Once a teacher, always a teacher. For Jocelyn Melissa Soto, third-year apprentice from IEC Chesapeake and Helix Electric in Manassas, VA, her ability to help a co-worker learn to read prints propelled her electrical journey.
Jocelyn, who goes by Melissa, was teaching middle school and high school English and adult ESL in Guatemala, when she opted to move back to the United States during the heart of COVID-19. Born in the United States, her family returned to their home country of Guatemala when Melissa was two, spent time back in the U.S. during her middle school years, and then back to Guatemala which is where Melissa received her degree and began her teaching career.
“It was COVID time, I had just had my son, money was tight, schools were closed, so I came back to the United States looking for job opportunities,” she recalls. “I had wanted to validate my teaching degree here but, again, schools were closed. My family has always done construction so I pretty much grew up in that world.”
She had family members working at a local electrical company where she applied and earned a job helping out in the office. That led to an assignment to one of their field offices organizing material.
“Since it was COVID, they had less people. There was a lot of material, a lot of work, and very few people,” Melissa says. “Being in the field was a bit more in my element. My family did mostly residential so coming to these commercial jobs was a little bit different.”
It also was incredibly interesting to Melissa. As she learned the materials, saw the skills utilized, and interacted with the people, it sparked her curiosity. They often called on her to help in different areas where they needed extra hands. This was how the foreman took notice of her ability to interpret and explain to blueprints to her colleague.
“The foreman was explaining the prints to one of the new guys; he was still pretty green,” she says. “The foreman was telling him how to read them and when he left to take a call, the guy asked me if I understood what the foreman was saying. I repeated to him what the foreman was saying but in simpler terms; I guess teaching stays with you!”
The foreman overheard their interaction and asked Melissa if she would like to learn more. He then included her in further conversations about the blueprints and sent her out to help with the rough-ins. Melissa says that led to her staying more in the field and less in the office.
“Then the foreman asked to keep me in the field full time, teaching me more, and he began talking with me about apprentice opportunities if I would like,” she says.
That field experience built her foundation and allowed her to earn money to do the necessary work to successfully bring her son to join her in the United States.
Landing at Helix
She was working as a temp for a subcontractor on a Helix job when Melissa’s next opportunity broke open. Helix invited a few of the temps to consider joining their company. Melissa liked what they had to offer and after conversations with current Helix employees, she decided to make the move.
“Helix had many females on the job,” Melissa says. “One girl I spoke with, Shante, had just finished a foreman course and been promoted. She told me her story and it was very inspirational. I spoke with several others who were just starting their apprenticeships at the time and it really felt like this was a place where I could grow.”
Helix didn’t wait long to get Melissa into the IEC Apprenticeship Program. She opted to do her apprenticeship online.
“I already pay child care during the day for my son so being able to be at home with him and still go to school is really the best I could ever hope for,” Melissa says. “The instructors are great, especially Skip, and always available to reply to your questions. They also talk safety all the time. My classmates are often from different states and different areas of electrical, so it’s great being able to share field experiences.”
Being online could be a challenge for successfully completing some of the labs, but Melissa is grateful to Helix for support with these.
“Our instructors would say they can teach us all the theoretical parts, but we’re going to have to get with somebody on our job site to get the practical part,” she says. “I was able to talk with my foreman on the job site and he’d take the time to show me and have me practice and then grade my hands-on and sign off on them so I could submit them.”
Her work with Helix has been across many areas and always interesting. Melissa particularly enjoyed a recent job at the National Institutes of Health hospital with its numerous laboratories and special electrical needs beyond basic light switches and receptacles.
“There’s just so much to learn and I love it,” Melissa says. “I see people who have been in the trade for 10, 15, 20 years and they say no matter how long you work at this there’s always something new to learn. Helix really offers opportunities. If you say, I want to learn this specific area, they’ll give you a chance and an opportunity to learn it. When I worked as a subcontractor, I never got to see the whole process, to see a job site from beginning to end. When I told Helix this, they sent me to a job where we started from digging the ground and I stayed on that project until the end when we turned the lights on. It was amazing to see the whole process and I feel great that Helix heard me and gave me this chance. It’s great that they really listen and it happens.”
What’s Next?
Melissa is 100 percent committed to finishing her apprenticeship, getting as much field experience as she can, learning new aspects of electrical, and obtaining her journeyman and masters licenses.
“Helix has talked with me about where I want to go — if I want to switch over to more administrative and one day be a project engineer or project manager or if I want to stay in the field and move up to foreman,” Melissa shares. “They like to open the doors for you. I’m weighing my options while I continue to learn and grow.”
While Melissa doesn’t feel she’ll return to the teaching profession full time, she has not ruled out teaching electrical for IEC. She is gung-ho on encouraging those considering the electrical field to ‘go for it.’
“Sometimes when you think construction, you just think of the physical labor part of it,” Melissa offers. “From what I’ve experienced, electrical is something that really gets your mind going. It really makes you think about how things are going to work and it keeps your brain exercised. You don’t leave school once you finish the apprenticeship. There are always new codebooks out there and there’s always something for you to learn. There are always new experiences. The electrical field also is innovating itself. It’s a great field for those with a curious personality.”
Melissa feels that electrical can help you grow as a person in addition to building a career. She says it helps her feel good about herself because she can say, ‘I did this.’ It keeps you healthy; it exercises your mind and body. Outside of work and school, she most enjoys time with her son who is now five.
“He’s very much into construction vehicles,” she gushes. “He started with trains, but now he’s into excavators and playing outside. He loves running around in the park, and he loves the water. He’s a little duckling. He’s very active, and he always makes me smile.”
A Note to Fellow Single Parents from Melissa
In my case as a single mom, having opportunities for employment where you can make the pay to help keep a decent lifestyle for your kid and yourself is very challenging.
I feel like electrical is something that really gives you that independence. You feel you can do it; you can get yourself and your child through. I was a waitress for a while. If you start out at other places like retail and food, sometimes you have to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. That was not going to give me that same independence.
When you start out in electrical, obviously you don’t make a huge amount at first. But I feel like even when you start out, you start out in a different wage range. Even if other fields would have given it to me financially, I don’t know if personally it would have been able to do the same. Because this is something that makes you realize, wow, did I just do that? Did I just bend that pipe? Did I just pull that wire? Did I just put up that light? You turn it on and you’re like, I did that.
When it gives you that strength in your personality, you pass that on to your kids. It’s difficult when you’re stressing at work and you don’t know how you’re going to meet the end of the month. And then you can’t even really enjoy that time with your kids because you’re thinking about everything else. I think construction, or any trade, is an opportunity for people to really feel like they’re not alone. They can get it done.