这名IBM女程序员说：女生们，别因为担心成绩差而不敢学计算机

    在最近的“编程女孩夏令营”中，我与一群高中女生进行了交流。她们来纽约参加这一沉浸式课程，是希望掌握从事工程与计算机类工作的技能。这些女生问了我一些常见的问题，比如如何平衡工作与生活，怎样做才能在这个领域出人头地等等。此外，她们也问到，辅修计算机科学专业是不是足够好的选择。这些女孩担心，由于对这类高难度科目的接触较少，她们可能很难取得好成绩。她们也很关心如何“知道”计算机科学这条路是否适合自己。

    我发现，这些女生都非常聪慧，对编程也有足够的求知欲，但对风险的惧怕，可能让她们在追求高回报的计算机科学类职业时畏缩不前。

    我告诉她们，如果她们在上大学前没有太多的编程经验，可以选择更简单一些的途径，辅修计算机科学专业，在一头扎进这个领域之前先行“试水”。但我建议，在低估自己之前，她们应该尽量从事一些与技术相关的实习工作，了解工程师们每天的真实生活。

    面对未知的时候，承担风险往往更加可怕。消除这些未知因素之后，人们便可以更加愉快地做出一些大胆的选择。

    可悲的是，对自我的怀疑和对风险的惧怕，在女生当中很常见。有多项研究显示，女性比男性更惧怕风险。2012年的一项研究发现，面对压力，男性比女性更有可能承担风险，而且在高压情况下，男性承担压力的意愿会提高。研究还发现，随着压力水平提高，女性会选择规避风险。这方面的差异对于女性在日常生活中的决策有巨大的影响，尤其是对未来至关重要的决定。

    我在生活和职业当中一直都乐于冒险。2001年前往卡耐基梅隆大学计算机科学学院，便是一次冒险。当时的我是个彻头彻尾的门外汉。在计算机科学学院，女生本就稀少，美国出生的女生更是寥寥无几。这确实令人生畏。除此之外，我还决定打篮球（在大二又参加了排球队）。有人警告我说，既要代表校队在全国各地参加比赛，又要攻读全世界最优秀的本科课程之一，并取得计算机科学学位，几乎是不可能的。前两年确实非常艰苦。我已经记不清花了多少个夜晚熬夜学习，经常心情沮丧地给父母打电话，而且我无法取得全优的成绩。我记得，有许多次我甚至想放弃计算机科学。

    但很快，我接受了当时的现状。我不再担心自己不能适应传统的计算机科学专业，因为我爱上了科技的创造力和它所带来的挑战。我不久便发现，我的课外活动让我变得独一无二。在昏暗的计算机集群之外的每一次经历，都给我带来了解决问题的全新视角。一位工程师的外貌或者行为，并没有什么统一的标准。

    我很早就懂得，最好的学习方式是全身心投入，不要受到自我怀疑的干扰。在我的第一份工作里，周围的人都是发明家。但我并没有因此而感到害怕，相反，我发现有一些工程师会每月进行几次聚会，讨论专利问题。大家在一起畅谈尖端技术，记录我们的想法，并将这些想法兜售给公司的专利评审委员会，我很快便发现，这种活动令我痴迷。

    写这篇文章的时候，我正在焦急地等待双胞胎女儿的降生，这是我的第二对双胞胎。第一对是两个男孩，他们在11月将满三周岁。这意味着，我将成为需要照顾四个孩子的职场妈妈，而且四个孩子都不满三岁。成为父母会改变你对生活和工作的看法，因为你的工作占用了你用来陪伴孩子的时间。所以，我认为重要的是热爱自己的工作，愿意接受挑战。

    工程师永远不会失去创新的动力，热爱在职场内外所做的事情，可以让你更清楚如何选择。热爱你所做的事情，将激发你的热情，让你在做这件事的时候身心愉悦，因此可以帮助你接受更大的风险。承担风险最糟糕的情况不过是在一个项目完成之前退出，但即便如此，你也已经学到了许多新的技能，这将帮助你应对下一个挑战。

    作为女性工程师，我们有机会指导并鼓励我们未来的同事——尚在求学的少男少女们。这真是托了他们的福啊！因为虽然我们可能对自己目前的成就感到满意，但看到其他人成功将给我们带来更大的回报，哪怕这条道路充满荆棘和坎坷。（财富中文网）

    本文作者现担任IBM“发明大师”。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    审校：任文科

    I recently talked to a group of Girls Who Code high school students, who were participating in a summer immersion program in New York that equips them to pursue careers in engineering and computing fields.The girls asked me the usual questions about work-life balance and what they need to do to get ahead in the field. But they also asked if it was good enough to minor in computer science due to their fears of getting bad grades in hard subjects they had little exposure to. They also were concerned about how to “know” if computer science was the right path for them.

    I saw that while these girls were bright and curious enough to take up coding, their aversion to risk could hold them back from pursuing highly-rewarding computer science careers.

    I told them that if they didn’t have a lot of experience with programming before college, they could opt for the easier route and merely minor in computer science to test the waters before they plunged all the way in. However, I suggested before they sell themselves short, they try to experience technology-related internships to see what a real life engineer does on a day-to day basis.

    Taking a risk is always scarier when there are unknowns. Removing these unknowns helps people become more comfortable with making bold choices in life.

    Sadly, the self-doubt and aversion to risk they exhibited is all too common and reflected in many studies that show women are more risk averse than men. Not only are males more likely to take risks under stress than women, but risk-taking actually increases for men in stressful situations, according to a 2012 study. It also found that women avoid risk as their levels of stress increases. Such differences have dramatic implications for how we, as women, make decisions in our everyday lives, especially decisions that shape our future.

    In my life and career, I have always embraced risk. I took a chance when I headed for Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science in 2001. I was an outsider. Not only was I on a short list of females, but I was on an even shorter list of females born in the United States. It was intimidating. To top it off, I decided to play basketball (and volleyball my sophomore year). I was warned that it would be impossible to participate in a varsity sport, traveling across the country for games, while also pursuing a degree in computer science from one of the top undergrad programs in the world. The first two years were brutal. There were countless late night studying sessions, frustrated calls home to my parents, and I was far from getting all A’s. I remember many times where I wanted to throw in the towel on computer science.

    But it didn’t take long for me to embrace who I was. I stopped worrying that I didn’t fit the traditional computer science major profile because I fell in love with the creativity and challenge of technology. I quickly found out that my extra-curricular activities made me unique. Each experience I had outside a dark computer cluster only added to the new perspective I brought to problem solving. There is no cookie-cutter mold of what an engineer looks or acts like.

    I learned early on that the best way to learn is to jump in head first and not be distracted by self-doubt. On my first job, I was surrounded by inventors. Rather than being intimidated, I found a group of engineers who met a couple times a month to discuss patents. I quickly discovered just how addicting it was to brainstorm about cutting edge technologies, write up our ideas, and pitch them to our company’s patent review boards.

    I’m writing this article as I anxiously await the birth of my twin daughters, which happen to be my second set of twins. My first set, boys, will turn three in November. That means I’ll be a working mother of four children under the age of three. Becoming a parent changes your perspective on your life and your job, because you’re doing something that is taking time away from your kids. That’s why I feel it’s important to love what you do, and embrace challenge.

    For engineers, the drive to innovate never lets up, and loving what you do both inside and outside of work helps you make choices with greater clarity. Loving what you do also helps you take greater risks when it’s a passion and you enjoy every second of it. The worst-case scenario for taking risks is walking away from a project before you’ve completed it, but even then, you’ve learned a few new skills that you can take with you to the next challenge.

    As engineers — and women — we owe it to our future colleagues to get involved in mentoring and encouraging young girls and boys. Because as satisfying as our own accomplishments may be, it’s even more rewarding to watch others succeed, even if the path is bumpy.

    Lisa Seacat DeLuca is a master inventor for IBM.