I have been told quite that I am a rare find because most IT technicians, network administrators, etc. are usually men.
Technology is my passion so I look forward to many conversations with all of you.

I do both IT and Administrative Support and I have been told on more than one occasion that the Admin field is more geared towards women...Good to know that we Paradoxes exist!

I've been in geekdom for well over 20 years and have been told more than once that this is a man's profession. I was even told once that I was taking jobs from men...go figure. This sterotyping was in the earlier days, now no one bats an eye at a female doing anything she sets her mind to do which is terrific.

I first knew I was a geek when I opened an electronics repair business out of my basement. It was quite successful long before working women were the norm. After I moved to a storefront, I hired several employees but did most of the technical work myself. Major companies exploited the fact that I was the only female in eastern US who did warranty work on their products. Anyway, armed with this knowledge and experience I moved on to teaching industrial electronics at a vocational school while working towards my degree in electronics. My class was high school boys and they thought it was great to have a female teacher.

From teaching, I went on to work as an Instrumentation and Control Technician at a power station....again, I was the only female but proved I could do the job and get as dirty as any of the guys. From this job, I transferred within the company to a Telecommunication Technician job which was a bit cleaner and lo and behold, there were other women. For some reason though I was the only one who was allowed to work on the technical equipment. It was probably because I was mouthy and stood up to the senior techs. I refused to do only paperwork and make coffee.

My next venture was getting hired as an IT Director at a hospital. I was hired because my boss had worked a bit with a Novell server and I had a Novell certification. When I hired into this position my staff was 2 other women whose job function was data entry, not technical stuff. The IT department consisted of a handful of cheap computers, a couple of servers that everyone had admin rights to, some antique printers, a frame relay circuit to an AS400 at another hospital and an antiquated phone system. When I quit a couple of months ago, they had 12 servers with restricted rights, well over 150 computers, laser printers, company email and Internet for most employees, an ethernet circuit to the other hospital's servers with dual T1s as a backup, document imaging for all charts, digital radiological imaging, electronic fetal monitoring, the most advanced telephone system in the county, plus Blackberrys for all of administration. I also had 2 techs that were promoted to IT Coordinator to take my place.

I think it's great that this group was started for all us geeks and I hope to exchange ideas and stories with all of you. Sorry for such a long post.

I hope I fit into this group. I didn't consider myself a techie geek but people around here think I am.

My background consists of two degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics. I've worked for IBM for 10 years as testing software, installing software and maintaining mainframe operating systems.

I quit my corporate job to take care of our children. During this time, I've been teaching computer classes to all ages.

Now, I recently started my VA business and it looks like my niche will be in the technical area.

What do you specialize in in your VA business?

I do not specialize in anything technical in my VA business. I went in a totally different direction in that I work with authors and entrepreneurs with a bit of research and a lot of genealogy thrown in. I can maintain my own equipment and network but have no desire to do this as a profession any longer.

I've been a software techie for over 20 years as well, primarily working with medical software companies either providing help desk support to their clients, and/or installation and training services. In my last corporate IT job I thought I'd give management a try, and that was fun for a few years until the bureaucracy of working in government got to be a headache, so I left and started my own business. Being a VA really allowed me to get back to my 'techie' roots. I'm slowly taking my VA business from the traditional administrative services to the more techinical ones, and now I'm specializing in audio and video editing, video tutorials, and virtual events like teleclasses and webinars. I look forward to learning and sharing with everyone in the group.

I have been in the Information Technology field for over 20 years, providing Telecomm, Network Infratructure, Systems Administration, etc. I started out learning Word Processing from Wang. Once I learned that I wanted to learn everything about computers. I started my business in Virginia, moved and continued it in Maryland and now I am working on getting my business in full swing again. I look forward to networking with all of you! I love to share and learn more. Jen

What a huge advantage being a geek as a VA! I have found that because I am more "electronic" based than "paper" based, I'm able to surprise clients with the volume of work I do because of technology. I do fear for the person that has to figure out how I have customized my VOIP phone system, even WITH documentation But being able to script, use macros, etc. has been a huge help automating tasks that would take forever to do by hand. Looking forward to learning from fellow geeks!

I'm a tech geek too, with over 7 years in the IT support field. I currently work at a private university in the IT department. Prior to this I was admin asst for over 7 years as well. I'm looking to cultivate all the skills that I have acquired in these fields into a successful VA venture. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm a tech geek too, with over 7 years in the IT support field. I currently work at a private university in the IT department. Prior to this I was admin asst for over 7 years as well. I'm looking to cultivate all the skills that I have acquired in these fields into a successful VA venture. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!