Unfortunately, mid life is 35, at least that’s what my brother in-law read in a study…and in my opinion that feels too young…but maybe that’s because I’m deep in my 40’s….

Here it is, I’m a woman, Silicon Valley since I was 25.. been in it for years.. pre-dot.com boom, dot.com boom and now whatever this boom is.. My work has had an incremental impact (I’m more of a St. Therese type, where the little things matter, not the big flashy CEO, have to be famous thing, or at least that’s how I like to justify my lack of desire for not wanting to move up in the ridiculous high tech world) important technology advances first in what they used to call “multi-media” (shockwave, flash, adobe..)- to easy to use web site development tools to high end hosting infrastructures that could bring live video to life on the web (yeah no smart phones then) customer contact software, efficient ways of protecting data and retrieving it in the case it had been lost, oh yeah and then a stint at Deloitte & Touche, when Enron tried to get into high tech, cook the books and one of the big 5 imploded..

Then the kids came in the midst of all this and I stayed home (made sure i could breast feed 2 back to back babies so they could have a head start and bond and not inherit the ashtma I had). I started contracting gigs back in high tech following ladies going on maternity leave and then at a major payments company..

And now what…? I’m at a point where I have to take female high tech ageism seriously (and I know, I know men face it too especially middle managers and engineers), think about the next chapter..I’m okay at my current job, but what next for a woman deep in her 40’s who’s been swanning around high tech the two decades (and btw went to a state school, not MIT, Stanford and the ridiculous pedigree that is required….)

That’s what this is going to be about..those next chapters..