Hey, I was thinking about the all the legal battles that go on in the wireless world. I stumbled upon and article about a law suit where AT&T was fighting to get tower built-in a small town, The Village of Corrales, (near Albuquerque, NM), so that they would have coverage. This is so they fill a hole. I support AT&T 100%.The article is here if you’re interested. Another article is here. So do you think that AT&T will put the legal work out to bid?
Let’s look at the scenario. AT&T writes the RFP and puts the RFP out to bid, stating they need legal council to fight for the tower to be built. Then they put it out to bid, looking for the best price. A turf vendor picks it up and says they can do it. So then they look for a local vendor in the ares, in New Mexico. Well that vendor doesn’t have any lawyers working for them but don’t worry, there is a local law office in the city which has lawyers willing to go to court for $20/hour. So they hire the cheapest person in the area that can complete the outline in the SOW, but did they do background checks? Who cares, it’s cheap and the contractor probably won’t pay anyway.
Would AT&T take chances with a legal battle by not hiring the best they can? Then why would they take chances with climbers, a high risk job where people die?!? Does anyone die in court? I don’t think so, at least not in a battle to build a tower. I believe that AT&T, and all the carriers understand how important climber safety is and they will do everything they can to ensure that the climber arrives home at the end of the week, alive.
Trust me, every life matters, if we can save one by making sure the climbers are properly qualified with training and certification and experience the right way, then we are on the path to a better world. It won’t eliminate accidents, which happen, but it will help the industry grow to be as safe as it can possibly be. All I ask is that they require proof of safety and build in money for teams to go on site randomly and do safety audits.
Personal comment, I support towers being built. NIMBY, (Not In My Back Yard), is very common. I feel like we live in a crazy world when the carriers have to go to court just to help improve coverage in these communities, think of all the money wasted by doing this. If you ever went through the zoning process you would realize how painful this process is. (Kudos to all the site acquisition people out there!) Everyone wants coverage, yet no one wants to see the tower. We are overcoming that battle by building mini cell sites and small cells. DAS and Distributed small cells are helping us overcome those issues. However, for all of these people that fight the communications tower being built, or object to antennas being places nearby, (refer to LARICS system being slowed down), with the end result being a 911 call can’t get through or even worse emergency responders don’t have coverage to call for help or backup then who is to blame? Does the FCC look to the people who objected to the towers, no, they blame the carrier for being so irresponsible for not building it there in the first place.
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Before I start, let me congratulate Dr Bridgette Hester for the great article she wrote for AGL Magazine,found here,about here research into Carla Valencia’s death, may she rest in peace. It was her first real climb (sound familiar?) and another coworker got hurt as well. The article is great, take some time and read it! This too will have lessons learned about responsibility which is a topic for another day.
I read the story in wireless estimator,link here,if you don’t see it then scroll down until you see the headline “Near electrocution of two techs requires a review of safe practices” posted on April 6 of 2015.I am trying to figure out how these guys missed power lines. Do you know whet I am saying? So I think what we have to do is review what lessons can be learned from this incident.
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First off, thank GOD that they both are alive, although you wonder how they survived, let’s just say that this is a gift that they lived and we can learn from what went wrong! That ans the fact that bucket trucks are supposed to be rated non-conductive up to a certain voltage. I remember that from when we had our bucket trucks inspected, the paint was very important.
They must have been competent on a bucket truck because it didn’t tip and they were able to lower it back down. They did not jump out and the truck apparently is insulated properly. The only injury I read about is the guys arm was burnt from touching the electrical line. Thanks for clarifying this Wireless Estimator.
Let’s review, they were able to operate the bucket truck, let’s hope they were trained properly on using the bucket truck. I want to refer to my posts on a Fisk here, (wait for it), because it’s relevant. Everyone’s response to my Fisk post (orFISK Videos) is that the user must be trained and competent. That applies to more than the Fisk, it also applies to bucket trucks and lifts. In fact it applies to anything anyone is using when working at heights. You should not be winging it, but many do, and you should practice how to use the equipment, especially rescue equipment.
So you should be trained on the bucket truck as well. To be competent is more than just powering it up and leveling it. The operator was trained on using the lift. It is doing a hazard assessment prior to going up, just like you should do before you climb! What these guys did poor job of is hazard assessment and planning. Did they have a plan? Apparently it was to go straight up to whatever they were working on. Did they do a hazard assessment? It doesn’t seem like it.
Do you see now? I find that 20-20 hindsight is very clear. It took shocks and burns and near heart attacks to teach their gentlemen. Please don’t make this mistake but learn from it. Remember what I say, pay attention! These guys were not aware of their surroundings when going up, they were not looking in all directions. He has probably used the lift so many times he took it for granted that it was easy to use and that 99% of the other times everything was OK. He may have been distracted by the other guy. We can only assume that he just didn’t pay attention at that moment.
Ok, let’s play what if. What if someone who did the site survey would have identified the lines and then called the power company to insulate them? Remember that if you are working near power or high tension lines you can call ahead and request that they insulate the, What they do is wrap the lines with a loose fabric or plastic insulator so you don’t get shocked if you touch the line. You have to ask and plan. They will be happy to assist you if you give them the time to do it.
However let’s say this was a service call. Then these guys could have done a few things like they could have identified power lines and came up with a plan to avoid them. If they were paying attention then they would have made a serious effort to watch them as they were going up. Second they could have planned out how the bucket’s path to know where it would go. Finally, and most importantly they should have been paying attention! Simple yet we just don’t do it! Look up, look around, and see what is going on. Maybe they needed a ground guy to watch them go up because it sounds like they had 2 guys in the bucket.
They probably should have paid attention to their surroundings. It is easy to get distracted, seriously, they are lucky to be alive after being so careless. Remember that I say pay attention? It’s not just lip service; it is practical advice in any situation. We are all guilty of being distracted, all of us, especially me!
So learn from this mistake. Be competent on your equipment through training, practice, and reading if possible. If you have someone to teach you that has experience, great, just try not to pick up their bad habits.
What’s easy to do is easy not to do, like paying attention. So make the choice to go home every night healthy and alive! It is your responsibility to be smart, be safe, and pay attention. One act of stupidity can hurt or kill you in this business.
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OK, this is from my post onWireless Deployment Efficiencieswhere I wrote about ways to make you deployment as efficient as possible by thinking about your deployment plan.
Comment: You are so right, I’ve been a PM for over ten years and you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve said these same things. Great Post!!!
Response: Thank you! I know that becoming efficient is something you need to work at to cut costs and raise profit. It will also make you more competitive. However, you need to know how to become more efficient without hurting the essentials like safety and worker morale. Being efficient will often come from a good idea someone has in the field that everyone can adopt. However, being efficient doesn’t mean taking shortcuts, it means finding a better way to do a task.
From LinkedIn I got this response which I wanted to share:
Wade: I don’t know if you are fully aware of what happened in his case. Ray was called in to erect a self-supporting tower in Nebraska after the general contractors Erector announced they didn’t have the men that could erect the tower with a crane. But they didn’t inform the general until they had completely assembled the tower, a 300′ SST, and the crane had arrived. Ray took the deal without a schedule extension, but only because the crane was there and waiting. The first day he and his crew arrived, they corrected the previous crew’s assembly mistakes and stacked 240′ of steel before dark. The next morning when they arrived, the crane company was tearing down the crane for removal. They had a guaranteed commitment on another job The general contractor offered Ray $3,000.00 in addition to their original contract to finish the job with a hoist and pole, which they would furnish, however Ray would have to go pick the equipment up, and also, the general contractor would not slip the scheduled completion date. Ray took another man with him and drove all day and night to San Antonio, and then over to Houston and back to the job site near Omaha in 54 hours. Upon his arrival at the job site in early afternoon, the crew rigged the tower with the gin-pole in a “Chicago Boom” fashion and disassembled the sections because they would have to assemble them in the air. Their first pick was a single leg with step bolts. As they were setting the leg, they called the operator to raise the load a few inches but a step bolt was fouled in the pole. Ray climbed up on the pole and pushed the leg out and called for the operator to come up a few inches, but instead of pulling back on the load drum lever, the operator pulled back on the jump line lever. The jump line broke causing the pole to fall 240′ down through the inside of the tower with Ray attached to it. It’s a miracle he survived. But the reason I call this to your attention is to give you an example of how the owners and general contractors, the brains of the operation, bully the workers and chisel them into unfair and dangerous situations and then gloat about how good they handle problems. RB
Response: Sometime trying to be too efficient can be a hazard, especially when you rush to make something happen without having the time to plan it out. Planning should include not only the best way to deploy but also the safest way to work. It really makes sense to take your time to plan out the steps. Being efficient doesn’t mean skipping very important steps like hazard assessment, tailgate meetings, and making the plan with your team! Think and pay attention to what is going on!
OK, so your company didn’t pay you a salary or they didn’t pay you your expense money, what do you do? I know what I did! This is if you were an employee.
Update: By the way, if you didn’t see Wireless Horizons is going to protest the citation! In an article by Tom Raum in the Southeast Missourian, found here, you will see that Rick Heisler, president of Wireless Horizon, states that he respectfully disagrees with OSHA and will vigorously contest them. Another article found here.
In case you didn’t see it, a guy climbed a power tower and fried himself before falling over 70 feet, no idea why, I guess we will never know, link ishere.
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So here’s what happened. I worked for a company as an employee that racked up the expense money, they put off payment with lame excuses and I was stuck. Many people wonder how you let something go for to several thousands of dollars. I will tell you that when you are working a job or for a company your primary goal is to finish and keep going. It doesn’t take long before you are in the hole for a lot of money. Simple expense money is not cheap and it adds up over time. When you are booking a hotel and then adding meals it doesn’t seem like much. Then when you buy hardware for a job because you have people on site who want to go home, it makes sense to get it ASAP and think about the cost later. Before you know it you have thousands of dollars gone. This is one thing that most customers like to ignore. It’s funny when they limit the expenses of their own employees that may travel twice a year, meanwhile you are living on the road, but that is another story.
Then they laid me off, owing me thousands of dollars in expense money. I think that they thought they would get away with because this company did business by not paying unless they absolutely had to. This was not different in their eyes.
Here is what I did, I called a lawyer. He gave me great advice, for free, he told me not to use a lawyer because it would cost me money and would eat into what they owed me, it could be more than they owe me. He told me to go to the department of labor for that state. So remember, that when working the legal system that many times it is more about money than justice. He told me to go to the state department of labor and file in claims. I did this. It was a learning process and one that took time. I had all of my information, the agreement, the list of expenses, the amount owed me and so on. Make sure you include any interested owed to you and estimate about another 3 months in there because it will take about that long to get it resolved. Always keep the paperwork with the agreements or the employee handbook. This is specifically for employees. I will do another post for contractors.
Remember to make sure you get the agreement (or employee handbook) in writing or print because you will need to prove that they owe you the money. Getting things in writing, even email, is huge! Make sure you not only have it in writing but you keep it somewhere safe. In other words, the company’s computer isn’t the best place! Keep it on a thumb drive, on a personal computer, or print it out. You may have to testify that you spent the money for that company, so review everything and make sure that you know what the equipment was for. Make notes. Put them in an organized fashion when going to court and preparing everything.
So what I went to the department of labor in that state and filed a claim. They had the process online. Now, this took some time to do it right! I made up a spreadsheet of everything they owed me and put the receipts or a copy of the receipts together in one package. I also had the credit card bills that I used to build the spreadsheet. I put it all together. I also took the expense reports I filled out and added them as well. I also had a copy of the work contract. All of this impressed the judge. I am not sure if he was a judge or a councilman but I called him “your honor” all the same.
I had to drive 3 hours to go to the hearing, again, a day off work at my new company, but they understood. I went to the hearing after the other party delayed the hearing 3 times, the maximum allowed and always at the last-minute! so when hearing day came, they didn’t even show up. I won favor with the judge and then he told me they still have another 21 days to appeal. This drove me crazy, another 21 days? I fully expected them to delay as long as they could. They had 21 days to appeal and 30 days to pay. I could not believe it!
So, much to my surprise, they did pay me, on the last day the check arrived in the mail. They did not follow due process, as usual, they just sent a check. So I had to alert the state department of labor that they paid. The state followed up on the case, they made sure and they wanted to see a copy of the check and wanted to make sure it cleared. They were on top of this and they take employee’s pay very seriously. This is a good thing because some people just give up, but the DOL did not, they wanted to be sure the process was complete.
So listen, the department of labor is the worker’s friend! So is OSHA and the FCC. They are on the workers side. I know that now. I appreciate them.
So if you don’t get paid, don’t just walk away because you will not only lose your money, but the company will screw as many people as they can. Let’s face it, most people are lazy, they just chalk up the loss and walk away. Depending on how much money it is, I may have to. When it’s enough money, then you need to do something. I am telling you, companies “not paying” are very common in this industry. I will write another article about when companies don’t pay the contractor. This is very common as well. The only thing I can say it make sure that you don’t work for them again! EVER! That is, until they pay you. Then use your better judgment and get ready for small claims court.
So, if you want to this make you have a legitimate complaint! Don’t start something because you thought could expense alcohol, that is going to be a problem if it’s not in the company handbook. Also, you are going to working with the state Department of Labor. Show them respect, don’t be a jerk and understand that you don’t know it all, got it? The judge is the boss, not you, listen to what they say and don’t challenge them unless you have solid grounds to stand on. If you have a temper and you don’t like what you hear, keep it in check. Make sure that you understand that you need to file in the state where the work was done or where the person you are charging resides. If I don’t have the link you need below then Google the Department of labor + the state you need. It takes time, it takes patience, and you need to think this out. What I mean by that is don’t put everything together half-ass, you know what I mean!
What do you think of not getting paid and/or Wireless Horizon protesting the citation?
Soon I will release my training for the SOW and more, to build your library of basic knowledge so you can advance in your job and the industry! So feel free to buy one of my books and maybe they will help you learn something that you didn’t know or teach someone who needs to know.
Remember the tower collapse on March 25th of this year, 2014? Let me refresh your memory, Tower climbers Martin Powers, 38, and Seth Garner, 25, both died that day.I wrote about it here. May they rest in peace. Both workers fell 250’ that day in near Blaine, Ka. Now, before you go on, take a moment and bow your head, calm down, say a quiet prayer for them before you go on. OK, I feel better? Learn from this and don’t follow the mistakes that were made. OSHA did a good job turning this around from what I can tell. I think I got this right so make sure you look at the links to see the OSHA documentation. Special thanks to Wally Reardon for pointing this out on Facebook!
This shows that there were 2 Citations broken out into several items. That citation is here.What were they for? Well, OSHA dished out fines of:
$5,600 for not having the proper markings on or around the gin pole with instructions and load rating. It did not have the proper markings, no labels, no instructions. Not a safe work environment.
$5,600 for NOT having a written rigging plan based on scope of proposed demolition (Scope of Work and written plan people!) No written plan for the gin pole. Not a safe work environment.
$5,600 for failing to do an engineering survey prior to the work by a competent person, and who was the competent person here? Not a safe work environment.
$5,600 for not identifying the load rating of the gin pole for the demolition of the tower. The load chart must be readily available! Not a safe work environment.
$56,000 for a willful violation of failing to protect employees by having a wire rope sling attaching the gin pole to the tower without an inspection of the wire rope slings in use… (That is a huge NO-NO). Yes, $56,000.00 fine for doing that. A competent person should have inspected the wire sling prior to use. The slings were defective and should have been removed from service.
$56,000 for not having the slings padded from sharp edges.Willful violation!
Total penalties will be $134,400 for serious and willful violations! OSHA severe violator enforcement program ishere. An article covering this by EHS ishere. Remember that this company is a repeat offender.
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Do you think they will contest the fines? Probably, most companies do and most companies get it reduced. Usually for claiming the climbers didn’t do their job or they didn’t follow a policy. Sometimes they just ask for a reduction and get it and other times they blame someone else. In all honesty, I don’t know how they will get out of this because people died and it’s not their first offense, so who knows what will happen. I don’t know who was really at fault here, I wasn’t there. All I know is that 2 climbers died, both younger than me, both deserved to live.
OK, before you pass judgment on any of the climbers or the company, I want you to stop thinking that way. We can all sit here and say what we would have done, but the reality is that none of us were there. Many people say they would climb anything for the paycheck and they prove it when one company refuses to climb and the contractor will find someone else to do the job, does this add any doubt to that line of thought? Most of us think we know everything there is to know about the business, I would bet these guys did too. These guys were experienced and seemed to know what to do. Most people think that they don’t need to look at the paperwork to verify the work that needs to be done, well if this doesn’t change your mind I don’t know what will. This is something we can all learn from. The new guidelines that OSHA and the FCC put out should be an eye opener.
So I want you to think about this differently, I want you to learn from this. OSHA laid out some very clear citations. I don’t want you to think about what you would have done but what you will do. If you can look at this and realize that you don’t know the rating of your winch/gin pole or that you don’t have a written plan on site when doing work then start. Take a moment to reflect on your work, on your job, on your crew, on your life. Learn from this and correct your mistakes. Reflect and start to plan better. It may slow you down at first but it will help in the long run. It may not only save your company a fine, but it may save a life. Try to get everyone on the same page.
Do you have the training you need? Are you in over your head? Let me ask you now, point-blank, would you admit it or would you do the job hoping to finish alive? Confidence and arrogance are 2 different things although commonly mistaken for the same thing, they definitely are different.
By the way, I only see the tower crew company getting the fine. Did OSHA look past them to the customer? I don’t’ know. Towers were owned by Union Pacific Railroad, and while I don’t know their safety record railroads usually take every precaution. Did they think that perhaps the people who hired this company to remove the tower did so because they saved money on the missing plan? Did the customer ask about the plan? I would like to see OSHA probe beyond the tower crews and investigate why the customer went with this company. I would like to see if the customer understood the risks and how they did the bidding process. Who was responsible for the demolition plan? These climbers bet their lives that the gin pole would hold! One was on top of it and the other 20 feet below it. Did they know the gin pole loading? Why didn’t they have the engineering plans? Why didn’t they see a structural report of the tower? These climbers were only with the company for 2 months and 5 months, and their equipment was in piss poor shape, why was that?
Before you all pass judgment and think you would have done better, look around at your equipment and inspect it. Learn from this, learn what not to do. Invest is good equipment, rope, safety gear, training, and anything that will make you a better worker, climber, or lifesaver. Do that, or think about a new career. Remember that it is easy to point the finger and say what you would have done but it’s harder to explain why you didn’t do it.
Are you going to improve your workplace system? Tell me how or tell me what you think.
You may expand to other jobs in the industry. I am still working to complete my training to cover your documentation needs in the wireless. The wireless industry is large and growing so try to keep up! I have these books to help you out.
Near Miss Stories: I have another near miss story I wanted to share. “We had to lift an H frame mount up to put our CDMA next to our LTE antenna on the point of a tophat on a 250 ft guyed tower. The H frame alone weighed about 250-300 lbs without antennas. Rigging plan was to lift H frame with mast pipes and then put the CDMA and LTE antennas on afterward. Being at the top of the tower, we had no headroom. The CM said to use one of their in-house made rooster heads. We questioned it, but the safety manager, operations manager, and CM said it would work. We rigged the tower with our rooster head into an existing antenna mast pipe. Instead of playing it safe, the crew lead added a nose bag half full of angle adapters and filled up the rest of the way with 3 ways, a sunsight aat, topped off with 2 nose bags full of 1 5/8″ snap ins. So at this point the total load weight we figured was around 350-400 lbs. The green guy on the ground was tagging using a munter hitch to get the load around one guy wire. As the load was being raised up to us, the boy who was tagging put a slight amount of tag on and got the load around the guy wire. The load finally got up to us and right as we went to put our hands on it the rooster head snapped, dropping the load onto the first guy wire below us. The load rode the guy wire about half way down, flipped over, slammed the next guy wire below it, and rid that guy wire about 1/4 of the way to the anchor head where it fell off the guy wire and hit the ground. The tower was shaken violently, me and the other guy up top bolted for the ground. We got down, the owner showed up on site and said that this will never happen again. Come Monday morning during our weekly safety meeting, the CM, operations manager, and safety manager all concluded that what almost got us killed was the tag. They said too much pressure was applied to the tag and that’s what caused the rooster head to snap. They would not accept the fact that they were using an unapproved rigging device with no load rating. To this day, 2 months later, they still say the tag is what did it.” Good story!
Drugs: I have one more feedback note that is a follow-up to the drugs, “OK, the drug topic is very strong to me. I have a daughter that is 19 and went through a drug treatment program for, yeah you guessed it, pot. Yes the non addictive drug, that can be detected for 90 days… blah blah. Well guess what. It is tested, and there is acceptable ranges and different levels for time elapsed. Some factors that will change this though is frequency of use. Somebody that uses it more frequently will test positive at higher levels through urinalysis. Hair follicle tests are more accurate, and becoming more prevalent. These tests are more accurate, and of course more expensive.”
I also looked up a past case. All of you asked about how pot will affect the outcome of a case. If you go tohttp://www.propublica.org/article/cell-tower-fatalities(released in 2012 and mentions Wally Reardon several times) you will see that Jay Guilford, the young man who died doing an AT&T install in 2008, did indeed test positive for marijuana in his system. To quote, “Under policies provided by Phoenix of Tennessee, Pierce received $200,000 in life insurance, but was denied worker’s compensation because an autopsy showed Guilford had recently smoked marijuana. Lawyers advised Pierce not to sue because of the drugs”. The point I am trying to make is that he did get his life insurance, but they could have gotten more and perhaps maybe they would have found fault with the process. He was making $10/hour. He worked for All Around Towers, (now out of business) who worked for General Dynamics who worked for AT&T. My point is that if they find anything in your system, it changes the outcome.
I also got some feedback about how I don’t know anything about pot, well, that is true, and I only know what I read. I am told I am against potheads – that’s not true, I am only trying to point out what happens when things go bad. I hope nothing bad ever happens to you, so please, prove to me that it doesn’t matter and stay safe. Prove to me that you know better and be the best at hazard prevention you can be. If you can do that and stay alive for the next 10 years on a tower, then call me anything you like, just remain alive and well. More links,http://video.pbs.org/video/2237737729/.
2 books. One for the new tower climber, the green hand, to understand that will be expected. The other is a handy aid to help out when you are at the site. I am writing a new book to go over all of the paperwork that you could encounter on the job so you understand what you are working on and what you should be doing. You may expand to other jobs in the industry. This can be the beginning of a great career path in the wireless industry.
Tower Climber Company websites – this seemed to be a standard resource. I think that most people go directly to the companies for work. I had about 12% here.
Tower job search sites – this is where most people would write in. Write in votes:
Wireless Estimator of http://www.wirelessestimator.com/helpwanted.cfm was the overwhelming choice here and all I can say I am sorry I didn’t add it as one of the choices. I should have had this as a choice! Sorry guys at Wireless Estimator, your site has so much on it that I forgot that you can also get a job there. If anyone wants to learn more about the industry it is a great place for news and updates and there are so many tools there for work. It’s a great resource.
#3 on the survey – LinkedIn – had a few more votes but not many, I know that many of you use this for job search and many companies put the information on LinkedIn. If you didn’t read it then take the time to look at http://wp.me/p3OC6A-dQ and build your resume and background on LinkedIn. It takes some time but it will be worth your while if you start job searching.
#2 on the survey – Facebook – this got 15% of the vote. Many of you look for work on Facebook, this was the #2 choice and I know that I see many job postings on there as well. Facebook is a huge resource for this kind of thing. If you’re not in one of the many tower groups then maybe you should start joining. There are so many tower climbing and tower climber groups. It is a good resource for tower workers.
# 1 on the survey! Word of mouth – this was #1 with over 20% of the vote. Apparently most people rely on word of mouth to get a job. I would be willing to bet that Facebook plays a part in this. In today’s world many people reach out to friends, but it’s not always a phone call, it could be on Facebook or LinkedIn or an email.
So I hope this helps, let me know what you think and tell me where you look for work!
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I am working on 2 new projects, a new book that outlines my different jobs in the industry and a library of reference material that you can access quickly to take to the site. I want to see you make the site safer with quick reference material. If you have any idea of what you need out there let me know. Show me you care, Facebook, wade4wireless@gmail.com or leave a comment or leave a message at 510-516-4283
Hey Tower climbers, where would you look for work?
I have another survey that I want you to complete. Survey is at the bottom if you refuse to read anymore! I have a post on how to build your resume from LinkedIn here. Remember, if you like the podcast just search for Wade4Wireless on iTunes and hit subscribe.
Guys, I have so many people coming to me for 2 reasons, they need climbers or a climber needs work. I try to help by posting. Where would you go to find a job? A website, well which one? Do you ask someone? Do you go to Facebook and put the word out? Let me know. I have several websites listed.
So there you have it, plenty of places to look for work. Do you use them all? Are you actively looking. When did you last look? If you go on Facebook you will see so many larger companies looking for climbers. Just to name a few, Mastec, Blue Stream, BIG Wireless, Super Nova Telecom, Atlantic Tower Services, Goodman Networks, and so many more. If I missed your company, sorry, but so many people are looking. Remember that just because a company is hiring doesn’t mean it’s a great place to work!
So why are there so many people looking? Could it be the price they are willing to pay. I would say that is a big part of it. The industry has so many black eyes, and I don’t just mean for safety. I hear many stories about no payment. Which, if you have a few of those stories let me know so I can write about them. Let me know by emailing me or get be on Facebook.
Did you update your resume? Do you have a cover letter? Do you call everyone? What would you do first? Well, you had better have a resume with all of your certifications listed. Make sure you have them someplace where they stand out. If a computer scans your resume it will look for your certifications. In the old days someone would read your resume, today, who knows. It all depends on the company. If a head hunter is recruiting you then you may not even get past the verification process if you don’t clearly identify the certifications. Are you on LinkedIn? Many companies are looking there before they hire. Do you have references listed?
I am reading this book by Vicky Kaseorg, “The Tower Builder”. I like it so far, let me know what you think. This was $.99 but now it’s $7.99 if you’re interested on Amazon. This is my affiliate link.
Take advantage of free fiber resources, EXFO has this white paper about clean fiber, here. I am not an affiliate I just want you to know there are free resources out there.
Trust me, every life matters, if we can save one by making sure the climbers are properly qualified with training and certification and experience the right way, then we are on the path to a better world. It won’t eliminate accidents, which happen, but it will help the industry grow to be as safe as it can possibly be. All I ask is that they require proof of safety and build in money for teams to go on site randomly and do safety audits.
Everyone wants coverage, yet no one wants to see the tower. We are overcoming that battle by building mini cell sites and small cells. DAS and Distributed small cells are helping us overcome those issues. However, for all of these people that fight the communications tower being built, or object to antennas being places nearby, (refer to LARICS system being slowed down), with the end result being a 911 call can’t get through or even worse emergency responders don’t have coverage to call for help or backup then who is to blame? Does the FCC look to the people who objected to the towers, no, they blame the carrier for being so irresponsible for not building it there in the first place.
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