I'm not knocking process control - I like BIG toys. (AND little ONES hehe). Easy to please thats me ;-)
I think a lot of people succeed by being in the right place at the right time or making friends with the right people.
Conrats on your daughters degree Walter; Hows she enjoying it?
Do you (or anyone else) know many women in Control Systems? Just wondered how the overall attitude towards women is in the area - I've had mixed info from many of the people I know in (general) Engineering roles (all blokes) though the general opinion has been is that they are generally expected to be incompetant and really have to prove themselves (in a way that men don't have to). By no means do I think that this is the case everywhere or even in many places - thats why I'm asking.
There are only two girls on my course (of which I'm one) and I've never had a problem socialising with men. It can be a little more difficult at first as people often have preconceptions. I have been lucky in that through academia I have never had any negative experiences about being female. To be perfectly honest there have been a number of advantages in that I very quickly got to know the people in my dept - Staff, PGs, Students etc. and if I need a hand with something theres always someone to offer to help.
My only (a little disheartening experience) was a temporary Junior Test Engineer position I applied for. This was through an agency who assured me I had the right mix of technical and social skills for the job. When I met my interviewer the first thing he said was 'I didn't realise you were a girl' and he showed a complete lack of interest for the rest of the interview - think he was just going through the motions. I had to take a test on which I scored 85% - which was quite high for that level of postion - even though I guessed quite a bit of it; There were quite a few engineering scematics the likes of which I'd never seen but were pretty much self explanatory. He then proceeded to spend twenty minutes telling me that I would REALLY dislike the job because it was horrible and unpleasant - I held out and was positive throughout but needless to say I didn't get the job. To be perfectly honest I'm not too bothered about that as I don't think I'd enjoy working in such an unprofessional environment. The way I see it I now have experience completing technical tests and I got an overview of the work that the company does which can only be beneficial for the future.