An underrated career path: Roofing

By Emma Peterson.

Learn about why the roofing industry might be a good fit for you.

Across the trades, there is constant chatter of labor shortages and talent recruitment struggles. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth sits down with James McDonald and Maureen Greeves of Weatherproofing Technologies Inc (WTI), a subsidiary of Tremco, to talk about this challenge and why roofing in particular is an underrated career path.

Maureen knows firsthand that roofing is not every kid’s dream career, in fact she found herself in roofing by accident. She explained, “I had my resume out on LinkedIn, and someone reached out to me, and I never looked back. I’ve met some of the greatest people I've ever met in my life, the hardest working people in my life, some of my best friends I've met through roofing and the trades. And it was just a great career move for me.” She has now been in the industry for over 16 years and is WTI’s director of field operations.  

On the other hand, James has spent decades in the roofing industry, getting his start as a roofer with CentiMark Corporation in Alabama back in the 1990s. From there, he has gathered a variety of experience on all sides of the roofing industry. He shared, “I have 28 years in the roofing industry, 18 on the contractor side and 10 here at WTI.” Today, James is the vice president of WTI and manages their TremCare service department.  

Though their paths to roofing and WTI were different, both Maureen and James agree that roofing is the right career spot for them. “If you start and you have the right work ethic and you care about quality and you care about safety, I think your career could take you anywhere,” Maureen shared. “There's so many different opportunities when you get into this industry and so many connections. The people are amazing, and there's just a ton of support for the roofing industry when you join it.” James echoed Maureen’s sentiment, sharing, “I have a lot of friends that we've pulled into this industry and are now in it. In this industry, you absolutely can excel and rise through the ranks based on energy, effort and capabilities.”

Read the transcript or Listen to the episode to learn more about roofing as a career and the different jobs available in the industry.