Computer work can be satisfying and stimulating

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32678, 6 August 1971, Page 5

Computer work can be satisfying and stimulating

Computer work can be satisfying and stimulating, particularly for women who enjoy learning most of the time, according to Mrs Gillian Finnegan, a programmer-analyst at the University of Canterbury Computer Centre, who described her work yesterday as part of a series of lunch-hour talks on work for Women graduates, arranged by the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Federation of University Women.

I A wide range of jobs was I available for women in the computer field, she said, especially for those with an aptitude for . mathematics and logic. A degree in sciI ence with at least some : mathematics was very useful i but not essential. Mrs Finnegan, who has a B.Sc. degree, said that contrary to popular belief, a degree in science did not automatically lead to interesting, well-paid work for women. “Before marrying, I was a teacher," she said. "When later I decided that I wanted to go back to work, I wanted to try something different and have since found that: working with computers is I both stimulating and satisfy- < ing.” I LEARNING AGAIN j At first, she said, her de-1 gree in science did not seem very useful, and she had had i to begin “learning all over < again” during the three- ’ month training period. i “This is often the case 1

when going out to work after i gaining a degree—you find i that you are concentrating on i perhaps only one small < aspect of the knowledge t covered in the course, < and that you still I have a lot to learn,” Mrs ' Finnegan said. s Because the computer field i was a continually growing one. with many new ideas constantly being put forward, there was no end to the learning if one was to keep abreast of the work. One of the first things one

learned was the “programme language” (of which there were several) which was being used by one’s firm or centre.

These programme languages were not unlike algebra and all problems to be put to the computer had to be converted to a series of programme language statements. Then the problem was put to the computer with machine "language” instructions. Mrs Finnegan said that the work of a programme analyst was only a small part of a complex net of activities surrounding computers. “Being an analyst is different from actually producing a programme—the analyst, you could say, pulls the produced programme to bits and reconstructs it to adapt to certain needs or for greater efficiency.” ' Mrs Finnegan said her main task at the computer centre within the university was to be oh call to assist in solving the .problems brought by the various university departments, which ranged from research to administrations’ problems. Students also had to be guided when they wanted to use a computer to solve a problem. Another aspect of the work which she enjoyed was assisting with the problems brought in by schools and

education centres outside the university, Mrs Finnegan said.

The second speaker in the lunch-hour talk, Mrs Isobel Dumbleton, said that from her point of view, one needed at least 18 months experience in computer work before it was at all satisfying. Mrs Dumbleton, who has a B.A. degree with two years of mathematics included in her course, worked as a computer programmer with a business firm. Now a teacher trainee, she said she had been disappointed by the “totally commercial atmosphere of the environment” in which she had worked.

With no previous experience with computers, she had undergone a training course for four weeks and had then found the work of keeping a computer programmed to keep monthly accounts up-to-date most unsatisfying. Mrs Dumbleton said, however, that there did seem to be a good future in -computer work for women who were prepared to undergo some period of unsatisfactory conditions and who were then lucky enough to find an opening in an interesting part of the field.