An interview with Carol Bartz
By Sally Richards
In a time when increased emphasis is being put on time to market issues
and the adage that less is more is the mantra of Silicon Valley, there is one
company that believes giving back to the community is just as important as
getting product out the door. Autodesk, headed up by CEO Carol Bartz, is
investing in tomorrow's technologists and leaders, and they just happen to be
girls and young women.
"I really got worried when I looked at the statistics about where
California is ranked in its math and English," says Bartz of how the programs
came about. "When you read the stats, you basically see the system is not
working for our kids, we've got to help. To me, the future is everything, and
it's based on getting your kids the right foundation. I'm sure there are
parents who are concerned as I am, and folks who worry about the quality of
life going forward as we're aging and the next generation is going to be
running this place. You want the very best leaders you can possibly get. So,
you've got to help now - you can't wait until someone is in high school to
figure out they never could read."
Enrollment of women in college who are taking math and science courses is
down, says Bartz, who believes that unless you turn girls on at an early age
to these subjects that they may never have another opportunity. Bartz
encourages Autodesk employees to spend four hours (comp time) a month outside
the company working with children in schools, although they can choose to
donate that time to other organizations as well. Bartz feels that having
someone visit a classroom who will explain how science or math has enriched
their lives, or teaches kids how to work out math and science problems, can
make all the difference to a child.
"You get less confident in your other subjects if you don't understand
one," says Bartz. "You feel 'I'm so bad in this, therefore I must be bad in
these other things.' So, we're in California, and we're a California-based
company, and I want employees to help out as best they can. We don't run time
clocks around here, the plan is that they volunteer four hours a month, or
they can bank this time and go off and do a couple day project if they want.
We just ask people to be reasonable. If you need to go to your kid's school
and participate, do what you need to do. We're not running stopwatches, you
know what you have to do at Autodesk, but we're also encouraging you to be
part of what your kids are doing. Balance it."
Was Bartz encouraged in math and science as a child? "Nobody ever told me
that I couldn't be good in math or science, as a matter of fact, I was told
the opposite - whatever you do, do it well. Why not go out for cheerleader
and get an A in math?" says Bartz who won a beauty pageant and was a
majorette and cheerleader in high school. "To some extent, I believe that
doers do. Some people start early and keep going. Today, I think people like
to separate the fact that you're either studious or your athletic - I never
buy into tight labels."
Bartz's daughter had just begun sixth grade at the time of this
interview, and although she once bought into the traditional roles that boys
and girls have, she doubts her place no more. "On her own, she looked around
and said the boys get called on, they get to the front of the line, they get
more attention ... this must mean that they're better," says Bartz. "She's
totally out of that now."
Bartz wants to get to girls at an early age when they're still open to
learning - and even enjoying - math and science. She believes that if young
girls see women in the workplace who are using math and science, they will
have role models who have succeeded in the fields of math and science.
Besides having outreach programs, and internships in all areas of Autodesk
for high school students, Bartz supported a group of employees who proposed
the Design Your Future initiative, a program to inspire young women in middle
school and high school to learn about careers in math, science and
technology. A team of young women interns were hired to work with members of
the Autodesk staff to learn about HTML, marketing and other aspects of
working in a corporation. This program is designed so interns will have a
well-rounded, hands-on experience to prime them for college and have an idea
about what life beyond college is all about.
The team of interns has created The Design Your Future website,
www.autodesk.com/dyf, as a place where girls come to explore career
opportunities in math, science and technology. The site has won four awards
for excellence in design and content: The Tech Museum of Innovation Award,
the Best of the Web awards from Neilsen, the CyberTeddy Online Award and the
Busy Educator's Guide to the Web Award.
"The girls are seeing that if you have Web experience you can pretty
much write your own ticket," says Alice SMILER Ostrovsky, program manager of
Design Your Future. "They look at their high school experience differently
once they're in the program - they see why going to school is important and
why they need to concentrate on school. Every time Carol (Bartz) talks to a
group of girls she really pounds away on the fact that if you stop taking the
math classes you don't have certain opportunities and that you have to keep
as many professional doors open to you as possible. There are plenty of women
here who speak to girls and say, 'I didn't take any more math class after
calculus, and I kind of wish I had.' They see how people apply math and
science methodology to every day work."
The DYF program, implemented two years ago, has really made the
difference in many young women's lives and how they see their futures.
Hundreds of girls have participated in DYF activities ranging from
internships to job shadowing and hands-on technology days to mentoring to
accessing resources through the website. To make sure that young women have
an opportunity to pursue college degrees, Autodesk has given $30,000 in
college grants to former female interns during the past year, funded by the
company's piracy prevention department.
"They also get to meet high-tech professionals who are interesting and
well-rounded, not like some stereotypical perceptions of a computer
programmer who stays in a dark room all day pounding code and is a geek,"
says Alice Smiler Ostrovsky. "They see that there's a lot they can do in the
industry, something that they really enjoy and find interesting."
Vanessa Caveney, 18, recently graduated from high school and has been
with the Design Your Future program since June of '98. Although she plans to
take this quarter off for a trip to Europe, she will be pursuing a degree in
digital/Web design upon her return.
"I've learned HTML, Illustrator, PhotoShop and Java - I'm really getting
around on the computer," says Caveney. "I've also learned public speaking,
how to work in groups and how to interview. Everyone here is my mentor,
especially Carol. This is a really unique program and I'm really lucky to be
a part of it. I wouldn't say I have this perfect idea of what I'm going to
be, but this internship has given me a lot of confidence, and I now have a
clearer picture of what will be expected of me when I do get into a
career."
Sally Richards is an internationally published business and technology writer tracking trends worldwide. She lives in Silicon Valley and can be reached at Wryte4u@aol.com.
