Video Clip: |
Three dynamic women who have staked out successful careers in the e-commerce industry will inspire your female students to explore new career pathways.Female role models help get this career on the radar of women and girls because they’re able to see someone who looks like them on the job. This video reveals the personal experiences and insights of successful women working in this field. E-commerce and related industries employ millions of people. Increasing numbers of women are establishing rewarding careers in the traditionally male-dominated e-commerce field. |
Career Options for Women -- E-Commerce:
This 24-minute video features profiles of three women with successful careers in e-commerce:
- Kerry Sizer, a programmer who has helped shape her company’s online business model
- Sheila Zoghaib, a webmaster who administers multimedia learning websites
- Barbara-Judith Caron, a web consultant tasked with staying on top of current trends and tastes in website design
Additional information from co-workers and supervisors supplements each job profile.
Meet the role models featured in the E-Commerce video:
Kerry: Programmer
Programming was not high on Kerry Sizer’s list of to do’s when she first began her career search. However, as she worked her way through a multitude of computer programming courses, she learned to appreciate the finesse and creativity the job offers.
Essentially, programming is a series of commands written to make a certain action occur. Because there are several different programming languages, programmers generally choose a specialty.
Like many e-businesses, the company Kerry works for has focused its business model to meet the changing opportunities in e-commerce. Together, they’re programmed for success! “The people I work with are the main reason I like my job. Also, there’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you work hard for a project and it’s finally done.”
E-commerce is an important aspect of the Internet as it allows people to exchanges goods and services immediately with no barriers of time or distance. Any time of the day or night you can go online and buy just about anything you want.
How much programmers get paid depends on where they work. Larger firms pay higher salaries, but smaller firms offer more responsibilities and faster promotions. In the future Kerry wants to get into project management and become a team leader.
Sheila: Webmaster
Sheila Zoghaib, a webmaster for a company called GCL Multimedia, creates and maintains multimedia learning websites for a variety of clientele. As the webmaster, Sheila builds the structure of a website and fills in the written, interactive and graphic content. She also maintains all the sites she builds.
Sheila’s work is very detail oriented and her end product is right up there on the world wide web for all to see. Getting it right takes a strong mix of education, experience and creativity. “Other women would like this job because they can use their sense of creativity and work with the public.”
Sheila has always been inspired by computer science. After taking a programming course, she landed her current job. Skills needed to be a webmaster include a strong knowledge of HTML and Java programming along with training in graphic arts. Sheila plans to stay in her field for a long time because she likes the fast pace of technology. It’s always a challenge to stay on the cutting edge.
Barbara-Judith: Web Consultant
Barbara-Judith Caron's job didn't exist when she was in high school. That's how new it is. She is a web consultant specializing in the design of commercial Internet sites.
What keeps Barbara-Judith interested is the fact that it's constantly moving and changing. That's an aspect of e-commerce that Barbara-Judith finds different from other industries. It's evolving so fast that there's been no time to establish a hierarchy in the workplace. One of the things that Barbara-Judith loves best about her chosen field is that it's so new, and technology is always changing. “If you can keep up with the technological advances and keep your skills up to date, then this field is wide open for anyone who's interested.”
Barbara-Judith doesn't feel that gender is an issue with the Internet in general. In her case, since most of her work is done through the Internet, by the time she meets a client, she's already proven her abilities. Barbara-Judith’s greatest challenges are not only to keep up with the technological advances, but also to keep up with current trends and tastes in web site designs. It also helps to know something about consumer psychology.
Video details:
Run time: 24 minutes total, including three segments of approximately 8 minutes each.
Format: DVD. Closed-captioned.
Year: 2006
Note: Videos are interspersed with Canadian salary and labor statistics, which are similar to the numbers in the United States.
Policies: There is a no-return policy on these videos.
Grade level: Middle School, High School, Two-Year College, Four-Year University
The WomenTech Educators Training got us thinking intentionally about who we were going to target for outreach, how we were going to target them, and how we would follow up to make sure we had actual results linked to the different programs and events that we were holding. Since then, it has grown organically and blossomed into something that our college just does naturally.
I think getting together as a team with intention—because we're all so busy—and developing a written plan that we could stick to was what made all the difference. I don’t think we would have ever done that if it wasn't for the WomenTech Educators Training.