Information Technology (I.T.) is one of the most important building blocks of our world, and chances are that it plays a major role in your life every day. I.T. includes a variety of industries that are used to store and communicate information - from computers, software and the Internet to telecommunications and more. Any time you use your phone, log onto the Internet, listen to the radio or watch television you're using I.T. And the list goes on and on. Your alarm in the morning, your car, the stop lights on the road, the register at the store, the ATM at the movie theater, your patient information at the doctor - all of these are powered by I.T. The point is, I.T. is everywhere, and no matter what you're interested in, there's probably a way to apply it in the technology field. Working with computers, setting up networks, solving math problems or writing code all have obvious ties to I.T., but there are others as well:

• Do you like to draw or paint? You could be a graphic designer or work in a user experience team to make a company's website or app easy and attractive to use.
• Do you like to be a leader or stay organized? You could make a great project manager.
• Do you like to break things and put them back together, or to solve puzzles? You might make a great software tester or information security officer.
• Are you business-minded or entrepreneurial? You'd make a great business analyst or financial analyst, or you could even launch your own technology start-up!

Above all, I.T. jobs bring an opportunity to work with other people. The days of a computer programmer working alone in a room are long gone, and now it's all about a collaborative environment filled with people of all different backgrounds and skills. This makes every day fun and exciting, and the end result is delivering technology that helps improve the lives of people around the world.

By positioning yourself for an I.T. career, you can expect to have job security and many options to choose from. You can do this through work experience (jobs and internships) and education (high-school diploma, certifications, two-year college degree, or four-year degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems or something similar). Younger generations also have an advantage when it comes to working in I.T. You're raised with technology all around you, so it comes more naturally to you than many of the employees working in the industry today.

So be curious! Keep up with advances in technology, and try to figure out how it works. When you open your favorite app or play your favorite game, it isn't magic. There's a whole team of I.T. professionals behind them, and you could easily be one of them!

The purpose of FUTURE | Women in I.T. is simple: to inspire more young women to become interested in technology and eventually lead them to pursue careers within the field. The motivation behind this campaign stems from both statistical data - 26% of computing jobs in the U.S. were held by women in 2013, compared to 35% in 1990 - and from common gender stereotypes perpetuated by people in all forms. Below are two statistics that show the percentages of women in the I.T. workforce as of Q1 2015.