Correction after a comment I got: this is really not about WIT but the topic is WIT because I was contacted by people under the topic WIT. As you see in the end this all applies to both women and men and has nothing to do with IT.

And I think what should happen first is that women start respecting and supporting each other. That is the best WIT.

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I am sorry I got stuck to this topic but after my post about my thoughts on WIT a lot has happened. And it made me think again.

The female boss I mentioned in my previous post. She has probably been my biggest idol ever. She is smart, honest, mother of three sons, a grandmother and always ready to help anybody. She is now retired and I met her a while ago. She is enjoying her life: the grandchildren, hobbies, volunteer work etc. When she looks back to her career she is very happy except about one horrible thing that happened to her during the years. There was a female IT co-worker who tried to make her life a nightmare and almost succeeded. I did not know her that time but I can only imagine. So this wonderful lady did not say anything bad about male colleagues but only about one female colleague. I feel really bad. I know her job was not easy but I know she made my life always easy by fighting for my rights whenever needed (and not event telling me about it, I only realized it after she left the position).

I have been contacted by couple of people either telling that they do not have the strenght to fight back or people saying they are tired of fighting for other peoples rights. I find this horrible. Why do you need to fight for your rights?! If you are good (or excellent) in what you are doing why do you still need to fight to be able to do your work?!

If people are like this the wars will never be over. Why can we not be friends and respect each other? Why do we need to make other people look bad and think that this way we will look better? I do not think somebody is better if she/he treats other people badly, I think she/he is a bad person. And I do not want to spend my time with bad people.

This is a topic I have been thinking a lot lately. Mainly because several people have asked me questions related to it and I had to think to be able to answer.

Yesterday I was speaking in an event in Tampere (Oracle 12c upgrade) organized by Oracle Finland, Miracle Finland and Arrow ECS. After the event the organizers and speakers had lunch. There were 8 people on the table: 4 men and 4 women, all working on IT. I was thinking that in my surrounding the situation is extremely good. But why?

In Finland women are equal to men in many ways. So being on IT in Finland is easier that in some other countries. I am sure it is not this easy in every country.

Then I started to think who have been the most supportive people in my career. Some men definitely (including my own hubby) but also a couple of women (my boss from years back and several colleagues). And I came to the conclusion that support is definitely needed and you cannot get the best out of yourself without that. And without the support from family you can actually do nothing.

Then I started thinking what is stopping me from doing even more and why did I not do these things I am doing now before. Number one stopping me is I. I do not know if that is because I am a woman or because I am a Finn or because I am who I am but that is definitely number one. I do not think I have special skills or knowledge (I know I do but I always “forget” it): I always think everybody knows what I know. My family is always number one whatever I am doing. So if I need to choose between a career and a family I would ALWAYS take family. It sounds strange because I am working like crazy and do not have enough time for the family but if anything happens family always wins. I like people and I always expect the best of them. That of course is sometimes disappointing… I want to help people and sometimes people take advantage of that. But I try not to care about it, I still want to be positive and trust people and humankind. What else prevents me in my career? Other people of course. I only remember a couple of men trying to make me change the career when I was younger but I do not think I actually cared about them: I just made jokes about the things they said. But I do not remember any men trying to make my life on IT harder recent years, all men have been very supportive. I think it must be that they can see I am strong and no use bullingJ Unfortunately I do remember several women doing that, when I was younger and still. And the way women do it is very bad. Why do women do that to each other?! They should be supporting other women. I think the reason is envy. Women envy other women. Why? If somebody has something good it is not away from you! Or another reason is that women do not have enough self-confidence and to hide that they try to make other women look bad. Just that you do not think I am talking about youJ Some of the most supportive people in my life are women (and I am not only talking about my amazing Mother :-)). When women are supportive they are very supportive: like mother lions.

I think what we all can do is to support other people. Listen to them and try to help in every way we can. And every now and then say something nice. People know they have skills and they are special but they forget that easily. Remind them about it. When they trust themselves they can do amazing things. And maybe they do not say NO to something very important just because you have been supportive… And remember to be a friend, a loyal friend. There can never be too many true friends. If you help others one day they will help you.

I am enjoying my busy life. And feeling honored and humble.
I got a message from RMOUG that my session was accepted for the RMOUG Training Days 2015. I am very honored since I know there was a huge amount of excellent sessions available and they took one of mine. Thank you RMOUG! The RMOUG Training Days will be in Denver in February (17-19).

I was also invited to speak at the Riga DevDays in Latvia in January (22nd). I am honored and proud they reached for me and asked me to speak. The agenda for the event is exellent.

On Sunday I will join the Nordic Oracle ACE Director Tour the first time. I am really looking forward to that. There are five ACE Directors (Debra Lilley, Jonathan Lewis, Simon Haslam, Joze Senagacnik and yours truly) traveling in four countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland) and speaking. OTN (the ACE program) is funding this tour. Four days, four countries.

After the Nordic Tour it’s time to start preparing for the DOAG event in Germany. That will be in November (18-20) and I am very honored and happy they accepted two of my papers! I have attented DOAG conference many times and I enjoy it a lot. I am so happy I have the chance to go there again. DOAG is also organizing a meeting for user groups to gather and meet during the event and I am looking forward to the meeting too. User groups are very close to my heart and when I have a chance to network with other user groups and share best practices or help in any ways I am happy.

Traveling is fun and I love presenting but the downside of it is that I am too busy with my real work. And traveling takes a lot of time (and the jetlags, I do not want to think about that) and you need to prepare your sessions (that is a lot of work) etc. I do not remember how many times I have been asking for longer weeks (maybe 9 days?) and longer days (36 hours?):) So if you think this kind of life is pure fun, think again:) But I am not complaining: I love my work and I am very happy with my life. Just wanted to point out the downsides since I have heard so many times people saying that life like this is easy and just fun. Try it for 6 months and we talk again…

I love my work and I am so glad I have the opportunity to do things I love and enjoy. I just want to say that the only limitation is you: there is nothing in life you could not do if you just feel it’s important and you want to do it. As a child I said I want to be an author. I never actually buried that dream but there just was not a good time for writing. Now I am writing my first book and I love it even more than I was imagining as a child. Now I better get back to writing…

Have a wonderful day and remember you can do whatever you think is worth doing. The only limitation is you and your attitude!

I have been and I am asked many questions about Data Modeler and database design almost every day. Some of those questions are asked more frequently than others and almost in the same way. That is why I decided to write short notes on those topics. I try to keep them as short as possible.

– the title is the question

– the post includes the reply

You will find these posts either under Data Modeler or database design, depending which one it concerns.

I hope somebody finds these useful. And feel free to send me more questions to reply:-). Maybe in Twitter: @helifromfinland?

I want to thank my Oracle-Dad (long story:-)) Tim Hall for the best advice ever: I complained to him I never have time to update my blog and he suggested I write when I have time and publish my stories when I get to internet. He was so right! My blog will be so much more active now! Thank you Tim! This method really works!

I have “always” planned that one day I will write a book (or maybe many books). That one day is now: I am writing my first book about database design and Data Modeler. No more details at this point but be prepared to buy it next year:)

I have always though that WIT (women in technology) is nothing but complaining about things that are wrong or seem to be wrong. So I have always refused to attend these panels, roundtables or interviews. But I had to make a exception last year during the OpenWorld because I was asked to attend the panel by Kellyn Pot’Vin (nobody says no to Kellyn:)). I was surprised to see how interesting it was and how women and men really want to talk about different issues on WIT. I realized I have been wrong not to attend before but still I was not sure what I will bring to these conversations:

– I am on IT, I cannot say why women do not join IT
– I have no plans to leave IT, so I cannot say why women leave IT
etc

So when Kellyn invited me to attend the WIT at the OUGN event I said yes.

During the WIT session at OUGN I did not have much to say but after the session I had a talk with two ladies who attended it and I realized what is my role on WIT sessions: I tell people that I am a woman on IT and I LOVE it! So my role is to tell that there are moments you hate your job (everybody does, men and women) but the main thing is that mostly you love your job.  My role is to show that a woman on IT can be enjoying beeing there and there is no limit what you can do. I am running two companies and a user group, I am a technical expert on my area (I am even awarded as an Oracle ACE Director), I speak and teach, I write and now I am even writing a book.

So I do seen my role on WIT: I am there to inspire other women to join IT and to stay there. And to show that there are no limits on what you can do!

I want to thank Kellyn, OUGN and especially the two ladies I met at the OUGN: You pushed me to the right direction to be able to help more people on IT.

I am a very proud and happy person now: I got ACED! That means Oracle has awarded me by giving me a title ‘Oracle ACE Director’. There is maybe 10 women in the whole world with this title and maybe about 100 people in total. I am so proud and honored. Thank you all for supporting my nomination and thank you very much for all the nice words!

Now I feel I must start blogging more frequently. It will be hard because my day job is very demanding and I travel quite a lot for all kinds of events but I promise to do my best. After hearing my friends I have decided to move my blog helifromfinland.blogspot.fi here. Please follow me here!

Heli

I have decided to be a true blogger: not just blog once or twice a year but frequently. But I cannot decide weather I should use my old blog (helifromfinland.blogspot.fi) or start a new one. So this is my first pilot blog in wordpress. What do you recommend me to do?