From construction sites to social media feeds, a new generation of professionals is reshaping the skilled trades. In this conversation, Shannon Tymosko, an apprentice electrician and social media influencer known as Lady Voltz, sits down with Trade Hounds CEO David Bauders to share her journey into the electrical trade. She discusses the challenges and opportunities she’s faced as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field, and offers insights on how technology and social media are transforming the way tradespeople—and consumers—engage with new products.
Keep reading to explore the lessons, experiences, and advice inspiring the next generation of trades professionals.
It is really actually my second career. Like so many people, I followed the traditional route of going to school, going to get that education. So I went for child and youth work, something that I was passionate about. But after my education and working, I really found it wasn't a field that allowed you to thrive, just survive. I wanted more. I wanted to buy a house, I wanted to have wants. And so I was looking for something different, a career change.
At the time, my best friend Matthew purchased a home. Neither of us were tradespeople. He was a bus driver, and I, at the time, was a child and youth worker/business person. He wanted to do some renovations, and so we kind of took them on with the help of YouTube and Google. We did a kitchen, two bathrooms, some mudding, some drywall, and a little bit of electrical. But in that process, I really realized I, I enjoyed this, and it started my journey of searching out a new career change.
So that's what brought me to the trades. How I picked electrical was a bit of a default. I knew I needed some things for my resume to help out, to get into the industry. And so I looked at different programs. I found what they call a pre-apprenticeship program to help get women into the trades for that transition. I applied, and it's led me to where I am now.
I'm unionized through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. That's a North American-wide union. So it's nice. I came here, for example, and Stephen's part of my union. So very quickly I have what we call a brother, right? Even though it's a different country.
The union is nice because I really get the opportunity to try different experiences, work in different sectors, and kind of expand. Electrical is a really big industry, and I find a lot of people sometimes get stuck in one sector. The union allows you, with different jobs, to really expand in the electrical field.
My experience thus far—funnily enough—my first job, as we sit here in the Grand Hyatt, was a hotel. So I spent two years in a lot of bedrooms, bathrooms, and suites. But, you know, it gave me my start and led me to where I am today.
Women are growing in numbers, but we are certainly still a minority in any construction field. I think in our union, we have about 1,800 members and probably about 20 women. You can see that number year after year has been increasing.
Some of my experience as a woman—it can certainly sometimes feel a little lonely being on a construction site when you really are the only woman. As much as we deserve equality, men and women are different, and there are some times that I can't connect with the men on women topics, so it can certainly feel a little lonely.
One of the things I've been seeing grow is the online communities through social media, Instagram. There are groups and organizations—for example, one in Ontario, growing North American-wide, is called Women on Site. And it allows us to connect with other women in the trades, tell our stories, get some support, have some laughs, and get that little missing piece that you might feel like you're missing on a construction site.
But overall, I've been received well. I find people ask me about how men might treat you, and I'm finding that the men that have children or grandchildren that are daughters—they're kind of excited to see a woman on the construction site because they have their own children, their own daughters. Sometimes it's the younger ones that haven't had that opportunity to have children that give me a little bit of a tougher time. They want to see that I can do the job. But overall, it's been a good experience.
100%. And I think a bigger issue people talk about—you know, there's not going to be enough tradespeople—but one of the things that is being lost is the knowledge. For example, electrical. It's an industry that's constantly changing. Every year there's something new that those electricians that have been around for 30, 40 years—they've seen things that I'll never see in my career. Knob and tube—that’s kind of a thing of the past.
And so I think we're going to not just lose tradesmen as they retire, but we're going to be losing a lot of knowledge. And if we don't take care and ensure that we pass on that knowledge with new people, we could see a shortage in different ways. We need to get more young people interested and involved.
So I think social media is a great place to connect people with those different technologies. You're used to what you've got at home, and you're used to the norm. And so it does take somebody else to introduce you, or even going to a hotel or somewhere else—you start seeing new gadgets that you've never seen before.
Even for my journey, people—it’s funny how often they have to pull out the manuals of these new things because they've never seen them. You know, a light switch is pretty familiar. But these new advanced Bluetooth gadgets, fire alarm systems—as they change, our journey people are having to pull up the manuals, having to go to Google themselves to research that new product.
The more we get out there and show them on social media platforms—the cool features of each of these—the more people might be interested to go out and buy them. And not just your electricians, but your consumers. I think that's a big place that we're missing: we’re trying to reach contractors. What about the consumers? What about the people who are not going to buy things in bulk, but they're going to go in and upgrade things slowly in their house?
And so we really need to start introducing the consumer, not just the contractor, to these products, because they’re the purchaser.
I think people really enjoy authenticity—real connections with people. You go to websites and the website has a little box at the bottom that says “Contact Us.” But it's a disconnect. You're not connecting with the people.
And so social media—whether it's Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok—it allows you to not only connect with people but see their face and make those real-life connections.
We've talked a little bit before about wanting to have faith in a company. The truth is, as technology increases, so do scams. And so as a consumer, you're always a little cautious about maybe the next scam that might be coming your way. Having that social media face or platform creates a bit of trust and allows consumers to have that buy-in.
Well, I was going to say, as a personal consumer—currently my, my boyfriend, he's purchased a home, and so we're doing home renovations. So in bulk, I can't quite comment on. But as a personal consumer, going out and making those purchases, you know, like everybody, you go to your first search engine—Google—and you start your search. You put in the product, and you start looking.
One of my biggest frustrations is when it comes to those websites… I'm from Canada. Some of the manufacturers or distributors might be a little bit different. We do have specifically electrical distributors, and I find that those websites are not as user-friendly. They don't have prices; they have that “Contact Us” button for pricing, which, again, as soon as you see that, it's a deterrent.
As a consumer, I tend to go to those websites and, sad to say, like a Home Depot, and make my decisions based on that price. It's just easier. And so until you establish a relationship with a contractor or distributor, you might have somebody on email—those easy, user-friendly websites sadly get most of our business or attention.
I would assume that the apprentice puts the request in to the journeyman, the journeyman goes to the foreman, and then the foreman puts it to the project manager. And the project manager looks at his budget and makes a decision.
There certainly is a chain of command. They have budgets and all that stuff to meet. They have to look at the numbers. One of the things I found actually interesting—one of my first construction sites was one of the purchases that we made. We bought some conduit, and the conduit happened to be made in China. The gentlemen were commenting that it was more difficult to work with. When we bent it, it kinked. When you tried to pull a wire through it, it got caught.
So quality of material is really important as well. I think we learned in that experience because the next bundle of conduit we bought was American-made, and we didn't have any of these problems. And so quality matters, and taking that cheap road doesn't always pay off. Time is money, and having an electrician look at the same situation over and over again instead of doing it right the first time is a cost that should be considered.
Watch her full conversation with Trade Hounds CEO David Bauders to learn how the next generation of trades professionals is shaping the industry and driving innovation.