Edmundo Condeça is the name of one of TAP’ new cabin crew members. Edmundo Rosa is the name by which it was already known by many of those who have seen it by the campus (and soon, on board). Let us call him only Edmundo here, lest there be any confusion.
He was born in Lisbon in 1979, where he lived a great part of his youth. He graduated in the Faculty of Letters of Lisbon and worked as an actor. His career was catapulted with RTP's series "Riscos” in 1997, when he was just 17 years old. After that, he worked on several projects in theatre and television, and in 2006 he decided to go to Amsterdam to take his master’s degree. He was there for nine years until, in 2016, he returned to Portugal. In the Netherlands, his acting career was asleep. Although he did a lot of voice over work, his job in the translation business was his main activity.
He soon realized that he must always have some parallel activity. This option, says Edmund, goes beyond the desire for economic stability. Waking up in the morning, having goals, being busy, feeling that you are needed somewhere, is very important to the actor. He realized when he left Portugal, that investing in other things gives us a completely different perspective of life: "When we are just artists, the world is very colourful, and when we start working in other areas and gaining a greater knowledge of society – and how the labour market works – it can only be good. We gain another perspective of the world, the people and, somewhat, this can also enrich us as actors. Because as we are living other things, we can use those experiences in our work."
In early 2016 he returned: he resigned from his job, sold his apartment, and threw himself on his head. "As soon as I arrived, two projects appeared. Meanwhile, I have a theatre project which I am working on, but in a slow step, because we do not have public funding.” About his professional career, Edmundo continues, "it is difficult to do theatre and live of theatre today, it is a real luxury." For this reason, he looks for a parallel activity, as always. That is how he came to TAP.
TAP might even have come into his life sooner. He had tried, many years ago, he was 24 years old. "At the time I applied to TAP and Portugália and I was not called. Therefore, aviation was out of the question. But I've always been attracted to being able to work with people directly. I need to work with people, I need to be with people and to talk to people. This is the perfect job. "
Class ICT13, 14th May 2018
Edmundo finished his training and made his exam flight on May 21st, on the Lisbon-Frankfurt leg. He is eager to start flying, he says. When he arrived at TAP, he was recognized in the first interview – he thought that having been recognized could reduce his chances of being admitted – and he has been recognized several times during these months. "Every now and then they would ask me questions – "How did you come here?" – because people are very curious. But the focus was TAP and not the fact that I was an actor. Fortunately."
About TAP, Edmundo shares the generalized feeling of the Portuguese – the affection for the national airline company. Working in aviation was always a desire and he even hypothesize to apply for a Dutch airline, but quickly put it aside: "In this sense I'm very Portuguese, and if I have to give my face for someone, let it be for TAP.”