< Previous30 // www.womendrivingchangemagazine.ca “With truck and transport repair, actually seeing the truck go down the road is your gratification after fixing it,” she says. “I’m fixing an actual working vehicle – for truck drivers, their truck is their job. I found that interesting.” The number of job opportunities in the trade also stood out to her, as did the thought of doing something different every day. During the program at NSCC, she did a work-term at Nova Truck Centres, and she was told there would be a job waiting for her once she finished school. She accepted the position right after graduation. She said at first it was nerve-wrack- ing starting out in the trade. Especially early on in her career, she would run into people who didn’t believe she could do her job well since she was a woman. “Being a female, you do have to prove yourself a little more than if you were a male,” she says. “Eyes are watching you because they want to know if you are capable.” Throughout her time at Nova Truck Centres, her favourite part was helping the apprentices who were just starting out, which is what drew her to her cur- rent instructor position at NSCC. She says it’s satisfying knowing that you’re helping a student succeed. She also finds it fascinating the amount of growth that can happen with students. “You can have a student come in on day one and not know how to use a hammer, and at the end of the two-year course, they’re swinging a hammer in one hand and using a torch in the other,” Gillis-Lynds says. There are two women in her class of eight this year, and Gillis-Lynds says that overall the trade is still male-dominated. Female students sometimes ask Gillis- Lynds what kind of problems they might expect to run into and any advice she has to offer them. “With truck and transport repair, actually seeing the truck go down the road is your gratification after fixing it. I’m fixing an actual working vehicle – for truck drivers, their truck is their job. I found that interesting.” – DAYNA GILLIS-LYNDS, INSTRUCTOR, NOVA SCOTIA COMMUNITY COLLEGEWomen Driving Change Magazine // 31 “I tell them it’s normal if you don’t sleep for the first two weeks before you start your job. That’s normal,” she says. “If you’re nervous and scared and sec- ond guessing yourself, that’s normal. It’s all normal.” The industry requires a thick skin, she says. One thing that has helped Gillis- Lynds push through is reminding herself that what people say about her doesn’t make a difference. “They can have their opinion, and their opinion doesn’t matter to me,” she says. “Plus, if they’re talking about me, they’re leaving somebody else alone.” But if you do run into an issue at work, one that can’t simply be let go, she says you shouldn’t be afraid to speak up about it. You can talk with the person directly if you’re comfortable doing so or go to their higher-ups or HR. Gillis-Lynds still works at Nova Truck Centres during school breaks, plus rebuilds engines on Saturdays. Between work, her hobbies like race truck driving, and her personal life, she’s left with a pret- ty full schedule, which suits her just fine. “I don’t idle well,” she says. ONLINE: https://www.nscc.ca FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/NovaScotia CommunityCollege TWITTER: https://twitter.com/NSCCNews LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/school/nova-scotia- community-college-nscc INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/ novascotiacommunitycollege YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/nsccweb DIGITAL CONNECTIONS If you have an amazing driver, mechanic, or other female staff member who deserves recognition, reach out to ssavory@matrixgroupinc.net! We're arranging profiles for all future editions.32 // www.womendrivingchangemagazine.ca ou won’t know what you’re good at or what you like unless you try it for yourself. While a simple statement, it’s one that has shaped Tina Capobianco’s personal and profession- al lives. And it’s career advice she’d pass on to anyone, particularly women in traditionally male-dominated industries. “You have to know that if you fail, it’s OK, it’s not the end of the world. Just try something else or go back to what you were doing,” Capobianco says. “As long as you give it a chance and give it your all, that’s really all I ask of anybody.” Capobianco is the Senior Vice Presi- dent at J D Factors, a factoring company that will buy your business's accounts receivables for immediate cash. J D Factors, founded in 1989, has offic- es throughout Canada and the United States. In her position, Capobianco oversees all of the Canadian factoring operations. This includes supervising account exec- utives and the management team, taking care of all clients, supporting business development, managing the building, and more. When entering the workforce, Capo- bianco didn’t see herself in a position like this. She graduated from university in 1992 with a double major in French and geography, planning to next attend teachers college. At the time of her graduation, Cana- da was in a recession, and many of her classmates couldn’t find jobs. One of her friends worked at J D Factors and said the company was looking for a bilingual receptionist. The position stood out to her because it was full-time work and had paid Tina Capobianco, Senior Vice President of J D Factors. BEHIND THE SCENES WITH… By Kaitlin Vitt, Women Driving Change staff writer Y Tina Capobianco, JD FactorsWomen Driving Change Magazine // 33 need to say, ‘You know, I’m confident in what I know, and if I don’t know, I’m going to ask the right questions,’” she says. “Once I learned that I don’t know everything and it’s OK to ask, it was a game changer.” She says now that she is further along in her career, she’s taken more seriously than she was in the past, partly because she stuck to her own advice that she now offers to women entering any indus- try: be confident in what you know, and remember it’s OK to ask for help. advance in her career, and she thinks recruiting internally is a great way for companies to attract more women. When a company provides profes- sional development for promotion opportunities for women who already work there, these employees will tell their friends and families. Word will get out about the opportunities for advance- ment in the industry, ultimately encour- aging other women to apply. “I’m spending a lot of time on profes- sional development of the women on my team, giving them opportunities to look at different areas of the company,” Capobi- anco says. “I have a very open policy and say, ‘Any job you want to try, you should try it to see if it’s something that you’d like.’” While managing large transport cli- ents in her late 20s and early 30s, she says at times she wasn’t taken seriously by some companies, especially if her manager, who was a man, was with her. “Anyone new coming into a situation where it’s mostly male dominated, you benefits. She decided to apply, and she got the job. Once she started working at J D Fac- tors, she found she had a passion for helping people and businesses. About 70 per cent of clients are trans- port companies. She says the need for factoring within the transport sector is greater than in other industries since cash flow needs to be managed daily. J D Factors must get transport companies money fast so they can secure their next load and remain in business. She’s seen the growth businesses have achieved thanks to working with J D Factor, and references one transport company based in southern Ontario that started with five trucks and has grown to a fleet of 300 trucks. “The passion I still have is to help clients improve their cash flow, grow their business, and make them suc- cessful,” Capobianco says. “If they’re successful, then, in turn, we’re natu- rally successful.” When she started at J D Factor, she didn’t have any training in finance. While working for the company, she took finance courses and got her credit des- ignation. Her professional development and willingness to try new positions led to many promotions, and in 2005, she was promoted to run the Canadian oper- ation of the company. “Nothing really prepared me for my position,” she says. “I think it was more I found my passion and then just went for it.” She’s even had the chance to com- bine that initial interest in teaching with all her experience from over the years – she’s the education chair with a com- mercial finance association and teaches classes in finance, asset-based loans, underwriting, and operations. The opportunities she’s had for pro- fessional development have helped her ONLINE: www.jdfactors.com FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/jdfactors TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jdfactors LINKEDIN: www.linkedin.com/in/tina-capobianco-55b8a39 DIGITAL CONNECTIONS “I’m spending a lot of time on professional development of the women on my team, giving them opportunities to look at different areas of the company. I have a very open policy and say, ‘Any job you want to try, you should try it to see if it’s something that you’d like.’” – TINA CAPOBIANCO, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, J D FACTORS34 // www.womendrivingchangemagazine.ca Truck Driver Training Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning ..............25 Truck Driving School Ontario Truck Driving School .......IFC Truck Training Schools / Association Truck Training School Association of Ontario .........................24 Truck Warranties Canadian Truck Warranty ...........20 Trucking Walmart Fleet ......................28 Trucking Company Penner International Inc. ............26 T rucks Volvo Trucks Canada ................22 Virtual Reality Training iMVR ............................OBC Balancing Beads Counteract Balancing Beads .........26 Bulk Fuel Delivery UFA Co-operative Ltd. ................31 Cargo Control Products Ancra Cargo .......................IBC Domestic and International Trucking Specialists Polaris Transportation Group ............................16 Engine Repair/Tuning Diesel Spec Inc. ......................7 Factoring J D Factors ...........................4 Industry Events 6th Annual Bridging the Barriers Conference ........................9 ExpoCAM 2023 .....................12 Private Motor Truck Council of Canada – Annual Conference ..............11, 24 Kriska Transportation Group Kriska Transportation Group ............................33 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Logistics CITT ................................17 Powertrain Parts and Service Provider The Gear Centre Group ..............34 Private Motor Truck Council of Canada Private Motor Truck Council of Canada ..........................11 Recruitment and Hiring Skelton Truck Lines .................30 Recruitment and Training GFL .................................21 Specializing in Temperature Controlled, Time Sensitive Food Transportation - Canada and USA ERB Transport Ltd. ..................13 Transport and Logistics Specialists Onfreight Logistics ..................26 Transportation and Logistics Group Siemens Transportation Group Inc. ........................34 TransX Group of Companies ........................3 Email jcash@matrixgroupinc.net to request a 2023 Media Kit! 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