aquaintences. Please note that I am not fucking any of them either.
Yea, I come off real nice and smart but it was not destiny that we met, there is less than 1% chance that I will desire a relationship with you (just the same with allll the other guys) but because you have a white belt in social skills you won't realize I'm gently trying to let you down and you'll continue to hit on me. When I break it down for you, you'll get bitter and angry and say unnecessarily petty and hurtful things. I could just find excuses to hang out less but that would be passive aggressive which you'll gladly point out to your friends while calling me a frigid bitch ice queen and planning my demise. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth.
We appear to have opposite problems which will probably only be solved by a whacky freaky friday adventure. Oh but that won't work because you'll stay inside all day playing with your boobs and I'll stay inside all day whacking off.
The little interaction we get with girls, makes it hard for us to meet girls.
Oh, here's your opportunity!
So basically Fuck you.
...and ...forever alone. This kind of attitude is what keeps women out of these fields, and makes it harder for nerd dudes to get laid. (no to mention meeting girls with the same interests)
Honestly, college classes aren't really the best places to meet girls anyway, so I never really understood the "lack of interaction" excuse. Most socializing takes place outside of classes, and you meet a giant number of people of every gender. If you do something that is, anything. Join a club. Play a sport. Foozball down in the lounge. Get properly wasted once in a while. Live. There are more women than men in college now, less excuse than ever.
Hey I want to commend you for going into CS. I just graduated with a Bachelor's in CS, my school consisted of 300 students, and only 15 girls. Its a boy's club, but its definitely worth it.
In five years I was also incredibly surprised by the number of guys who were oblivious douchebags. An equally surprising number of those were frat guys.
Resist the pressure to have everything done for you by fawning nerds. Every halfway decent looking girl in the major was totally useless by graduation time due to this phenomenon.
And do yourself a favor and do what I did - don't live in engineering dorms, don't go to engineering parties, and try to make as many friends outside of the major as possible - college is full of cool awesome people and very few of them are in your major.
And take some humanities classes, I've met too many engineers who didn't know ANYTHING about anything except for their job. There is more to life. Oh, and CS guys - do this too, that's how you meet girls in college. The opportunities are endless.
Excellent advice, will take note of this :) I suppose I live in the "engineering" dorm, but I'm minoring in music so I'll be in several music groups, and I'm taking some completely unrelated electives. My goal IS to meet other people.
Well I hope your engineering dorms are better than the ones on my alma mater's campus, because they were basically a pit of lonely dispair. If you make an effort you can have a great time in any dorm - and certainly there were far, far worse places on campus (the drunken asshole dorm that my girlfriend lived in, ugh).
Normal people make mediocre engineers. If you want to be exceptional, you need to skip the parties, forget about girls, suck it up, and put in the work. You'll have the rest of your life to regret the crushing social isolation!
The only thing I really agree with you about is putting in the work. Otherwise, absolutely not (though, maybe my sarcasm detector is broken). Nerdy and anti-social != smart and capable, and some of the best engineers around are surprisingly well rounded human beings.
Not in my experience. Visit Caltech or MIT and count how many engineering students there are surprisingly well rounded. To become the best you have to focus on your field at the expense of other things.
looks like i went to the wrong engineering school
jag0007 110 points · Jul 2011
My engineering department has maybe 10-12 ladies and 2000 guys. of the 10-12, one or two are decent looking. One has a bf, and the other has the herp.
FML
[deleted] 13 points · Jul 2011
[deleted]
DoWhile 18 points · Jul 2011
Old, but relevant phdcomic
[deleted] 19 points · Jul 2011
"The odds are good ... but the goods are odd"
Brilliant.
[deleted] 3 points · Jul 2011
This is going on my dorm room door. Thank you kind stranger.
[deleted] 10 points · Jul 2011
Hi there. I was a dev for 10+ years, and now manage a team of devs. There are a lot more women in software since I started, but it's still dominated by men.
I would offer a few bits of advice to anyone getting into the business, but for women especially:
1) Just be yourself and enjoy the coding. Don't get hung up on other people's hang-ups.
2) You will almost certainly earn less than your male counterparts in the early years. When you have experience, find an employer who grades you on skill, and can back that up with data.
3) Ignore the whiny shits like u_fail, who seem to blame women in general for their inability to get a date.
4) If you meet u_fail in the workplace, treat him professionally. If he hassles you, though, let your boss know, and go to HR if it's still a thing after that.
u_fail 84 points · Jul 2011
CS guy here, you have to see out side. The little interaction we get with girls, makes it hard for us to meet girls. Where as girls have to make no effort to meet guys, because guys are the ones that have to put themselves out there and face rejection. So you'll have no problems meeting guys. So basically Fuck you.
[deleted] 13 points · Jul 2011
Girl here. You might notice that being in engineering I have a myriad of male aquaintences. Please note that I am not fucking any of them either.
Yea, I come off real nice and smart but it was not destiny that we met, there is less than 1% chance that I will desire a relationship with you (just the same with allll the other guys) but because you have a white belt in social skills you won't realize I'm gently trying to let you down and you'll continue to hit on me. When I break it down for you, you'll get bitter and angry and say unnecessarily petty and hurtful things. I could just find excuses to hang out less but that would be passive aggressive which you'll gladly point out to your friends while calling me a frigid bitch ice queen and planning my demise. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth.
We appear to have opposite problems which will probably only be solved by a whacky freaky friday adventure. Oh but that won't work because you'll stay inside all day playing with your boobs and I'll stay inside all day whacking off.
ex_ample 11 points · Jul 2011
Oh, here's your opportunity!
...and ...forever alone. This kind of attitude is what keeps women out of these fields, and makes it harder for nerd dudes to get laid. (no to mention meeting girls with the same interests)
[deleted] 12 points · Jul 2011
erm... maybe there's a reason you can't get a date?
That line doesn't work too well on chicks in my experience.
rabidhamster87 7 points · Jul 2011
Yes.
Fairyking 4 points · Jul 2011
Plus relationships are so full of double-standards these days with women it's a whole lot of fuck for guys.
[deleted] 9 points · Jul 2011
and not in the good way
[deleted] 1 points · Jul 2011
Honestly, college classes aren't really the best places to meet girls anyway, so I never really understood the "lack of interaction" excuse. Most socializing takes place outside of classes, and you meet a giant number of people of every gender. If you do something that is, anything. Join a club. Play a sport. Foozball down in the lounge. Get properly wasted once in a while. Live. There are more women than men in college now, less excuse than ever.
[deleted] -1 points · Jul 2011
give this guy a medal!
thecommentisbelow -5 points · Jul 2011
Not a great way to get girls. But nice try.
quincydude33 2 points · Jul 2011
The odds are good but the goods are odd, as they say.
Raz_Aquato 2 points · Jul 2011
So, recap for nerdy (unattractive) guys:
Good looking women do not like you. (not even the smart/quirky/nerdy ones)
Aurora_B 2 points · Jul 2011
Hey I want to commend you for going into CS. I just graduated with a Bachelor's in CS, my school consisted of 300 students, and only 15 girls. Its a boy's club, but its definitely worth it.
lotsofpie 0 points · Jul 2011
Fuck yeah, engineering girls.
In five years I was also incredibly surprised by the number of guys who were oblivious douchebags. An equally surprising number of those were frat guys.
jag0007 1 points · Jul 2011
decent looking and cs huh? too bad theres a .0000000001% chance i know you
[deleted] 1 points · Jul 2011
Resist the pressure to have everything done for you by fawning nerds. Every halfway decent looking girl in the major was totally useless by graduation time due to this phenomenon.
And do yourself a favor and do what I did - don't live in engineering dorms, don't go to engineering parties, and try to make as many friends outside of the major as possible - college is full of cool awesome people and very few of them are in your major.
And take some humanities classes, I've met too many engineers who didn't know ANYTHING about anything except for their job. There is more to life. Oh, and CS guys - do this too, that's how you meet girls in college. The opportunities are endless.
[deleted] 1 points · Jul 2011
Excellent advice, will take note of this :) I suppose I live in the "engineering" dorm, but I'm minoring in music so I'll be in several music groups, and I'm taking some completely unrelated electives. My goal IS to meet other people.
[deleted] 1 points · Jul 2011
Well I hope your engineering dorms are better than the ones on my alma mater's campus, because they were basically a pit of lonely dispair. If you make an effort you can have a great time in any dorm - and certainly there were far, far worse places on campus (the drunken asshole dorm that my girlfriend lived in, ugh).
reph 1 points · Jul 2011
Normal people make mediocre engineers. If you want to be exceptional, you need to skip the parties, forget about girls, suck it up, and put in the work. You'll have the rest of your life to regret the crushing social isolation!
[deleted] 1 points · Jul 2011
The only thing I really agree with you about is putting in the work. Otherwise, absolutely not (though, maybe my sarcasm detector is broken). Nerdy and anti-social != smart and capable, and some of the best engineers around are surprisingly well rounded human beings.
reph 1 points · Jul 2011
Not in my experience. Visit Caltech or MIT and count how many engineering students there are surprisingly well rounded. To become the best you have to focus on your field at the expense of other things.
Kryptus 0 points · Jul 2011
The hot IT guys get careers without a degree. ;)