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Women's Success Stories
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GAIL MATHIS "Basically, you just have to make sure you show the men that you'll do what they'll do, and that you don't think you should have special treatment. Show them that you're not afraid to get dirty. Everything has always been fine." |
Career Quick Look
| Salary: | $65K - $90K per year | Education: |
| Years in Field: | 24 years |
San Jose City College, Certificate of Completion, Air
Conditioning. Graduate of Air Conditioning Apprenticeship program at Hewlett-Packard |
| City/State: | Saratoga, California |
Getting Started: When Gail Mathis finished high school, she worked in a variety of manufacturing jobs, including stints at Velcon Filters, Coca Cola Bottling, and the now-defunct Container Corporation. In 1979, she was hired as an assembly worker on the line at Hewlett- Packard and soon moved into spray painting parts. Out of concern for paying for the education of her young son, Gail decided to seek work with better income potential and she knew that a career in the trades would bring her the financial rewards she sought.
She had always been mechanically inclined, so when she learned that Hewlett-Packard had an apprenticeship program for air conditioning mechanics, she signed up. Her boyfriend at the time was an electrician, and he provided her with encouragement and support. While still working at Hewlett-Packard, she completed the four-year program by taking classes in the evening at San Jose City College and a local vocational school. The state-approved program required 9000 hours of work documented in different trades, and through it Gail also achieved journeyman status and completed a certificate program.
As a part of the program, Gail moved into a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) apprentice role at Hewlett-Packard and continued with the company for ten years. Since Hewlett- Packard was not promoting HVAC mechanics into management positions at the time, she moved on to a job as a lead HVAC mechanic at Sun Microsystems, where she worked for five years until they outsourced their maintenance department. For a couple of years, she managed the outsourced program for Sun, supervising multiple tradespeople working to fulfill the specifications of the maintenance contract.
After leaving Sun Microsystems, Gail took on a position as Director of Operations for Vallco Fashion Park, supervising all operations for the shopping center for two years. Over the next 12 years, she also held down building maintenance management positions at Read Right Corporation, Adobe Systems (through Cushman and Wakefield), Seagate Technologies, and for Nortel (through Johnson Controls), serving in both in-house roles and with outsourced contractors. She moved to her current position as a Maintenance Supervisor at San Jose City College District in February 2008 because she came to understand that she preferred the in-house role to working for contractors. In her current position, she oversees the HVAC, electricians, painters, locksmiths, and general maintenance workers on both the Evergreen and SJCC campuses.
Education: Gail attended San Jose City College for most of the HVAC courses required for both the Hewlett-Packard air conditioning apprenticeship program and the Certificate of Completion in Air Conditioning, which she completed in the mid 1980's. While working at Hewlett-Packard, she attended school two or three nights a week to complete the required list of classes for the state-approved program. "All my classes were great. There was only one class I didn't like, a hydronics class. I got through it, but that was the toughest class I had."
"All my teachers were very helpful," says Gail. When she didn't understand something in a lecture, such as the acronyms an instructor used, "He brought in a little definitions book, and that really helped." The classes provided a great deal of hands-on training as well, which she could immediately apply in her work setting.
Greatest Professional Achievement: Gail believes that completing the air conditioning apprenticeship program and the certificate as an air conditioning mechanic were her greatest achievements. She completed the program at a time when the field was almost entirely male. "All my classes were all men. But I've always been kind of a tomboy and hung around my dad and men, so it was fairly comfortable to me and I really didn't have any issues with that," she says. "Basically, you just have to make sure you show the men that you'll do what they'll do, and that you don't think you should have special treatment. Show them that you're not afraid to get dirty. Everything has always been fine."
Barriers: Gail has mostly had very positive experiences with her co-workers, but did have one difficult experience with a young co-worker at Sun Microsystems. He assumed she didn't know anything, challenged her competence, and even sabotaged the equipment at times. Over time, the problems abated. "After they got to know me, and they saw that I'd carry the ten-foot ladder and do whatever they were doing, it got better." She learned later that because she was the only person in her department with journeyman status she had been hired at a higher salary than anyone else and that jealousy may have been a factor in her co-worker's behavior toward her.
Working with Men: With the exception of a few women at Vallco and Adobe, Gail has worked almost exclusively with men throughout her career. She has found them to be quite welcoming, and she has not had problems with either working with men and or in getting the training she needs when she starts a new job.
Advice for Women: Gail's advice to women in this field is: "You have to do what they'll do. I did everything that they did. It was more of a team thing. You have to show them you're not afraid to get dirty. But if you walk around being 'Little Miss Feminine,' and don't want to break your fingernails, you're going to be in trouble." She also recommends that women pay more attention to finding work they really love rather than climbing a career ladder. She has found that joining a professional association has helped her to network and learn more about opportunities in the field.
"This is definitely an area where women can excel. It takes brain power, it takes organization, and it takes patience. A lot of my male counterparts can't sit still long enough to look at anything. They've got to be off doing something. They get frustrated by sitting in front of a computer and observing that the program is performing as expected. It can be tedious."
Typical Workday/Environment: As the Maintenance Supervisor for two college campuses, Gail's workday is quite varied, and may include office work, meetings and travel around campus, hands-on field work, and picking up emergency parts. She supervises 13 mechanics, five at Evergreen, where she spends three days a week, and eight at SJCC, where she spends two days a week. She oversees painters, electricians, locksmiths, HVAC technicians, general maintenance activities - and whatever else comes up. She manages work orders, and is in the process of re-instating a work order system to manage requests from campus staff and students. Although her position is primarily managerial, she helps out the mechanics in the field as needed. Because of budget restrictions, she cannot always ensure that every request will be fixed promptly, so she has to juggle requests and resources, and good communication with customers is essential. "Once they know what's going on, they're usually OK," says Gail. She also responds to e-mail and sometimes meets with people around campus to clarify their needs.
Gail's current job also requires knowledge of and sensitivity to union requirements, something she was not exposed to while working for high tech companies. "You have to go by the book. In this environment, electricians do electrical work, HVAC technicians do HVAC work," Gail says. "In all my other jobs, when you're in maintenance, you do whatever comes up. If you're an electrician and we get a call about a plugged toilet and nobody else is here, you're gonna go plunge it. Here I don't really have that option. That's kind of hard for me. I'm one of those people who likes to do it all." She also has to find positive ways to address resistance to change within the organization and to new procedures.
Gail's dress code is quite casual; she usually wears jeans and tennis shoes.
Career Ladder: The career ladder in facilities management is varied, and depends on the company or facility, whether in-house or contract, the candidate's educational background and experience, and other factors. The salary range for someone new to the field may start between $40K to $60K, while someone with extensive experience may earn from $50K to $90K and above. Benefits vary depending on the environment and the state of the economy - the recent dot-com failure led to reductions in salaries and benefits overall. In-house management assignments may pay more because of the increased supervision of people required, where outsourced positions may require managing processes rather than people. Gail has landed many management positions with her certificate and Journey-level experience, but having a degree may open doors to promotions at some companies.
Professional Associations: Gail is a member of the International Facilities Management Association, which she finds helpful for networking in her field.
Hobbies: In her free time, Gail enjoys spending time outdoors with her Golden Retriever. She also snow skis, scuba dives (most recently in the Grand Caymans), makes and edits videos, and rides her bike.
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