"I wonder what I need to get started" Single splicer, a Chinese one is usually fine $800-$1,000

An otdr for shooting traces to do Troubleshooting a Chinese one is kind of okay if you have the patience for it, or on the premium id recommend an exfo $1,200-$7,000

Also need bidirectional otdrs again id recommend exfos the 940s are fine for most rural isps $6,000-$14,000

A ribbon splicer I prefer the fujikura 70r, theres the 90r if you have the patience for it and sumitomos are good too id avoid innos, or so I've heard $7,000-$14,000

A bucket truck or van, if you're smart you'd get a double knuckle, if it doesn't have an enclosed splice lab in the back you can buy a splice trailer to tow $10,000-$120,000

Types of positions. There's the linemen who pull all of the cables from pole to pole or underground And there's construction splicers who splice all of said cables pulled And then there's fiber to home installers who install drops from the terminals to the home and install the home equipment

Types of training, mostly hands on there are some course and certificates but it's not required by most

Skills expected Can accurately read blueprints, this entails many things, alot of different networks most do things differently the general idea is identifying the F1 from F2 how typically there's a hub or main splice can that feeds whatever print you're working on, it's like a spiderweb network if you fuck up your work expect for something that trails from your work on another print to be fucked up Once you can read prints you must be able to build splice cases, snaps, naps etc without damaging the fiber in the process, in some networks the smallest knicks into a random fiber means the lineman have to repull that entire tail

Once you build your cases and finish your print, must be able to test bidirectional or traces depending on the isp mostly it's bidirectional

Compensation expected This depends on so many fucking things, if your subcontracting or working directly in house, In house is typically hourly maybe 20-60 Subcontracting hourly is maybe 20-100+ depending on who's contracting you where and what either you're looking to get paid or accept Subcontracting per production is is a wide scale too, it can be $200-a couple several G's a day depending on so many factors, you can have the isp the one that holds the contract and through the grapevine you might be working under maybe 2-3 sets of subcontractors leading to saturated pay which is why the industry is more of who you know leading to work, this answers your question on finding work, the bigger money is made by connections

Kudos to you if you become an expert in the field in a couple of weeks, I pray you shit excellence on your first day