As a woman, you can be as successful as any man you could know
In her own words : Susana Chang
Susana Chang
As a computer science engineer, I’m a little far from the usual stuff my colleagues do… why? I had a wonderful mentor who opened my eyes to networking and gave me the base to discover how little I knew and how much I needed to learn.
Working in networking is everyday challenging, because everything is evolving constantly, you should study and keep updated to be on the top, and still then… you’ll find out that there are many things you’ve left out…, and for those who love learning new things, this is a great career to pursue.
Networking is considered a typical male area, but as a woman, you can be as successful as any man you could know, and because of that you’ll be seen as a wonder woman and will amuse them. You’ll be like another guy for your colleagues, it won’t matter if you’re prettier than them, they will treat you as an equal and will respect your opinion and decisions. For those who have suffered of discrimination, this is great achievement, and for those who don’t, this is a sample of how technology doesn’t have limits.
For me, working doing what I do had let me be the person I planned to be: economically independent, capable to support my family, recognized as a good candidate for any employer, as a good professional for your colleagues and a role model for some friends; be proud of myself and let my parents and husband be proud of me, knowing that if you work hard, you’ll succeed.
My job had let me know another countries , cultures and way of living and working, opening my mind and widening my horizons, because it’s not limited to a particular area, it’s applicable to many others which relay on networking to keep their business running. I’ve been working in networking for almost 14 years, I’d had bad days and good days, but the most rewarding ones were when your client is satisfied and thanks goodness to have you supporting him. This feeling (being useful) had given me focus and center, making me grow as a professional and a person.
Networking is a choice to consider as a career because it involves technology, you’ll always have something new to learn, you’ll never be stuck; it pays the effort, you’ll earn (not only economically) as much as you’d work for; it doesn’t rely on sex, age, race o believes, just your willing to do edgy stuff, try new things and put in a lot of effort to do it well.
I was born in Venezuela by Chinese parents; I’m a computer science engineer with a telecommunications management specialization, CCIE R&S since 2001, planning to take CCIE SP next May. I’ve been working with networking technologies since 1996, after a brief period of “traditional computers jobs”. I’d worked for the only Cisco Gold partner in Venezuela, for a service provider bought by Global Crossing and Nokia Siemens Networks. In 2008 I moved to Italy with my husband due to political situation in Venezuela, I’d been working for a year in a datacenter on the north of Italy and right now we’re working on our own IT consulting company to offer services to small/medium enterprises.