Day 19: Write an Opinion Post
Today’s task is to write an opinion post. Simply put, opinions get more clicks. Maybe the opinion is outrageous and you’ll get a lot of click-through from people both supporting and opposing your view. Or perhaps your opinion isn’t very controversial at all, but your authority on the matter can help influence others. It’s important to let out your opinion every once in a while, lest you leave your readers wondering if you’re a real person.
Questions!
1. Have you written opinion posts in the past? (LINKS!) If so, do you notice a difference in the way your writers respond to these posts?
I have avoid opinions in my posts because my readers range in age and opinions
2. Do you tend to like reading opinion posts, or do they make you uncomfortable?
I do like reading the ones based on facts
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Writing opinions depends on what your job is or whom might be reading the opinion. Taking a risk here in writing an opinion piece. Rants as we have seen are recorded and aired on ExtraTV or make the top News Stations. Writing respectfully and professionally does have a place. Remember Debate Club or Debating Teams. Finding the right words and execution. Newspapers are no longer the only places for opinion pieces.
Tonight a link to an article about women in Tech appeared on my Facebook page with the person posting it saying she was going to write. Techcrunch author wrote an opinion piece about why few women in Tech can’t blame men. Both opinion pieces try to address how Tech has tried to get women involved in male dominated fields.
Is it only Tech? Look at Congress. Dominated by Men. Higher paid than huge percentage of their constituents.
This is similar to the same arguments many years ago about Women in male dominated fields. Let me tell you a personal story, laced with some opinions about my journey though Tech and back. At one time, I could not get a Drafting job in some companies because it was a male dominated field. Specifically was turned down. A friend had brought my drawings into his company and his boss was excited and wanted to hire me until he found out I was a woman. It was not to be.
I found many jobs in Drafting at other companies. Eventually I changed fields. My next male dominated field was Computer Field Service repair. This was a good paying job and to my advantage Affirmative Action opened the door because they were looking for women. I loved hammers, screw drivers, and working with machines. It was a fun job for me.
Most people were open to having a female field engineer but not all. There were few to share the unusual experience with and unfortunately some got into the job but did not enjoy the mechanical parts and workings of the computers as I did. I was excellent at computer repair but got stumped at times. One thing that happens when you are stumped, you get better.
Eventually as things got automated and engineering jobs were shipped overseas or people from other countries were brought here to do the same jobs, we had to move on. How do you encourage young people to study engineering, math, or science when we have shipped most of those jobs to other people?
Media reports there is a shortage because that is what CEO’s want people to think yet I saw many who wanted those jobs or were training their replacements who were here on J1 visas or H1B visas to take those jobs or take them back overseas.
Is or was there really a shortage?
I don’t think so.
It is a message being spread while the truth lies beneath. Companies don’t want to pay Health Care, Vacation, Holidays, or other benefits which are higher for those who live here while others are covered by their home companies or their countries. It is cheaper for companies to do business elsewhere so they do. They have an obligation to their shareholders to make them as much money as they can. I remember in the 90′s how stocks would rise as people were laid off.
Cheers would go up.
The same thing is happening again. Health Care cost have continued to exponentially rise above affordable so companies are sending more jobs elsewhere or virtually outsourcing to people who don’t need Benefits or won’t get them. Now that people don’t have the housing ATM to fund their spending they have stopped. Spending is what fuels our current capitalist system. Without paychecks or Tech jobs, people are not buying.
Cheers still go up when people are laid off.
Would you encourage anyone to go into Tech if you knew they could not get a job here. Not likely. YET tech jobs and male dominated fields continue to be the higher paying fields. The messages being put out by Corporations and Media are not necessarily the truth. Women are interested. No one is listening.
Find your own niche. Know this as Truth. Male dominated fields pay more. Find one you like. Make your next career move into a Male dominated Field.
This is where Bloggers, Internet, and online come into play. People are flocking to Social Media and the Internet. There is interest in Technology and business. Maybe these Venture capitalist or other mainstream places need to look in other places. Having worked recently with women working a 31 Day challenge to Build a Better Blog, I found a goodly number to be technical or willing to learn and help others learn. They are on a mission. It may not be mainstream but it is building. Alternative ways of earning income are driving people to build the skills they need.
Make your next job move into a Male dominated field or at least one you have a passion for doing.
Resources
- http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/08/27/addressing-the-lack-of-women-leading-tech-start-ups/
- http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/28/women-in-tech-stop-blaming-me/
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Eileen Ludwig of Social Media School brings to the world decades of computer experience with a desire to learn and share current technology multimedia tools for communication. She is owner of four sites: FreelanceTourist , Digital Photography, Web Design School, and Social Media School Each are in different stages of development and evolution.
