If you consider a tower an obstacle, then tower techs face them and overcome them every day. For Sara Valead, climbing a tower is among the least of the obstacles she’s encountered in life. Having done time in prison, Valead was released in 2009, taking odd jobs in Oklahoma as an equipment operator. When she finally scraped together enough money to start her own drywall business, she had that taken away by an unscrupulous business partner.
“I lost everything,” Valead said, “so I called a buddy that ran a gutter business asking for work knowing I was terrified of heights, but I needed a job.” Although she overcame her fear, “now I’m loving it,” she said, poor pay drove her to look for a new job in Arizona at her brother’s suggestion. The job involved doing ground-based work in the tower business.
“I was just helping on the ground doing basic stuff, doing grounds and working in the shelter. Anything I could help with,” she said. Eventually, after four months, she earned the opportunity to get her career off the ground as a climber and, after training with Kathy Gill at her Tower Safety facility (“she did an amazing job,” Valead said), has been working at heights for two months.
The job has opened up new vistas for her literally and figuratively. “What I like most,” Valead said, “is the travel and getting to see different views and meeting great people.” She gives credit to her boss, Adam Carlson, for giving her the chance to do tower work. “Because if he didn’t give me the chance I would have never gotten started in this business,” she said. Valead said maintaining a good attitude on the job is a key to her growth. ”Sometimes things don’t go smoothly,” she said, “and if someone has a bad attitude it can bring down the entire crew.”
Although in her short time in the industry she hasn’t run into many women, she would still recommend it as a career. “Some men might have the opinion it’s just a job for them but, from my experience, both genders can do it if you put your mind to it.”
Valead said she still has much to learn but is excited for the future and is looking forward to more experiences on the job. “My future goals would be to be on the tech side,” she said, ”if I can get in five years experience climbing towers, then I could move into the tech field and get to know both sides of the tower industry.”
By Jim Fryer, Inside Towers Managing Editor
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