I think it completely depends on the people you work with, I started at my previous employer as an apprentice coming straight from my AS levels. In the office I was in the apprentices consisted of me, another girl and 2 boys so pretty evenly split. I got on with all equally and after the girl left before apprenticeship completion I was left with the 2 lads who treated me exactly the same as before.
The thing I found hardest with fitting in with the office was actually my age - most of then men I worked with were 30+ whereas I was only 17 so I found that quite challenging more than the gender issue. No one seemed to make a deal of me being female the rest male so it wasnt an issue. The only time it was relaly noticed was when I went out testing on site and it was just banter between work teams with the other teams saying it wasnt fair that my team had me and they didnt.
I recently left my previous employer and started elsewhere and had no issues whatsoever and plus side is that I'm not even the youngest person in the office any more! But the guys here are a bit more 'down with the kids' than my previous office so the age difference hasnt been challenging either. One thing I have realised since moving was that with my previous employer I was having to work a lot harder to get promotions/pay rises than the 2 lads I was on apprenticeship with. I dont think that will be the case here but we will see!
I think it completely depends on the people you work with, I started at my previous employer as an apprentice coming straight from my AS levels. In the office I was in the apprentices consisted of me, another girl and 2 boys so pretty evenly split. I got on with all equally and after the girl left before apprenticeship completion I was left with the 2 lads who treated me exactly the same as before.
The thing I found hardest with fitting in with the office was actually my age - most of then men I worked with were 30+ whereas I was only 17 so I found that quite challenging more than the gender issue. No one seemed to make a deal of me being female the rest male so it wasnt an issue. The only time it was relaly noticed was when I went out testing on site and it was just banter between work teams with the other teams saying it wasnt fair that my team had me and they didnt.
I recently left my previous employer and started elsewhere and had no issues whatsoever and plus side is that I'm not even the youngest person in the office any more! But the guys here are a bit more 'down with the kids' than my previous office so the age difference hasnt been challenging either. One thing I have realised since moving was that with my previous employer I was having to work a lot harder to get promotions/pay rises than the 2 lads I was on apprenticeship with. I dont think that will be the case here but we will see!
