If you’re looking for an easy clock‑in, clock‑out job, fiber optics isn’t the answer, according to splicer Justin Priest. Projects can stretch for weeks straight with 10- to 12-hour shifts — far from a home-bound routine. But for the right kind of person, that’s the appeal.
“You kind of got to have a little bit of a loose screw to do this lifestyle,” Priest explained to Broadband Nation. “If you're [someone] that's got a screw loose, and the world just fascinates you, and you can really put your head down and get after what you want, fiber’s the job for you.”
Splicing refers to the exacting work of joining two fiber-optic cables so data can cleanly pass through — a trade many peoples' internet connection relies on despite having never heard of it.
Priest took the learning curve largely upon himself, and it opened up his life — from a small town in Michigan to remote job sites all across the country. He sees the intense hours as rewarding, in the work itself but also the time off to explore.
“You get to travel, see things most people would never get to... you get to see a lot of places that you would never even hear about, a lot of beautiful things,” he mused. At the time of the interview, Priest had the month off and had just gone exploring in California and Utah — checking out must-see sights he’d found on YouTube.
Priest has built his life around that freedom. “I live most of my year out of a camper, just boondocking it. A lot of times I wake up in the morning in the wilderness; there's animals running around. I got an Australian Shepherd. He loves it being out in the wilderness," he described. "There's a lot that goes into [fiber]. There's a lot to be considered. But if you can do it right, this job's great. I would recommend it to anybody that's a hustler or go getter, because the sky's the limit.”
For the self-starter who is interested in following in these fiber-optic footsteps, his experience surfaces four key insights:
1) It's a contractor's hustle
While some in-house splicers are on a steadier W-2 pay structure, a lot of working splicers are 1099 contractors — and they’re paid for output, not hours.
That can dangerously incentivize quantity over quality, but that doesn't last long. Good work is what establishes the reputation, and the reputation is what keeps the work coming in, according to Priest. That's particularly critical when work can be volatile in the contractor landscape.
The industry's workforce has declined 23% from 2013 to 2023, with plenty retiring or folded into contracting ecosystems. For a well-established, contracted splicer, that can mean consistent work and strong leverage as splicing demand increases, but it relies on how well a they can resource themselves — from connections to fuel to equipment.
“That all comes back to, if you really want to get after it, you can make a killing doing this,” Priest explained, noting that even in his first year working for someone else without his own equipment, he took home just over $100k. Still, he described owning equipment as “exponential” to income growth (but with more responsibility). “As far as you want to go, that's as far as you can take it,” he said.
2) Lose the ego and stay teachable
While splicing doesn't require a 4-year degree, there's more to it than just the initial learning curve. The technology and the work is always evolving, which is why Priest advised staying humble and teachable — even after it feels familiar.
“If I take myself back and think a year into fiber: I thought I was the man, you know, I thought I had it all figured out,” he reflected — even though in hindsight, he knows they were simple projects. He remembered moving into fiber-to-the-home installation, a whole other beast, and it became clear he had no idea what was going on.
“You have to have an open mind. You have to be willing to take instruction, and you have to be willing to, in your own heart, understand that you don't know everything,” Priest advised. “This is year seven for me. I still learn new things every day.”
He did qualify being teachable with the importance of pushing back on stubborn, stuck-in-their-ways colleagues, especially when he had more experience under his belt and a deeper knowledge of the technology. It's “a hard dance to do,” he acknowledged, but keeping an open mind is the constant.
“There's always something to be learned," Priest admitted. "Somebody always is going to know more than you. You can't be arrogant, because you will be shown very quickly how much you don't know.”
3) Find a 'Sam’
Of course, being teachable relies on someone who's ready to teach. Alongside many other technicians who interviewed with us, Priest was not alone in crediting a mentor, Sam, for being instrumental to his growth.
Even after three years of working for another employer — the kind that "throw you to the wolves and tell you to figure it out” — Priest still considered himself quite green to the industry.
“I thought I knew a lot,” he recollected. “But when you get with a guy like Sam, he really shows you the whole picture, and he shows you how to handle the whole project and really be on top of your stuff, more than just being an employee.”
To Priest, “there's not much of a better way to describe him other than a mentor,” someone who’s looking out for everyone on the crew — rather than worrying he’s training his replacement (another personality found in the industry).
“He's a great guy, and he helps push everybody… He wants everybody to grow and expand,” Priest added. “He loves to show everybody the whole thing; he doesn't keep you tied down to one part of it. He pushes you into it and reinforces the fact that you know you're capable of doing it.”
4) Take the tough jobs
A strong mentor goes a long way in the learning process, but the work itself is its own curriculum — and the hardest projects tend to be the most instructive.
Priest recalled his “biggest learning phase” was during a job in Mississippi where seven contractors had been in before his team — their entire purpose was to diagnose and fix the mess of the crews before them. “We're talking four or 500 miles of fiber with zero connection,” he noted.
It was a messy but critical way to learn. “Don't be afraid to take those jobs, because there's no better learning experience than fixing something that someone else did wrong,” argued Priest. “There's no better way to become a good splicer than doing repair, doing diagnostic, etcetera.”
It's a throughline across Priest's perspective — the hard jobs, the humbling moments worth leaning into. What separates the ones who thrive in the trade is a real appetite for that difficulty— and a larger curiosity for learning that doesn't switch off at the end of a job.
“I would say it takes the type of person that has a yearning for the unknown,” he said. “You know, you've got to be curious about the world.”
Interested in exploring job opportunities within the industry? Check out Broadband Nation's jobs board, training portal and Learning Center.