While old fashion stereotypes may view working for a railway as a traditionally male career path that is nowhere near the reality in today’s Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Women stand on equal footing alongside their male coworkers not just throughout CP’s corporate and professional roles, but also among CPs tradespeople and engineers. To highlight this change in workplace culture, we spoke with two promising, young CP employees, Nicole Boilard and Robbin (Churyl) Johnston, about their experience at CP so far.

Joining CP

Both of them joined CP early in their careers. Boilard, who now works in CP’s Engineering Signals & Communications (S&C) division out of Calgary, applied through the recommendation of her father, who himself is a long-time CP employee where he works as a technician. Meanwhile, Johnston, who works in CP’s Engineering Capital Planning group, joined the company through the inspiration of her friend’s father, himself a former CP employee who now lives a comfortable, happy, CP-pension funded retirement—a retirement Johnston aspires to even at her young age.

When asked about the interview process, both Boilard and Johnston agreed that the process was fairly straight-forward. It starts with a simple online application, followed by a simple phone screening interview, and then a final in-person interview that identifies whether your skills, personality, and values align with CP—a company that values honesty and hard work.

Career progression for the driven

An interesting fact about CP is that many of their employees started as entry-level labourers (helpers), just as Boilard and Johnston did. However, CP invests significantly into their internal training programs through co-ops, apprenticeships, workshops, and certificate programs, allowing their employees to switch roles regularly, both vertically and horizontally.

For Boilard, that meant starting her career as a:

1. S&C helper in June 2013,
2. Then joining an apprenticeship program that allowed her to join one of the track crews as a Wireman, “That job basically involves traveling around a large territory with one of the track crews, inspecting the signal equipment and crossings, making sure they’re clear and safe for the trains to cross through and for the track crews to do their work.” A year later, Boilard became a Mobile Maintainer that helps maintain signal equipment for different CP rail territories,
3. Then she joined the construction crews responsible for installing the equipment she used to maintain.
4. Eventually, with the career guidance from CP management, Boilard’s interest in the testing and commissioning department (basically the department that tests the safety and functionality of everything CP’s S&C department installs onto their tracks) finally landed her in her current role as a Signals Designer in July 2017.

Johnston’s story was similar.

1. She joined the company as a Track Labourer,
2. Then joined a CP rotational program that allowed her to try out different jobs month-to-month.
3. Eventually, her rotational program placed her in an Assistant Plant Maintainer position at CP’s Surrey Welding Plant. “I actually just really love working at the plant and my boss at that time was really great and supported my career progression.”
4. "Eventually, a supervisor position opened up, and after telling him that I was interested in the role, he supported me. After the interviews, I spent the next two years as the plant supervisor."
5. Through that early support and ongoing on-the-job training, Johnston was recently promoted to a manager position at the plant.

A job with meaning

The most important quality that sets CP apart is the pride its employees have in their jobs.

Johnston shares, “I'm really happy where I am [manager position]. I know I'm going to be in this position for this year or a bit longer before I’m placed somewhere else at CP, and then I’ll get the chance to build a whole new skill set in the next role. I can get nervous sometimes being in a big roll like mine, but I'm taking everything one day at a time, trying not to overwhelm myself. And I’ve had a lot of great people behind me saying ‘you can do this!’”

Likewise, Boilard finds a great deal of meaning in her work, saying, “My department, in general, is basically what keeps the trains moving safely and what lets us keep track of where the trains are. Anything to do with train movement, it all works off of the signaling systems we install, the track circuits, and all the switches. They all operate in a way to make sure that our trains get to their destinations as safely as possible and with as little delay as possible.”

Overall, both Boilard and Johnston encourage young people to consider a career at CP, especially if they are interested in roles within the trades and engineering. Johnston adds, “Especially for women, if they think this work is too hard of a job and that’s deterring them from applying, I want to let them know that working at CP really brings out a lot of confidence in you. When you’re just starting out, and you go out there, you're working right alongside the guys, and they’re all very helpful. So it’s a big team when everyone is on the crew. At CP, everyone works together.”

Boilard says, “I know that the railway and engineering, in general, has been a male-dominated industry, however, I have also met some of the strongest women I’ve ever known in my life through my career with CP. All of whom encouraged me to reach higher than I thought myself capable. And the guys don’t treat you any different than that, either. When you’re part of the team, everyone looks out for each other.