Special career development for female programmers

In the "Do what you want to do" open class interactive link, there is a girl asked a question, the main idea is "whether the girl is suitable for programmers", how I answered, has forgotten almost, to the effect that gender is not directly affected by the suitability of the programmer. After class I carefully pondering this question, Lenovo before a number of female programmers to my subscription number "program Vision" message, ask female programmers career development, which let me suddenly found that I have been ignoring the specific situation of women to software development impact. So, this time, I'm going to talk about this topic deliberately.

The first thing to note is that, from a large context, the career development of female programmers is roughly the same as that of male programmers. I have published an article entitled " Programmer How to plan a monthly salary of 30,000 " in the subscription number "program Horizon", which has a lot of space to discuss the programmer's career development, no gender. Interested can follow the past to see, that this article, I am specifically to discuss the female programmer, will not be devoted to those general topics.

I'll start by talking about the typical career development stages of female programmers , and then provide some typical strategies for career development planning for the particularity of female programmers.

First of all, what is the particularity of female programmers, I am going to talk about three aspects:

• Gender and character
• Female physiological characteristics
• The family's expectations for women

Gender and character

According to research, about 2/3 of women prefer emotion, people-centered, compassionate, more willing to support others, value themselves and others ' interests, preferring to make decisions on personal values, and less concerned with objectivity and logic. In males, about 2/3 prefer thinking, preferring logical decisions, and are usually willing to make decisions through objective analysis.

The preferences of individuals of different genders in the way they make decisions vary. Often people will think, male thinking, female bias feelings, and even some people say, do not talk to women reason. This may lead to a distorted personality preference due to gender. In fact, there are a lot of women stress thinking, when we judge an individual's character, we should try to avoid using group characteristics to label it, ignoring the uniqueness of the individual.

What is the impact of this personality difference between men and women on working with software development?

In the eighth chapter of the Psychology of program Development, Weinberg discusses the influence of personality factors on program development. Weinberg argues that personality traits have a greater impact on software development than the more stable intelligence factors, even far beyond the usual estimates.

So what are the key personality traits that can lead to successful program development?

The study of Weinberg is interesting, and I think his findings and conclusions are now applicable.

For example, he says, if a programmer lacks the ability to stay in a high-pressure environment for one weeks , perhaps we can say with certainty that he is not a programmer's material.

He also mentioned that because of the diversity of program development work, a person who is a little bit uncomfortable with the rapid changes , he is not competent professional programmer's work. A piece of the Internet is also available as proof: Kill a programmer without a gun, as long as the need to change three times.

I also talked about the importance of adapting and embracing change to programmers as I share the internal theme of "Programmer's personal branding" within the company.

In the character type, the fourth dimension is about the way we like to be structured or free and loose. This dimension examines personality from a lifestyle of personal preference, distinguishes how we adapt to the external environment, and proposes two personality preferences: judgment (J) and Perception (P). Perceptual preferences programmers like to learn more about the world, flexible, impromptu, like more choices, more easily adapt to demand, technology, planning and other aspects of change. Programmers with a sense of preference like organization and order, like planning, organized, all things are arranged early, to temporary, unexpected, break the plan of things more exclusive. From the modern software development process, the adaptable person is more suitable for professional programmers. Back to the gender perspective of women and men, there is no clear conclusion that there are significant differences between men and women in the two preferences of judgment and perception.

Weinberg also mentions some typical traits, such as neatness , humility , and a sense of humor . When it comes to humor, Weinberg says, if a fool lacks the ability to laugh at himself, he will not be able to hold out for long in the tedious process of development. The internet has a lot of black Programmer's jokes and articles, mostly from the programmer himself, fully illustrate this point.

I personally think that there are some personality traits that can affect software development, such as attention to detail , such as introspection , such as responsibility . As a simple example, some programmers are accustomed to writing the code, the build passes the package to the tester, and if he has the personality traits of introspection and responsibility , he will be aware of how much trouble and distress the testers will bring to the tester and self-improvement.

Many people may think that women are more active in detail and men tend to be careless. Women are more tidy, men are more sloppy. This is also the effect of gender on personality, but there is no clear research and argument to illustrate this point. And each person's personality preference, and often is in two directions have, but there is a strong, one end of the weak, if the environment and work needs, can also develop and improve the other end of the preference to adapt to the external environment.

Therefore, I think that from the gender-based personality differences, gender does not determine whether a person is suitable for software development work. Some personalities do have an impact on software development, but if you do, you can also find more suitable industries and companies for your character by choosing the external environment. For example, if you are flexible and less adaptable, there are a few jobs in software development that need to be organized in a more planned and orderly manner, with a choice of niche positions with this feature.

However, gender does have a very important impact on the entire software development process, especially for women, whose physical characteristics and cycles can have a significant impact on her career. We'll take a look at it next.

The influence of female physiological characteristics on software development

There is no doubt that the female physiological structure and men have a large difference, such as women have menstruation, women to have children, some people have obvious menopause, and so on, these physiological differences, the career will have a relatively large impact.

In fact, I have written an article, was scolded straight male cancer patients, the title of the article is- please treat the female programmer , interested can see.

Female physiological Period

Let's first talk about the physiological characteristics of the female physiology that runs through the whole career.

In general, the physiological period refers to the development of mature women each month has a menstrual period, that is, menstruation. The average girl, the physiological period will last 3 days to 7 days or so.

During the physiological period, most women have a more typical physical and psychological response.

Body reaction

Women to menstruation, will consume a lot of physical strength, easy to feel tired, need to pay attention not to use eyes, brain over, but also to ensure adequate sleep. Some women will be afraid of cold, some women will have dizziness, easy fatigue, drowsiness and other manifestations, some women often have small abdominal distension pain, lumbar acid, breast tenderness, mild diarrhea and other phenomena. These are the same.

If at this time, you are responsible for the product to go online. On-line, you understand, often stay up late, especially has been released to users to use the site, basically updated in the wee hours. Staying up late can make women's health more noticeable and sometimes unbearable. Most of the male programmers around do not notice this, and the straight male leader will not pay attention to this (some notice also can only pretend to see), so, have the bitterness to suffer.

If in those 3-7 days, development rhythm out of control (this is very common), every day overtime ...

Psychological reactions

During menstruation, due to a sudden decline in the level of estrogen and progesterone in the body, it usually causes a series of uncomfortable reactions in the body. I just said that earlier. Physical discomfort, if encountered in the development of the situation (overtime, debugging Ghost Bug, on-line, etc.), will cause psychological reaction. Most women are usually more prone to depression and volatility during the physiological period, such as irritability, irritability, agitation, depression, anxiety and other reactions that are more common. Some women may have significant emotional abnormalities even in the days prior to menstruation, more often than in older women, such as more than 30-year-old women.

When the mood is low, frequent fluctuations, the efficiency will be significantly reduced. The code is also not mind, annoying annoying, solve the bug is not smooth out the clue, annoying annoying; communication with the product manager or UI is not in place, annoying and annoying. Such various conditions, before menstruation, menstrual period will often encounter.

The modern workplace gender equality, very few male leaders and colleagues will because of menstruation and special care for women, and women at this time need special attention (special love to Special You), which formed a contrast: I have been very annoying you still, the need to change three times a day, bug dozens of a day, to die. At this time, women need to maintain a stable mood and peace of mind, difficult ...

I'm going to write a paper, uh, stop. Anyway, the effect of female physiology on software development is obvious, needless to say. There is no good way to solve, calm, calm, calm.

Several typical stages in the career development of female programmers

Next, we combine Barer's career development stage theory to look at the influence of female physiological characteristics on the software development work. Note that when I talk about these effects, I am referring to the general characteristics of the female group, the individual differences, after talking about the characteristics of the group to add.

Barer This person is too ox x, is the World Career planning History milestone task. He put forward the theory of career development stage, divides the human life development process into five stages of growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance and decline, and gives the age and career development topics of each stage. This five-stage model, which is widely used, has a strong guiding significance for the development and planning of human life.

First look at a picture:

This picture is my barer career development stage theory diagram. Because of the career development of the female programmers we discussed, the growth stage was omitted (4~14岁). I have specifically marked three stages, and these three stages are very important to the career development of female programmers because they coincide with several special stages of life for women.

All right, one on the other.

Revision and age

The marking of 1 is barer from the establishment phase of the correction period, age is 25~30岁. 25~30岁, is also our traditional sense of the period of the married. In the sense of group, the influence of the period of lipped on women is larger than that of men, please first of all.

At this stage of the 25~30岁, most of the women talk to the target, marry, and a considerable part of the children are to be born. If a girl to the late stage of this phase, 28~30岁, no boyfriend, the pressure will be very large, some may not dare to return to the home-seven elder sister eight aunt this ask, the psychological bear ability is not strong enough words can not stand ah. At this time the parents will also drag all kinds for you to find a blind date, enlightened parents although may not say, psychological is also anxious extremely.

In such a revolutionary situation, women are more likely to not calm, psychological will have a variety of reactions, emotional volatility, strong performance or even see others show love, hear the topic of romance, Marriage and tears.

Recall just out of school, 22~24岁, also pride, Manly ah. But over the 27, most female programmers of this kind of pride will slowly retreat, instead, is the love and marriage anxiety and annoyance, is likely to become a remnant of the unwilling and fear.

As a female programmer, in such a state of personal psychology, how can the code? At this point, the difference between a female programmer and a male programmer is highlighted for the first time in a more obvious form.

Ann Regular and childcare period

Barer The age period assigned to Ann is 31~44岁.

Even if a female programmer soothe a male ticket in college or before she is 26 years old, the 31~44岁 will encounter another very real problem: having children in Barer's period of stability.

Women's Golden Age is 25~30岁 (careless and revision of the overlap), and then a little longer, some people say that the golden growth period is 10, that is 25~34岁, this and professional stability period again overlap. A woman is too much to suffer, not to speak white.

Suppose a woman is 28 years old, pregnant October, 29 years old, at least three years, and so children into the kindergarten, energy involved and pressure will be slightly lighter, at this time 32 years old. In other words, a woman will have about 4 years of life because she has a child, and the focus is inevitably on the child. It may take about 5 years to prepare for pregnancy.

5 years, you do software development, five years is a very long time, if in such a long period, you can not focus on the work, your growth and development will inevitably be greatly affected.

Realistically speaking, a 26-year-old female programmer to jump-job, will face the following three questions:

1. Do you have a boyfriend?
2. Are you married?
3. When are you going to have a baby?

If you are married and have no children, many units will find a reason to reject you. Because you enter the business will soon have children, to have children for five years can not devote themselves to the fast-paced software development work.

If you don't have a boyfriend or a boyfriend but you're not married, it's a little bit better. But considering the longer-term executives will still anticipate the things that are not going to happen to you, which is the law of the stage of life development ...

So, realistically speaking, some companies are more willing to have children over 3 years of age in female programmers.

These seemingly unfair unspoken rules are caused by the physiological characteristics of women. If the response strategy, it should be: female programmers around the age of 25 to stabilize to a business, wait until the marriage and children after a little bigger then consider job-hopping .

I have a female colleague, graduate student, what kind of complex code all dare to write, executive and problem-solving ability are very strong, but she always stay at graduation when the company entered. The reason is very simple, she gave birth to twins, herself and her husband two people to take care of two children, work must be stable. After the child went to kindergarten, she and the company consulted, applied for 4:30 P.M. every day-to pick up the children from school. For her, stability is the first, so even if there is a better opportunity from an economic and future perspective, she will not consider it at the moment.

Maintenance period and menopause

Barer Career Development stage in the theoretical map of the subdivision stage labeled 3, is the maintenance period, the age of 45~60 (or 65) years. The maintenance period overlaps with a well-known, female-specific stage of life: menopause.

Menopause is accompanied by the emergence of female menopause, generally around the 45~55岁.

After menopause, female ovarian function failure, estrogen significantly reduced, may lead to many organs in the body degeneration, leading to a variety of physical symptoms. For example, hot flashes, high blood pressure, joint pain, osteoporosis, dry skin, enlarged pores, increased wrinkles, headache, dizziness and so on. These physical changes, will bring psychological changes, this period of women are more prone to irritability, paranoia, anxiety, depression, emotional instability.

It is also important to mention that at this stage of the women, their children either face the test, or face the college entrance examination, which will also bring a greater impact on women-in the domestic situation, the test is not only children's affairs, or parents, especially the things of mother. In addition to the college entrance examination, the children's other typical characteristics are in adolescence, adolescence hit menopause, all kinds of chaos will appear, the mother's response to the brunt.

You see, there are so many situations, if you are still doing software development work, I am afraid that the efficiency of the reduction is unavoidable, to complete the barer proposed to maintain the existing position of the professional subject may also have some difficulty.

The impact of menopause on work and life has been widely concerned, many film and television drama will also focus on the scene in this period, such as "The Happy life of Menopause", "Menopause War" and other TV dramas, women in Menopause, in life, work, all due to menopause and have a variety of chaotic, confused, difficult to ponder behavior.

From the common sense, in the menopause of female programmers, more need to care and understanding, but also need the mentality of debugging. If one to the unit, someone reported the bug, engaged in a day did not fix, someone said elder sister Ah you really menopause ah so simple bug leng, that estimate put who also can not stand.

The family's expectations for women

In terms of cultural traditions, our country has more demands on the role of women in the family and society. For example, it is generally believed that women should devote more time and energy to family life management, such as the son, the kitchen under the hall, care for the elderly and so on. Although the times have progressed, the sociocultural atmosphere continues to affect women's lives and work.

If a female programmer, the formation of the family is dual-earner type. Before you have a baby, you engage in your design, I masturbate My code, everyone is peaceful. But once the child is born, the balance is instantly broken. Husband will be more inclined to let his wife to control the child, such as when the child is small, the evening to take care of the child, give the child urine, breast-feeding, the child is big shuttle kindergarten, sick mother accompany, and then big with the children do homework education children ... Most families, consciously or unconsciously, put these things on women.

As a female programmer, compared with other professional women, most of the work is fast-paced, stressful, and has frequent skill updates. The revision period we mentioned earlier and Ann's regular, physiological characteristics and family expectations of women will force women programmers to devote more time and energy to raising children, so that the amount of energy assigned to work is limited and very easy to perform with less energy. The result, often is two busy, exhausted extremely.

Career development strategies for female programmers

In front of me from the gender and personality, physiological characteristics, family expectations three aspects of female programmers may face some career development problems, but also put forward some coping strategies. Finally, let's take a look at how female programmers should respond to common problems in their career development.

First period, revision period, 25~30岁

Female programmers in this period, should be more stable than the male programmer, so that their stability to a business, for marriage, to prepare children, so as to avoid frequent job-hopping to face the unfair treatment.

Therefore, female programmers should pay more attention to the problem of career choice, choose to good, have the potential for growth in the industry has a certain scale, in the growth or maturity of the company, the work environment is relatively stable, the women will face the marriage, children, childcare and other topics have great benefits. If you are not stable during childbirth, today the company is bankrupt and tomorrow is cut, it is hard to bear.

Some women programmers will also consider transfer before having a child, such as within the same company, from development to demand analysis, configuration management, release management, quality management, process management, testing and other positions. There are also female programmers who never consider the effects of marriage, having children and other problems on their own, they think that those things will not have too much impact on themselves. Individuals can choose their own future, not necessarily subject to universal law.

The second period, the stability period, 31~44岁

Early in this period, 31~35岁, most female programmers have children, small children, need to spend more time to take care of their mother, the better strategy is to keep the work stable, the energy to the family tilt.

If you do not stabilize in the correction period, you will face a greater pressure at this time. The requirements of the enterprise programmers are not divided between men and women, you new into the company, met the leadership, most of the colleagues will not because you want to have children, have children to raise not to assign you a task. And if you have been in the company for more than 2 years, from a human perspective, the leadership is easy to consider the characteristics of women, to give appropriate attention and care, your colleagues, have been fighting together, it is easy to understand and take care of your situation. The woman colleague whom I mentioned earlier is able to apply for 4:30 P.M. off is an example.

When your child is older, such as going to kindergarten, there will be more energy to devote to the development work, at which time you can sail again.

Note that parenthood does not always affect career development. The difference between individuals is very large, at any time, individuals can choose to transcend the general rule of self-transcendence. My daughter-in-law their unit has a particularly sharp female colleague, in the birth of two children during the promotion of two times!

This stage should also consider the future career trends. If there is no longer an ambition eagle to hit the sky, then you can start to switch to a more relaxed position, such as testing, demand analysis. If you want to continue to struggle on the line, it is necessary to constantly comb their skills, to cultivate the top edge (the programmer's top advantage concept, please see my post in the subscription number "program Horizon" article " how programmers Plan a monthly salary 30,000 "), to maintain the status of the current position to prepare.

The third period, the maintenance period, after the age of 45

I have not met the female programmers in menopause, logically, at this time should accept this particular stage of physical discomfort, pay attention to the mentality of debugging, to avoid physical discomfort to bring more psychological discomfort. If the body, psychology really have a relatively big reaction, affect the work, also do not die twist not accept, to accept the fact that the performance may become worse, let its nature, can better walk past.

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Special career development for female programmers