Tag: work

Engineers make money, and you could be one

If you’d like to know what it takes to become an engineer, then there may be no better starting point than someone like Dean Millar. Not only is he an industry expert, but he is also a professor who wants to see students succeed. His book, Ready for Takeoff! : A Winning Process for Launching Your Engineering Career is a great guide for future engineers. It approaches the things you’d think it would like classes and career paths, and also tackles things like attitude, teamwork, and other general workplace habits. It’s a great book for anyone who wants or might just be interested in life as an engineer.

Time To Be Barefoot and Pregnant: It Is BotD!

I was once told that when a man and a woman love each other very much, the woman might quit her job to stay home and wait for the stork to stop by with a baby to keep her company while she stays at home.  My father, he’s not a creative guy.  But he’s also wrong.

Aside from being misogynistic, the above can be adult-ified as saying “women leave the workforce for family”.  I’ve heard it called “the Mommy Track”, but another term is “opting out”.  Our book for this Friday, Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home by Pamela Stone.  Stone researched a group of women who were fortunate enough to be able to afford leaving their jobs after having children, and it turns out that it wasn’t to fill the gender role.

As it were, work sucked. The workplace had put undue stigma or pressure on them, and made work unfun.  Others weren’t able to find the balance between being a successful employee at the top of or on an advancing track and being the parent they were expected to be. This look at gender in the workplace might reveal less about the mothers’ motives and more about workplace prejudices and ideals.