Fernando Rodrigues da Silva makes no bones about it, “I live in Brazil. I would like to move to the USA. My dream is to work in the USA,” he told Inside Towers. I have enough experience here in Brazil and wanted to look for something new.” He has been a tower climber for eight years working for ISOLUX Corsan, Fastel Engineering and Montago ECE, on the construction and maintenance of telecom infrastructure.
Safety is always an issue in Brazil according to da Silva and, as such, is a motivator to head to a market where it is held in high regard. “In Brazil it’s a challenge not putting your team into a risk,” he said. “I pay a lot of attention to the work I have to do so as not to have human and material damages. I always try to stay calm and put safety first,” he said even though at times his team lacked the proper safety equipment. With a large team, he said there often wasn’t enough equipment to serve everyone properly.
Staying calm can be an issue when you are climbing under every kind of weather condition and especially under the rays of the hot Brazilian sun. “Large storms, hail, and I worked several times through the night,” he summed it all up in a ‘no-big-deal’ kind of way.
“I know I can dream high and get working right one place with a structure better than in Brazil,” da Silva said. (Editor’s note: we gave Fernando a little help with his syntax while trying to keep it largely in his words. He is on LinkedIn and his email is: fernandinh009@hotmail.com).
July 18, 2018
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