Admit it. Your job is boring. Even if love your job, no one wants to see pictures of you doing it. Unless you spend your days dangling from a rope washing windows, cleaning wind turbines, or doing any number of vertigo-inducing tasks that require hanging hundreds of feet in the air. Everyone wants to see pictures of that.
Open Instagram and check out hashtags like #ropeaccess and #ropeaccesstechnician and #womeninropeaccess. You'll find thousands upon thousands of photos. It makes sense when you think about it—the job is inherently photogenic, given the risk and spectacular views (and, occasionally, cats). "You can get awesome pictures," says Cerriann Morgan, a rope access worker in Ireland. "They look absolutely wicked."
Rope access applies mountaineering and caving techniques to jobs that once required scaffolds or cranes. Given the risk involved, training and certification by organizations like the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association is a must. The job pays $30 to $100 an hour, and attracts people who love being outdoors. Morgan, who left a career in biomedicine, says dangling from bridges and buildings around the UK is “so much better than being stuck in a lab.” People who do the job tend to love it. “I don’t know any rope access technician who doesn’t own a sweater that says ‘rope access technician’ on it,’” Morgan says.
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Spending the day hanging on the side of a skyscraper or from a bridge is not without downsides, not the least of which is what happens when nature calls. Because rope access techs work in pairs both people must ascend or descend if one of them needs to go. Technicians work in all but the worst conditions, and the job can be exhausting—you try hauling 1,000 feet of rope around. And then there are the people (and cats) on the other side of the glass. Some stare. Others close the blinds. A few scramble to take a photo. “I have had a few just standing there expressionless, watching my every move until I drop down below," says Alex Chapman-Young, a window washer in London.
The job provides an adrenaline rush, not to mention spectacular views, two things that make for amazing Instagram photos. They offer a point of view most people will never see, and convey the joy of a sensation not unlike flying. “I love heights,” says Rosiane Larossa, a rope access worker in Sydney. "I love the adrenaline, the sensation of being up there. It’s a kind of freedom." Just don't drop your phone while snapping that selfie.
