Thursday, June 1, 2023

Jessie of All Trades

She’s been a farmer, a horse trainer, a bartender, a camp cook, and a marketing professional. But Local 68 member Jessie Cook’s favourite career? Heavy civil construction

Guide Magazine

By Alison Brown

Jessie Cook grew up on 350 acres of farmland in rural BC—completely off the grid, with no city power, no city water, and no neighbours.

“When my two older brothers and I were kids, my parents would say, ‘You’re not coming inside for the next two days. Go fend for yourself,’” says Jessie. “My dad would lock the door to the house, and we would go camp and fish.

“I was the youngest and the only girl, so I’ve always had to keep up. When I was three years old, I started doing chores around the farm and bringing in my portions of the firewood.

“We had to do it all—taking care of the animals, the farm equipment, gardening, carpentry. Who knew that every drop of sweat and tears in those early years were preparing me for my career 25 years down the road?”

Jessie’s road to the construction industry was not a linear one, but each career became just another tool in her belt, ultimately leading to her dream job. As a kid, she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. She worked with farm animals her whole life, trained horses, and “wasn’t shy of blood, guts, and manure.”

But after six months at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in the Bachelor of Science program, Jessie quickly learned that school wasn’t for her.

“I dropped out of school and went traveling. I was 19 years old and broke, bartending in the Australian Outback,” she says.

Unlike the Australian watering hole, Jessie’s money ran dry.

“My father always told me, ‘If you can’t decide what you want to do, get a trade!’ I never had any educational interest in anything other than vet school, and I wanted something I could use while travelling the world. I figured that if you can cook, serve, and bartend, you can get a job anywhere in the world. So off to culinary school I went!”

Two years later, Jessie was one of 13 people to finish the journeyperson program at TRU for culinary arts. This led her to take a job as a baker at Cenovus, working at a large energy and oil camp in northern Alberta.

“Working away as a camp cook for a few years on straight night shifts, I always had an interest in what the people ‘on the other side’ did,” says Jessie.

But her construction career didn’t kick off quite yet. After a trip to Asia, Jessie went back to bartending in her home province. While looking for her next adventure, an executive who frequented the bar referred her to a marketing firm in downtown Toronto.

“I was 25 and living the big city life in Toronto,” she says. “Working 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, making over 300 phone calls a day. Barely making ends meet. I missed home. I was emotionally and physically drained.

“After a severe anxiety attack, I packed up my things in my car, left my stressful job, left my Toronto boyfriend. I needed to leave the city and be able to look at trees and grass without concrete for miles and miles.”

On the 26-hour drive back to BC, Jessie started asking around for job leads. A family friend put her in touch with a job in construction shovelling rocks. This brought her to the Site C Clean Energy Project, where for over two years Jessie was the only woman on the ground working on a crusher/washing plant.

“I learned so much on the Site C project,” she says. “How to run and maintain different large and small equipment, plant maintenance, metal work, aggregate and concrete/shotcrete—even some carpentry and welding.”

A career in construction gave Jessie the variety she craved and the travel she loves. She has worked on sites across Canada, from Site C in northern BC to a gold mine in northern Ontario to working on the Calgary Ring Road and sites in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

“Every single job has taught me a new skill and helped me make connections in the industry,” says Jessie. “This is all extremely important, as being a woman in the field isn’t always a walk in the park.”

Jessie admits that on some of her earlier projects, some of the guys on site tried to run her off.

“It’s very rare for a girl to be on a ground crew on a crusher because some of the guys’ attitudes can be very unwelcoming,” she says. “It’s also just very hard work and it’s dirty. I had to outwork my counterparts and earn my spot on the site. But I earned their respect because I always kept a positive attitude and worked hard.”

Unfortunately, some men trying to intimidate women off a construction site “happens more often than you’d think,” says Jessie. “It’s definitely one of the struggles that women in the trades face.

“They’d give me the physically harder tasks to try to get me to quit, thinking I wouldn’t be able to take it. And of course, there’s harassment—not necessarily from my crew, but other crews on a site.

“Something that’s helped me is simply coming to work with a smile on my face every day. I’m so stoked to be there; I get to be outside and play in dirt every day!”

Jessie’s also been supported by some of her crewmates, “especially the old guys,” she says. “I call them my work dads. A lot of those guys are older gentlemen who have been in construction for a long, long time, and many have daughters, so they sympathize with me and stick up for me and have always encouraged me in my career.”

Working in heavy civil construction as an equipment operator for nearly a decade, Jessie has worn many other hats other than her hardhat, including as a safety committee member, CLAC steward, and recently as an elected Local 68 Board member.

“Things have come a long way for women in construction,” says Jessie. “But we still have a long way to go.”

Jessie is expecting her first child at the end of June 2023. She’s also working closely with CLAC on a pilot project to promote women in trades. She’s been visiting high schools and trade schools to share her story and encourage more young people—especially women—to get a trade.

“A lot of women aren’t given the opportunity to see what their interests are and what they can do, and how they may have transferable skill sets,” says Jessie. “I never thought I could do construction. But I ran tractors, I shovelled horse manure, and I did physical chores from a young age, which is a very transferable skill set.”

While the road to working in construction as a woman may not always be smooth, Jessie encourages women to not get discouraged.

“Just keep a great attitude, work hard, and ask questions,” she says. “Stick with it, because it’s a career that pays off. And the world is changing. It’s a slow process, but it’s changing. And the only way it’ll change is with more women in the trades.”

Check out Jessie’s adventures by following @clac_jessie on Instagram.

Jessie Cook

Jessie of All Trades

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