As a child in Pembroke, Ontario, Deborah Cahill harboured small-town dreams.
Cahill, born in 1966, said she envisioned herself settling down in the community – located in the Ottawa Valley and known for lumber, hockey and tourism – raising a family and working on the side.
The president of the Electrical Contractors Association of BC envisioned her life playing out within the horizons of her hometown, where she grew up with her parents and two sisters.
“I kind of found myself, as a small-town girl at that time, being comfortable and familiar with a small area,” Cahill said. “I went to elementary school right around the corner from our house, and then high school close by and then the local college where I studied hospitality and tourism.”
Cahill attended Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario, which is about a 45-minute drive south of Pembroke. Graduating in 1989, she headed back home and worked in a number of jobs including stints as a fitness instructor, a chiropractor’s assistant and a data entry clerk.
She also got a business degree from Algonquin College in Ottawa. She spent some time from 1989 to 1994 working in the South Korean embassy in Ottawa, starting as the receptionist, then moving up to be the executive assistant to the ambassador. Cahill was also working evenings and weekends at Loblaws as a grocery clerk during that time.
“I still remember changing out of my suit and into my uniform for the grocery store,” she said. “It was long hours, but I needed the money, and I enjoyed working with people and the experiences it brought me.”
But in 1994 she was back in Pembroke, where she took a job in a fibreboard plant. She was unsure of her future and wondering whether she would stay in the small community permanently. In 1998 she faced two difficult life experiences when she survived a car accident and also had to deal with the death of her mother. Cahill said she started to seriously wonder if Pembroke was still the place she wanted to be.
“I knew I needed to do something, and I was dating a gentleman at the time who was very encouraging and thought I could do more with my life,” she said. “In a small town it’s not easy to find work; I was doing a little bit of everything. But I knew I liked working with people.”
Cahill said she still felt like she was destined for a life in Pembroke, but hadn’t yet formed any solid professional goals.
“I thought at that time I was going to settle down and marry the man of my dreams and have the white picket fence and have a job on the side that would probably fulfil some of those needs. But I was realizing more and more that it really wasn’t what I wanted.”
The fibreboard plant Cahill was employed at offered to pay for work-related courses, and Cahill took one in human resources management. Her instructor moved to Toronto after the class was completed and called Cahill in 2001 to let her know there was an HR opening with the Greater Toronto Electrical Contractors Association (GTECA). She had only one HR course under her belt but was interested in the work.
“I decided, ‘What the heck, I’m just going to throw my name in.’ And so I applied for the position and, ironically, I got a phone call saying, ‘We would be interested in having an interview with you.’”
Cahill admitted she was hesitant about leaving the small-town comforts of Pembroke and moving to Toronto.
“I think this is where my life took a turn,” she said. “I was hesitant because I was living at home and doing all these jobs trying to make ends meet, and I was very proud of that.”
Cahill said she was finding every excuse not to take the interview as her mind was trying to talk her out of it. However, she got in her car and drove to Ottawa to meet with a few representatives of the company, one of them being Larry Macdonald, vice-president of Black & McDonald, a large electrical contractor. During the interview, Cahill said, Macdonald, who sat on the board of the GTECA, had to leave the room to take a call. He came back and said he had spoken to someone whom Cahill had hired at the fibreboard plant who vouched for her on the spot. Macdonald told Cahill if she didn’t get the job she was interviewing for with the GTECA, she could work for him at Black & McDonald in Toronto.
“He said, ‘I think you have a great skill set; you’ve got the ambition.’”
Then the other man interviewing her also offered her a job with Black & McDonald, with the company’s Ottawa operations. On top of that, Cahill was offered the job with the GTECA as a human resources officer.
“For once in my life, I can say I had three job offers in one day,” she said. “Just crazy bizarre, and you can’t write off an opportunity like that.”
Cahill took the job in Toronto in 2001 even though she was still hesitant about leaving Pembroke. She didn’t know anyone in the big city and wasn’t crazy about the pace of life there. For the first few years, she headed back to Pembroke almost every weekend.
“I’ll admit I would be in my car on Sunday, ready to head back to the city, and I would call my father, and I would cry. I still wasn’t sure about it and building a life for myself in Toronto.”
But Cahill stuck around, and two years into the position she was promoted to human resources manager while also taking courses through the Human Resources Professionals Association to upgrade her skills.
In 2008, she was told the Electrical Contractors Association of BC was looking for someone to run the organization. The organization was using headhunters but they were falling short of finding a suitable candidate. Once again Cahill found herself unsure of making another professional change, but this one would require a move to the West Coast. She put her name in, flew to Vancouver, did the interview and was offered the job while she was eating dinner later that night.
“I remember the interview very well because there were four men sitting at the other end of the table, and the one question I [asked] them was, ‘Would you be comfortable with a female leading this organization?’ because there had never been a female in this role. And one said to me, ‘Absolutely.’”
So Cahill packed her bags and set up shop in Vancouver – where she now feels “at home” – taking up the role she holds to this day.
Looking back on her life, she said that fateful job interview in 2001 when she left Pembroke for good was the key turning point in her life.
“As much as I love going home, I just know that my decisions along the way were the right decisions, and I think looking forward is the best way to go. I have no regrets, and I’ve met a lot of great people in my life who were mentors to me [and] helped bring me along the way.
“Somebody was looking out for me, and all I wanted to do was make a difference. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is don’t let self-doubt get in the way.” •
Inside information: Deborah Cahill
Currently reading:
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg
First albums bought:
Bay City Rollers, Bee Gees
When you were a kid, what you wanted to be when you grew up:
Kindergarten teacher
Profession you would most like to try:
Photographer
Toughest business or professional decision:
Professional decision to accept the role as human resources officer with the Greater Toronto Electrical Contractors Association. I was a small-town girl moving to a big city where I didn’t know anyone.... My mother had recently passed away. It was a new professional career
Advice you would give the younger you:
Get to be where you want to be by the age of 40
What’s left to do:
Be one of the people who bring gender balance to the trades and industry, in the field and at a management level
