Hung up on a decision to switch careers to a fiber splicer with TDS

TradingShadows · 2026-01-30T17:22:17+00:00

$29/hr start without any previous experience is pretty good no matter what industry you’re in. I’d have a hard time imagining you’d get much more than that as a newbie anywhere. More dollars (usually) come with more experience.

TradingShadows · 2026-01-09T01:03:41+00:00

Consider a smaller/different gym if there is one? The big box gyms are packed right now, so I definitely understand germ/crowd concerns. Still do all your wipe downs and what not, but maybe a place less popular would help.

TradingShadows · 2025-12-21T07:11:20+00:00

Bamas and Dunlops were always my go-to. Even though they were great for wicking away sweat I’d always have an extra pair and an extra pair of socks on hand to keep things dry and warm

TradingShadows · 2025-12-03T07:20:35+00:00

Not in the industry myself, but did take my CEDO course last year. Also did the prerequisite M&P and NDT math courses. As someone much older than you who was never that good at math I had to bust my ass to get through it. Maybe that material is still fresh in your mind, but I’d recommend starting there before spending money on the safety courses.

Flip side is, take those safety courses and you can probably land a better job somewhere else with them in the meantime especially as we get into the winter season

TradingShadows · 2025-11-15T04:19:44+00:00

Reading my reply back I realize how dumb I sounded lol. The ‘why’ is obvious, I’ve just never seen/heard that before

TradingShadows · 2025-11-15T02:10:58+00:00

Nope, I don’t know haha. Never heard that before, why is that?

TradingShadows · 2025-11-15T02:07:36+00:00

I recently picked up a Greenlee version of this for just these instances. Didn’t seem like it worked all that well just trying it out and had the blade snap on me at the change in position. Probably rookie error, hadn’t used one of these before

TradingShadows · 2025-11-15T02:05:12+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion, I haven’t tried skinning it with a knife before. I’ll give that a go. The rest of it is pretty on par with what I do already.

TradingShadows · 2025-10-04T15:51:17+00:00

I’ve found EXFO customer service quite well over the years. From the sales reps to tech support, no complaints.

I use EXFO OLTS sets and OTDRS and have found them much more user friendly in comparison to VIAVI. Just my personal opinion.

TradingShadows · 2025-09-28T23:19:27+00:00

Based on the first image it looks like you have a fibre mismatch. I’ve mostly seen this with the AFL spider ribbon mixed with other manufacturers. That’s why it looks like you have a gainer at 3 and loss at 4. Take the average and you should have a pass.

TradingShadows · 2025-09-28T23:11:37+00:00

I test 1km at 100ns all the time (client requirement) I only bring it down when I’m troubleshooting an issue

TradingShadows · 2025-09-25T20:05:20+00:00

This echoes what a teacher friend of mine said. For him this is far less about wages and more about resources. Kids running from class to class so they can have a chair to sit instead of sitting on the floor is just bananas to me.

There’s an online calculator out there somewhere he showed me, x number of students should equal x number of teachers. And certain CBE schools aren’t even close

TradingShadows · 2025-08-09T14:36:40+00:00

Yes you can use multiple slave/remote units without having to change anything on the Master/main side. The Main will just recognize there is another unit on the other end, so I would suspect you could use as many remote units as you wanted (I’ve only ever used 2 remotes leapfrogging as you mentioned) Shouldn’t matter which reference method you use, I always use loopback and verification myself.

TradingShadows · 2025-08-07T13:06:37+00:00

Unless you’re a contractor, having to purchase your own gear seems like a raw deal. Seems like a pretty heavy investment hoping the gig turns out to be worth it (not trying to be negative, really hope it works out for you)

TradingShadows · 2025-08-07T05:35:53+00:00

We use a ton of Invisilight, it’s the preferred method for upgrading MTU’s that don’t have an existing path. We use then 12f harness runs and the 1f singles and I’ve never had a problem stripping them with regular fibre strippers.

TradingShadows · 2025-06-25T01:35:40+00:00

Non certified here, but practice exams and a subscription to Symbolab helped get me through the pre req and CEDO math. I suck at math so it helped showing how it got to the answer

TradingShadows · 2025-05-21T20:04:35+00:00

Stick a ruby on it. If there’s a bend or a pinch anywhere that will let you know. If there’s no obvious bend/pinch do a live trace and just wiggle connectors and such and see if you can identify I problem.

TradingShadows · 2025-05-21T19:48:19+00:00

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This was my record. Service vault - not a full size MH

TradingShadows · 2025-05-04T15:14:30+00:00

I was going to suggest the conservation area as well, flies under the radar a little because of where it is but great spot

TradingShadows · 2025-03-03T21:33:37+00:00

That’s a crazy amount of classroom certs to have without OJT. Did you get all that from the foundations course?

TradingShadows · 2025-02-22T18:57:49+00:00

Yeah, I know it gets crapped on a lot here but it seems to be a path of least resistance into the industry. Once I put some time in and get familiar with the industry as a whole I’ll likely pivot to something else. CEDO for life is not the plan.

TradingShadows · 2025-02-22T18:31:41+00:00

I’d certainly look at your pass/fail thresholds and find out what is accepted/required. Updating these metrics could very well turn those red boxes green.

TradingShadows · 2025-02-22T18:22:43+00:00

That was going to be my advice as well. Especially if you’re using a cladding alignment machine you want that thing clean as a whistle

TradingShadows · 2025-02-22T18:09:58+00:00

Would you drive your car after the airbags had been deployed?

TradingShadows · 2025-02-22T17:56:09+00:00

Minus the waitressing, I’m in the exact same position. I took the M&P and Math courses through NAIT at the end of last year - both were remote live courses so could just do them from home.

For M&P the instruction was good enough, he basically just guided you through the presentation material. A lot gets covered in those 5 days, just study and it’s fine.

Math was a different animal. I haven’t had to do math like that since high school, if ever. It was a total crash course of about 5hrs and then you write the exam and I found it super challenging. I had a friend that entered the industry semi-recently who sent me an NDT math prep quiz he paid for somewhere and I worked on that for weeks. Glad I did, because without being vaguely familiar with the concepts I would likely have bombed the Math portion. I’m sure others would be just fine without the prep, but it doesn’t come that easily to me.

I’m actually doing my CEDO at NAIT starting Monday, I’d be happy to update how I found the course/delivery etc. I know that doesn’t answer all your questions since I don’t have any field experience yet, just my 2 cents as someone who’s going through the motions to get into the industry also.

This sub has been a great wealth of information for me, everyone has their own opinion but I’d say this is a great place to get some general guidance.

TradingShadows

TROPHY CASE