Run it like a girl with Erica Oliver, Combat Engineer, Department of National Defence

11/11/19 • 33 min

Please note: In the episode we talk about Erica being the first woman from the ranks to become a combat diver. Erica was unaware at the time that another woman (Misty Shearer) received her combat diver coin first. Erica and Misty connected and it was a good news story. We also featured Misty on our podcast! Be sure to check her out.
Erica Oliver has been in the Canadian forces for over 20 years and tells us that it wasn’t she who chose the military, but rather the military that chose her. Erica joined the regular forces with the sole goal of becoming a combat diver, which took her six years to accomplish....six years, she says, of being told that there was no way she could do it.
Erica talks about her 4 international deployments including two to Afghanistan, and says the military does an excellent job of preparing its troops for the physical demands of a war zone. She says the mental demands, however, are almost impossible to prepare for.

Previous Episode

Run it like a girl with Andrea Cook, Season 2, Episode 5

Andrea Cook calls herself a career advertising girl, although she graduated from university as an economist, thinking she might want to be a trader. Following an internship, it became clear to Andrea that stock market trading was not in her cards, and she made a sharp turn towards advertising.

Andrea is now the president of FCB/Six, an award-winning digital advertising agency, with offices in Toronto, Montreal and New York City. In this episode, she tells us about the gains women have made in the ad industry, despite the fact that it has traditionally been a male-dominated business.

Next Episode

Run it like a girl with Sherri Stevens, Owner of Women's Executive Network, Season 2, Episode 7

Sherri Stevens took a risk, and it paid off. Her decade long dream of being a flight attendant had fallen flat. After a couple of years in the industry, Sherri discovered, it was definitely not the profession for her. With no job and no money, Sherri left Toronto to live with her mother in a small apartment in her hometown of Woodstock.

Desperate to find work, Sherri, noticed that there was only one staffing service in the small southwestern Ontario city. Sherri started Stevens Resource group, which eventually evolved into an international workforce training and development company, with offices in Canada and the United States.

Sherri is a two-time recipient of the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada award, and now she actually owns WXN, an organization that works to advance, develop and recognize professional women in Canada.

On this episode of Run It Like a Girl, Sherri tells us, that as her business took off, some lessons were learned the hard way.