You could call Judy Jobse the ultimate optimist.
There she was, 27 years ago, a single mom of two, needing a job to support her young family, and she’s on the bus — she didn’t have a car or driver’s licence — on the way to a job interview for a service department job at a Ford dealership in North Vancouver.
Back then, the automotive industry was still very much a man’s domain, but the challenge of breaking into that specific workplace wasn’t the utmost on Jobse’s mind at the time.
What she wanted to do was use her people skills to be that personal link between the business and the customer.
“It’s not that the car business really intrigued me initially,” said Jobse. “It was the job that enticed me because it was people-orientated, and that’s who I am.”
Today, 28 years later, Jobse, 55, has risen through the ranks of the car service industry, from that first job as service department cashier at Dave Buck Ford to fixed operations manager at Richport Ford in the Richmond Auto Mall where she was recently recognized with a Peak Performer Award that Ford employees receive for exemplary results in their ongoing training and job performance.
“I had no idea when I started I was going to end up in a service manager position,” said Jobse, who credits the tutelage from a female service department manager who interviewed her at her first job for helping her career’s trajectory.
“Having a female service manager wasn’t the norm back then. I was very surprised,” Jobse said. “But she offered me the job based on my enthusiasm.”
It didn’t even matter that Jobse didn’t drive.
“As long as I could get to work on time, it was fine,” she said, adding knowledge of the “big blue oval’s” products came later on as she sought out and attained other jobs. “I just loved the job because I was doing something different every day and I wanted to help people.”
And that goal is one Jobse said she feels women are well suited for.
“That whole persona that the car sales and service business being mainly a man’s world has changed now,” she said. “Women are looked at as being very valuable in the business because what goes on at a dealership is not just about cars. It’s very much a people business, and women tend to be very compassionate. And what we’re finding is that women on the front counter, those ones dealing directly with the customers have those skills. We’re bred with them.”
Jobse said people’s lives today are played out at such a hectic pace that when a broken down vehicle they are so reliant upon upsets their schedule it can present a major obstacle.
“You can have a family with kids in the car, broken down on the side of the road, and it’s usually going to cost them a fair amount of money to put things right,” she said. “Right there, there’s two things that generally do not make people happy.”
But that’s where Jobse said she, and her team, thrives — finding solutions to the problems of 30 to 35 customers a day.
“I enjoy taking the time to help someone who is maybe having a bad day,” she said. “That’s my job. That’s what I’m good at. And that’s why I’ve stayed in this industry.
“I do love the cars, but I also love the people.”
Getting to the place where Jobse is today has had and continues to have its challenges.
“I think as a woman you have to work twice as hard to get to the same level as a man because this business was for so long been a man’s business, and you have to prove yourself as a woman,” she said. “And I’ve had customers who have not wanted to deal with me as a manager because I’m a woman.
“That’s OK, I respect that because for them it’s probably always been that way. I’m not the kind of person who would say, ‘Well, I’m the boss and you need to deal with me.’ No, because some people have grown up with certain ways.”
But that hasn’t stopped her from encouraging other women, and men, from exploring the industry.
“It’s very near and dear to my heart to try and get people into the business because it’s been so great to me,” she said. “And whenever I get a chance to speak to a group with Ford, it’s something I always mention.”
