Women In Trades Wednesday- Tegan Williams
Tegan Williams is a Painter Decorator who has been working in the industry for 3 years, and is completing her apprenticeship with BCITO. She is also a volunteer firefighter, and her hobbies include woodworking with native timbers making chopping boards, bath boards and picnic boards for the beach.
How Tegan got into her trade is a little bit different- “I got my job through my Officer at the fire station. I was complaining on the truck one day that I was really unhappy with my office job, and wanted something new before summer started. He offered me some summer work and I’ve never looked back!”
What does a work day look like for Tegan? She explains: “A normal day for me will consist of waking up and making a coffee for my partner (who also happens to be my boss) and then off to work at 7:30am. If it is a new build that we can lock up, once we get to site, we usually unload the entire contents of the ute- drawers, paint brushes, rollers etc into the garage, then start to fill every single hole in the house. We mask out the floors in the garage, then head to the paint shop. Return to drop the paint off then by this time it’s usually smoko, which has become our breakfast time. Afterwards we’ll start masking out the windows ready to spray with sealer, then it’s lunch which consists of heating up leftovers in the sandwich press while I go pick up some coffees. To finish off our days well tidy up and get all the gear ready for the next day or usually head off to another small job and get that done.”
Tegan notes that she didn’t exactly feel inspired to choose her career, “but I was definitely inspired to keep doing it once I stopped feeling self-conscious about being a woman in the trades. This, funnily enough, was because I found an amazing community of female tradies all over the world on Instagram- this I’m thankful for as I am not cut out for an office job!”
A few challenges Tegan has overcome to get to where she is now include: “Definitely having to grow my self-confidence and making sure I’m heard. Being a female in a trade is hard. Being a female apprentice in a trade is even harder. You’ll meet old dogs who don’t want to hear your new tricks, you’ll meet people who think you’re there for the day to help your dad out, and you’ll also meet people who won’t talk to you because they think you won’t understand. Which leads to one of the most satisfying things in my day- Proving them wrong!”
The diversity is something Tegan enjoys about her trade- “When it’s sunny, I work outside. When it’s raining, I work inside. Every day is something different whether it’s working on a roof, repainting a stairwell, or fixing a hole in the wall the dog chewed out when there was a storm. 3 years on and I am still learning.”
She’s also shared a couple of work stories with us- “One time I didn’t check that the pressure of my airless was released before twisting the gun off to clean it. As I unscrewed the attachment around 1L of watery paint squirted all up my arm, all over my shirt and down my leg. I had to wash off on the site tap before I could use the boss’ car to go home and change!”
“Another time my Boss was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day by 11am when we arrived onto a worksite. Nothing I was doing was fast enough for him and while he was on a roof and I was bending down to pick up the planks to hand him, my pants split. I paused, he asked ‘What’s taking so long? Hurry up!’ I said I just split my pants. He said ‘who cares? It can’t be that bad, hurry up- let’s see’ to which I turned around and could fit my whole hand in the rip. I had to borrow a builder’s jumper to walk to the car and drive to the warehouse to get new shorts! Boss was even more unhappy when I got back to the jobsite!
Future goals for Tegan encompass all aspects of her trade- “being able to run individual jobs by myself from the quoting to the last stroke of paint.” How has her career choice impacted her life so far? “My career has allowed me to be a lot more flexible outside of work for sure. There’s no need to squeeze in that appointment at lunch time or organise to meet friends after a certain time as being in my trade is so flexible and my boss is very understanding. I can also make up hours or work extra hours when I need to, as we’re so busy with all the new housing going up around our area. The job has also given me a lot of physical and mental self-confidence. I’m no size 10 girl, but that is fine by me as I have a physically demanding job, and I know my body is strong and healthy and that is one thing that makes me so happy when I look in the mirror each morning.”
Tegan’s advice for someone considering a career in Painting & Decorating? “If you’ve ever thought about getting into a trade, I say just do it. It’s just like any other job that you’ll apply for. If you don’t like it you find something else you think you’ll enjoy. You just never want to look back and think ‘if only I’d given it a go’.
