Malaga, spain – February, 2021
I came to this sector by chance. I come from the Soviet Union, and it is curious how in countries like mine or, for example, in India, there is a certain misconception about the careers that are considered “feminine”. Women are focused more on technical careers, in fact, I could not choose what I liked because they said that an intelligent girl, like me, could not study dressmaking and fashion. My father wanted me to do economics and we reached an intermediate agreement with Sociology.
Follow Olga Rusu on Instagram @olgarusu
Pictures by @anamarielina_fotografia
I started working at an advertising agency and one day we received a project for an air conditioning company. The client liked my work and offered me to join his company.
It wasn’t super complicated for me because when you work in advertising you are used to working with clients from very different sectors. So, when I started, I had the advantage of learning and knowing the sector very well. It was the first time that I worked for a company that manufactured things, for me it was very exciting.
By the time I left the air conditioning company I had been working for them for 6 years. Motherhood urged me to take time to take care of my children. Now that my kids are bigger, I’ve been back for almost a year at the same HVAC company and the return has been very easy and pleasant because I found the company having many more resources as it has grown.
Now I multitask more. I work and take care of my children, too. This is, without a doubt, the challenge of today’s society: motherhood. There are tons of studies out there showcasing how the decreases in income and working hours of women coincide with maternity. I believe that it is a problem that women face at the end of their working lives with fewer economic resources, because they have precisely worked fewer hours or because they have stopped working for a while to take care of their children.
We should focus on solving this problem whether in HVAC or any other sector. We should reflect on what to do so that women can compensate for this lack of resources, and I am not talking about solutions such as, for example, day care for the babies and such. Because I sincerely believe that the mere experience of being a mother and taking care of your kids makes better workers and managers. Personally, motherhood has brought me a lot, now I understand and face the problems in a different way.
I got to realize that work doesn’t have to be that thing which fills all the empty spaces. You have to focus, and solve the problem in front of you, be effective. You don’t achieve more success simply by dedicating more time and thinking about it continuously. But quite the opposite.
This sector has required all my effort. But it has given me a lot of satisfaction, too. And for me it is intellectually very stimulating because you must bring out all your creativity, your resources and continue researching on a permanent basis.
I encourage everyone who likes intellectual challenges to think about the world of HVAC as a choice, not just for women, because I think we should not say: how do we encourage girls to engage in sectors like this? We have to say: what do we do to respect more a woman who decides to dedicate herself to what she wants? Staying at home and educating her children, education or nursing, are equally dignified, equally hard jobs that require an equally difficult training.
