If you want to refuel the passion for HVACR service in yourself or your field service team, then talk to Jessica Bannister, an apprentice technician working at Cam Cool Refrigeration in Port Coquitlam, Vancouver, British Columbia.
We spoke with Jessica to coincide with International Women’s Day, today, March 8, and it would be hard to find another technician – man or woman – who can match her excitement about working in the HVACR industry.
She’sa Level 4 HVACR Apprentice in Vancouver, BC with one more year to go to reach the 7,200 hours apprentice training requirement to obtain a "Red Seal", the industry's main certification in Canada.
Bannister is also a Jobber Ambassador. Jobber is a leading provider of operations management software for home service businesses. She’s an advocate for women in the skills trade industry and shares her work experiences via her Instagram account (@HVACJess) and youtube channel.
In 2017, Bannister was managing the office for Cam Cool, the business started by her father, Dan Bannister in 1979. She was planning to pursue a career in finance, to the point where she studied it for three years in college while working in another office, but she left that all behind when she realized she really wanted to learn HVACR.
“I got kind of jealous of my dad and brother Trevor. They’d go out and work together and come back to the office with tales of their adventures, the people they had met, things they had seen, and problems they solved. I went on some ride-alongs with them. I had no idea I would enjoy it that much,” she said.
So that settled it. Bannister made plans to begin her apprentice training. The plan was that she would manage the business bookkeeping during evenings and weekends. (She also handles the company marketing, networking and business development.) The more time she spent in the field, the more she wanted to make HVACR her profession. She registered as an apprentice in March 2018, but was put on a wait-list until February 2020.
Today, with the waiting now three years behind her, Bannister can’t wait to engage with each new day. “No two days are the same. Each day is totally different from the last. And every day is an adventure,” she said, speaking to us in the early morning hours in British Columbia. “There are days when you feel like a hero. Sometimes we arrive at a job site and they’re literally waiting by the door, and they sing like angels, ‘Oh you guys have arrived!’ We fix the problem, and the gratitude we feel when we leave is so rewarding. There’s nothing quite like it.”
Upon earning her Red Seal, Bannister will be certified to work on virtually any type of commercial or residential HVAC or refrigeration equipment.
Based in the Tri Cities region of British Columbia, Cam Cool specializes in commercial and industrial refrigeration and air conditioning service and replacements there and across the entire Lower Mainland, a vast territory. The three-person team’s commercial projects have included cooler and freezer rooms, single-door and 10-door refrigerators, display coolers and refrigerators, office, school and server room HVAC systems, make-up air systems and unit heaters. On the industrial side, they take on air dryers, make up air systems, extractor fans, water/glycol chillers and plant HVAC systems.
Asked to identify her major skill sets, Bannister said the first is her willingness to learn, both as an apprentice and in the days to come after she earns her Red Seal.
“I’ve heard that after the apprenticeship is when the real learning starts,” she said. “There are so many new technologies and new refrigerants that there’s always something to learn. So I feel like even after you’re qualified and think you’ve made it, there’s a lifetime of learning ahead.”
Bannister gets amped when she thinks of what each day might bring.
“The day-to-day variety is very exciting to me, the fact that we can help people with freezers going down, or if they need more comfort cooling. It’s a very rewarding career, and if you’re a person who’s up for a challenge, there is a challenge around every corner,” she said.
Social Media Talent
Bannister is already an accomplished social media veteran. You can find her “HVAC Diaries” on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Her social media handle is “HVACJess”, and she has a marvelous presence in front of a camera. She uses an Insta360 camera and cell phone to expertly document the work she and her brother Trevor handle during a busy day.
She has already started “giving back”. She was 2023 president of the Canada chapter of Women in HVACR, was a presenter at the 2023 AHR EXPO on women in the trades, and moderated a panel discussion at the 2022 CMPX show in Toronto, the Canadian equivalent to the AHR EXPO. And, on the day she was interviewed by Contracting Business, Bannister was planning to leave later that day for a local career day for “non-traditional” professions, where she was going to promote trade careers to an audience of high school girls. She knows it can be a tough message to get across.
“There’s still a stigma about skilled trades, and HVAC specifically can be perceived as dirty, dangerous and male-dominated,” she acknowledged. “But through my social media and speaking to people in person, I want to show that it’s not necessarily like that, and these girls can have fulfilling and rewarding careers that are lucrative as well.”