Donetta Thomas, an apprentice with Roofers Local 11 in Chicago, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to share her story of entering the building trades through Hire360, a Chicago-based workforce development organization that connects people from underrepresented communities to union construction careers.
Thomas came to the trades after working other jobs for years. She decided she wanted something that paid well, offered benefits and gave her something tangible to show for her time.
During the conversation, Thomas described the Hire360 pre-apprenticeship experience, the reality of roofing work, including the physical demands, the heights, the weather and the camaraderie, as well as what she would tell any woman or person of color who is thinking about but has not yet looked into a career in the building trades.
Donetta Thomas did not grow up thinking about roofing. She spent years working in other fields before reaching a point where she wanted something different. She wanted work that paid enough to build a life, benefits that would protect her family and something she could point to at the end of the day and say, “she built that.” The building trades kept coming up in conversations. A woman she knew had gone through Hire360 and encouraged her to look into it. She did.
Hire360 is a Chicago-based workforce development organization that creates pathways for women and people of color to enter union construction careers. The pre-apprenticeship programs Hire360 runs do not just introduce participants to construction skills. They prepare people for the full experience of entering a new industry. This includes what to expect in an interview, how to carry yourself on a job site and what the culture of a union apprenticeship program looks like from the inside. Thomas described the preparation as the piece that made the transition feel possible rather than overwhelming.
Thomas explained that Hire360 connected her not just to roofing but to the network of people and resources that helped her navigate the apprenticeship application process with a realistic understanding of what she was applying for. By the time she walked into her interview with Roofers Local 11, she knew what to expect, how to present herself and why she wanted to be there. That preparation mattered, she said, adding that people who walk into a trades apprenticeship interview without that kind of foundation are at a real disadvantage. Hire360 closes that gap for candidates who would otherwise be coming in cold.
She also credited the community she built through Hire360 with providing ongoing support as she moved through the early stages of her apprenticeship. Knowing other people who had made the same transition, who understood what the first weeks on a job site feel like, who you can call when you are not sure about something, makes a difference.
Thomas was candid about what roofing actually involves. It is physical work done at heights, in whatever weather the day brings, with materials and equipment that do not care how tired your arms are. She said the first time she was working at a high elevation, it got to her. Not enough to stop her, but enough to remind her that what she was doing was real. She adapted. The training she received gave her the technical foundation. The experience of doing the work gave her confidence. A few weeks in, the heights stopped registering as something to manage and started registering as part of the job.
She described the physical demands with a mix of pride and humor. You get stronger. Your hands get tougher. You figure out how to position yourself so the work goes smoothly and your body isn't working against you. The people around you, the experienced journeypeople and the fellow apprentices, are part of how you learn that. Nobody gets good at roofing by reading about it. You get good at roofing by working alongside people who are already good at it and by being willing to pay attention and ask questions, she said.
She also talked about the heat. Roofing in Chicago in the summer means working on dark surfaces that absorb and radiate heat in ways that workers in climate-controlled environments do not experience. She described the importance of hydration, pacing and looking out for each other on the crew. It is one of the areas where the union's safety culture makes a real difference, she said. Workers who have collective representation have a voice when conditions become genuinely unsafe, unlike non-union workers who often feel like they cannot say anything.
Thomas did not soften her message for anyone sitting on the fence. The trades pay well. The benefits are real. The career path is real, not a short-term job. Roofers Local 11 has journeymen who have been in the union for decades and built careers that supported their families and provided retirement security. The apprenticeship is five years of paid learning, and the earning starts on day one.
The hardest part was deciding to start, she admitted. Not the heights, the physical work, or learning new skills. The hardest part was deciding to walk away from what was familiar and into something where she was starting from the beginning. Once she made that decision and walked through the door at Hire360, everything else was learnable. She said she would tell any woman or person of color who is curious about the trades to find out about Hire360, show up to an information session and take a real look. The only thing stopping most people, she said, is not going.
More information on Hire360 is available at hire360chicago.com. More information on Roofers Local 11 is available at rooferslocal11.org.
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