Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Jessica Banister Of Cam Cool Refrigeration On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry
An Interview With Kelly Reeves
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Don’t underestimate yourself: As I mentioned earlier, women tend to underestimate their abilities. I have done it myself. I think, there is no way I’ll be able to lift that up. Then I try it and think, I was able to do it so what else can I do?
In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Jessica Bannister.
Jessica Bannister is a Level 3 HVAC/R Apprentice in Vancouver, BC and works with her dad and brother at Cam Cool Refrigeration, a commercial and light industrial air conditioning and refrigeration company. She is a Jobber Ambassador, a home service operations management software, and the President of Women in HVAC/R Canada, an organization that brings awareness, education to women in HVAC-related roles. She encourages women to pursue the skilled trades and shares her experience working in HVAC through her Instagram (@HVACJess) and YouTube channel (The HVAC Diaries).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
I grew up in a very small town in South Africa called Empangeni. I went to an all-girls, Catholic convent school before I moved to Canada in grade 11 in November 2000. I had a wonderful, carefree childhood spent mostly barefoot outdoors. My brother and I…
