Cameron Raab could keep his SEER Group colleague, Robin Cutshall, within sight as the two competed for the title of HVAC apprentice national champion.
So Raab, a service technician for Coffman & Co. in Arvada, Colorado, cast a few glances her way as he worked toward his second-place finish during the ServiceTitan Elite Trades Championship Series competition inside the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida.
"I was just honestly comparing myself to what she was doing," he said.
Cutshall, a service technician for Columbia Northwest Heating & Air Conditioning in Scappoose, Oregon, was the only woman among the 10 apprentice and 10 pro finalists in the HVAC National Championship, also sponsored by ServiceTitan.
"Like, 'Oh, she did it like that. I did it like this. I wonder if that's better, if that was faster,'" Raab said. "Robin knows what she's doing, so I figured if I was going to watch someone to try to gauge how I did, she was a good one to watch.
Entries in the competition completed a timed online test in the first round, and 38 advanced to a second round in which they were required to perform an at-home challenge on video. At the finals in September in West Palm Beach, the 90-minute project required installing an electronic air cleaner with a furnace and a supply plenum and placing an air condenser on a pad at a simulated home.
“We made it here because we are good at our jobs,” Cutshall said.
Not only did Cutshall, 26, capture the attention of Raab and her fellow competitors, she also raised eyebrows for Lori Tschohl, president of Women in HVACR.
“She is amazing, and I can't even imagine the pressure that she was under to be the only female out there on the HVAC side,” said Tschohl, who owns Eagle Pipe Heating & Air in Poulsbo, Washington.
Cutshall’s passion for the outdoors often lands her on the path less traveled. Her professional career is much the same: Cutshall is her company’s only female technician and is among a tiny percentage of women in the industry. But with jobs available, there’s no reason Cutshall should travel alone.
A different set of expectations
Tschohl and the nonprofit Women in HVACR promote the industry as a career choice for women through networking, mentorships, and scholarship offerings. And opportunities for women appear numerous and could help fill voids:
Women in HVACR believes the industry will be short 115,000 workers in 2026.
Women represent 2.3% of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The median pay for mechanics and installers totaled $57,300 annually in 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reports.
"Not only are they very skilled, they can be very technical," Tschohl said of women. "They come with a whole different set of expectations. And when we show up at a customer's home, there's a lot of comfortability of seeing a female come in. They're used to having a guy come in. Sometimes, it could be a woman by herself at home or with her children, and all of a sudden, there's a different sense, 'Oh, it's another female coming in the door.'"
Women can be installers and technicians, but roles are also available as comfort advisers or sales team members, customer service representatives, dispatchers, service managers, and marketers.
"You want the diversity, you want their opinions, you want their ideas," Tschohl said.
And you want their drive.
Across country, a new challenge awaits
Cutshall was the last of the apprentice finalists to learn she had qualified for the all-expenses-paid trip to Florida.
That’s because when the news broke, Cutshall was solo-hiking 52 miles of trails around Mount Hood for a fourth time. Cutshall completed her trek in 70 hours, her fastest finish in a hike she called "a bit of a backcountry experience."
"The river crossings were a lot higher than I've ever seen them in previous years," she said.
The hike also served as redemption for Cutshall after a mistake during a similar adventure in 2023. Her backpack tumbled off a cliff, so she climbed down to retrieve it from a waterfall. But she injured herself and couldn't complete the hike.
As for the HVAC finals, few of the apprentices completed that challenge, either. Besides Raab’s admiration, Cutshall won praise from all of her SEER Group teammates who have supported her through her first two years as an apprentice and who cheered for her in her first HVAC National Championship appearance.
“They knew I was sweating, they knew I was struggling a little bit,” Cutshall said, “and it was all just still supportive and ‘we're proud of you.’”
Not long after the competition ended, a spectator offered words of encouragement after Cutshall told him “it could have gone better.”
“You know what?” the onlooker told Cutshall. “You're still one of the top 10 technicians in the country, so that's something to be proud of."
Cutshall, the daughter of a machinist, once dabbled in welding but later considered being a nurse and gained experience as a caregiver. Ultimately concluding that wasn’t for her, Cutshall applied for an HVAC job on a whim.
“I got bored at my job, and I wanted to learn a trade,” she said.
Besides her unique status on the Columbia Northwest team, Cutshall is only the second female technician Raab has met.
Yet neither of the two apprentices is sure that opportunities in the HVAC industry should necessarily focus on gender.
‘I don’t quit. I figure it out.’
As Raab took stock of his own work and checked Cutshall’s progress, he watched her maneuver the outdoor unit, which can sometimes weigh more than 200 pounds.
“You moved the AC easier than I did,” Raab, who earned $10,000 for finishing second, told her later. “I’ve got more pounds on you than I'm willing to admit right now. But that thing was freaking heavy. You didn't struggle with it.”
That drive, and not just that she’s a woman, is what Cutshall considers her superpower in the industry.
“I don't think it's a man-or-woman question,” she says. “I think it is the type of personality that you have to have to succeed in any trade.
“I'm a go-getter,” she added. “I don't quit. I might cry, but I don't quit. I get frustrated, and I figure it out.”
Cutshall is among a number of young employees, male or female, who have figured out the advantages of being employed in the trades.
“You make good money,” she said. “I don't have debt.”
Raab agreed and also cites job security.
“Everyone needs us,” he said. “The trades are hurting, the labor shortage is getting worse, and it's something that's necessary. We are necessary. That especially makes me proud, and it gives me just security.”
Dustin Hawkins, a service technician and third-year apprentice with Jansen's Heating & Air in Effingham, Illinois, who won the $20,000 first prize for apprentices, also feels valued and secure in the HVAC industry.
“You're always going to find work,” he said. “It's always going to be good pay, and you're going to enjoy it.”
And then there’s Ryan Conley, a two-time finalist and technician from Westland, Michigan. The apprentice is also helping owner Kenneth MacIver run Kona Air Heating and Cooling at age 23.
Conley’s brother and sister opted to pursue degrees at Wayne State University. But Ryan's father, Jim Conley, owns a garage-door company, Back on Track Doors, and that's who Ryan has followed into the trades.
Besides the valuable learning and leadership opportunities Kona affords, it pays well. Ryan bought a mid-size sport utility vehicle in 2022 and made his final payment just 18 months later.
"I couldn't be any more proud," his dad said.
‘We’re strong’
Cutshall, whom Tschohl invited to the Women in HVACR national conference in Dallas in October, believes that recruiting more women to the industry begins with trades classes in high schools.
"If there's one girl in every shop class throughout the country, that's not going to change anything," she said. "But if you've got three in each shop, it's exponential growth. You've got to start with the kids."
And while she's comfortable going solo on a hike, or going solo as a woman in the industry, she'd also welcome the company.
"I definitely think that should change," she said. "I'm grateful to hang out with the guys. But it'd be nice to have a little more feminine energy, because we're strong.
"And when we're together, there's nothing stopping us."
