![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635959601632153716-jon3690jpg.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAfter an intensive training pipeline, Matt Paulk soon was training a range of pupils from cell phone tower and wind turbine workers to “above-the-scenes” Cirque du Soleil riggers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Jon R. Anderson\/Staff<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Gravitec, he soon learned, provides training, engineering, equipment\u00a0and testing with the singular, if lofty, focus of protecting those who work in high places. Whether that’s up on a 20-foot roof, climbing inside a 200-foot wind turbine, or tethered to the swaying tip of a 2,000-foot communication\u00a0tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With both his on-duty military and off-duty mountaineering experience, he was a perfect fit for the training instructor position they were <\/span>Gravitec was\u00a0looking to fill.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years later, he says the company has been a perfect fit for him as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After an intensive training pipeline, he soon was training a range of pupils from cell phone tower and wind turbine workers to “above-the-scenes” Cirque du Soleil riggers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Most of their riggers come from performance backgrounds, from families of high wire, trapeze and contortion acts. I remember one guy in a class I was teaching was sitting on a little wooden stool and during a break he lifted himself from a sitting position up into a handstand balancing on the chair \u2014\u00a0and he did lighting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s <\/span>Interactions with people like that, he says, that <\/span>convinced him he\u2019s found the meaning and job satisfaction that he\u2019d been looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s cool because you’re working with these guys who are already so professional, they have so much in-depth experience and knowledge, and you’re there talking about fall protection and they’re like, ‘Wow, that is really cool. How do you do that?’ That’s a really good feeling to have.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Just as important, he knows the training he provides helps save lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Just about every industry is going to have some kind of fall protection need,” he says. “But sometimes they can be surprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I never expected to work with a furniture company, for example, but we recently did some work with IKEA,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there was the job installing safety lines in the catwalks high up the massive warehouse-sized sound stages at NBC-Universal Studios in Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially, Paulk\u00a0spent about half the year on the road doing mobile training, but these days he spends most of his time at Gravitec’s training campus and headquarters just across the Puget Sound from Seattle, where he helps design custom training programs and installations for new and existing clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A lot of what we do is custom creations. So, maybe a guy says, ‘I’m not a window washer, so I don’t need the rope access class as you teach it, but I install billboards. I just need to show my guys how to set up an anchor point and how to go over an edge and use their fall protection equipment properly.’ And so we’ll create a new class for that one guy for that one thing he does. If someone has a need, typically we can figure out a way to make it work.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n And not infrequently, that’s also meant helping people overcome their own fears of heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially, Air Force veteran Matt Paulk spent about half the year on the road doing mobile training, but these days he spends most of his time at Gravitec’s training campus and headquarters just across the Puget Sound from Seattle.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Jon R. Anderson\/Staff<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n “We have people who come through here who work on 300-foot towers day in and day out, but also some that have never even worn a harness before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If you’re afraid of heights, the best thing to do is go to high places. Of course, you need good safety gear, and you need to know how to use it. But that fear will start to go away as you learn to trust your equipment and expose yourself to height.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s also important to remember that “the confidence you build up is perishable. If I’ve been away from working in certain situations for a while, I’ll be a little nervous at first. That’s natural.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bigger challenge is the inevitable tough guys who won’t admit that discomfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They’ve built up this persona that they’re focused and strong at heights. But then they get up there, they start moving fast because they’re actually nervous. That’s when you start making mistakes,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You have to be able to look that fear in the face. To name it. You have to say, ‘This makes me feel uncomfortable. I need to make sure everything I’m doing is slow, and careful, and methodical.’ Acknowledge it, deal with it, and move on.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jon R. Anderson![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635959601616553616-jon3952jpg.jpg\")
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\nWhen Matt Paulk was a kid growing up in rural Georgia you could usually find him dangling from somewhere high above the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":93641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":29,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2064],"class_list":["post-55580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-transition"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3NPNIJX45BFZNB65WSUKD74K7E","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/jobs\/2016\/04\/24\/my-great-new-life-air-force-veteran-protects-people-in-high-places\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n