• Posted: May 8, 2020
• better careers, better communities, Jessica Laudando

For many years, careers in the trades were predominantly filled by men and, while women on the front lines have long contributed to the electrical industry’s growth, a common misperception about the lack of opportunities for women who choose to enter the profession remains to this day. Meeting people like IBEW/NECA Technical Institute (IN-TECH) instructor Jessica Laudando quickly dispels the notion that someone’s mom can’t also succeed as a skilled union electrician.

In 2006, with a six-month-old daughter at home, Jessica was working in physical therapy and fitness training, a career path that regularly required 16+ hour days. When a client encouraged her to look into a career as an IBEW Local 134 electrician, fewer hours, more consistent work, and higher benefits and pay enticed her to take the pre-apprenticeship aptitude test that determines, in part, each candidate’s likelihood of success in the program. Doing well on the test and scoring highly overall in the objective ranking system used to select apprentices, Jessica entered IN-TECH despite having no prior experience in the electrical industry. Over the next five years as an apprentice, she was provided with the training and experience necessary to succeed in the industry, all while balancing her new career with a second full-time job as the mother of a young child.   

“I was starting from scratch,” Jessica says. “Coming from a totally unrelated industry, they really did a great job at the school with the educational part of becoming an electrician. The school provided me with all the necessary components to succeed and the ability to work in the field where the journeypersons from our great local continued teaching me.”

After completing her apprenticeship, where she received The Andrea Hall Award for Outstanding Female Apprentice, Jessica became a journeywoman electrician and was quickly employed at Presidents Plaza, on the far northwest side of Chicago near O’Hare Airport. There, she was the in-house electrician for four different buildings in the complex, leading buildouts of tenants’ units, overseeing all electrical maintenance heating, and often troubleshooting on the job to meet whatever additional electrical needs existed.

“You have to access the situation, figure out what is wrong, why it is not working properly, and then fix it,” she says. “It required me to constantly think on my feet and to figure out where to find information about things I couldn’t solve on my own, because nobody in the electrical trade knows everything. You’re continually learning due to the ever-changing technology in this industry.”

Working in the field, Jessica continued to build her skill set while also earning the respect of her peers. Though she remembers some of the challenges of being one of the few moms among those she worked with, her experience was overwhelmingly positive. At one point early in her career when she was still nursing her daughter, her male coworkers realized that while they ate lunch and took breaks, she was pumping milk for her daughter.  

“At that point, I think everybody on that job site had a whole different respect for me knowing that I am doing all this for my daughter and yet I’m still here, I’m still doing the same job as everyone else, I’m doing it well and I’m not backing down or looking for someone else to do it for me,” Jessica said while remembering the experience.

During her time at the school as an apprentice, it was always Jessica’s goal to one day return as an instructor and have the opportunity to provide others entering the trade with the same level of training and education she received. After getting 13 years of working experience under her belt in the field, the time was right for Jessica to achieve that goal. Now a full-time instructor at IN-TECH, she focuses on teaching apprentices how to work with transformers, motors, and drives. Though she loved working in the field and getting to meet new people every day while working on a wide variety of projects, Jessica finds it equally rewarding to teach others how to succeed in the industry. In doing so, she’s not only setting an example for her daughter, who has expressed interest in following Jessica’s path but giving apprentices the chance at a better career that makes it possible to provide for their families, in the same way, becoming a Local 134 electrician has allowed Jessica to provide for hers.

“Choosing this career saved my life,” Jessica says. “It has allowed me to provide a wonderful life for myself and my family. I wouldn’t be where I am right now without the support of my union brothers and sisters, family, and of course my daughter, who’s my biggest cheerleader. At the end of the day, attitude and perseverance are everything. By maintaining a great attitude and refusing to give up, I have been able to achieve so much in the industry. That is what I hope other women take from my journey. I am grateful to everyone that helped me along the way.”