Howdy Folks, let me begin by saying what a great forum! It's great to be one click away from such a wealth of knowledge and expertise.
A little background info on myself...For a number of years I was a construction superintendent for a large production home company. The bubble burst in 06 and layoffs ensued. A buddy of mine who is a 653 and worked at the time for a very large NDT company suggested I should talk to his boss about employment. When I was hired, I didn't even know what ndt stood for and was flown off to their in-house training program. I received my 40 hr rad safety cert and ut, pt, mt, and rt introductory courses. What a great concept, I was being paid while they provided me an education. The first job I was sent on over 3 years ago was a pipeline job that happened to be 500 miles from their shop and I'm still here. I acquired my field hours and got my RT level II about 2 years ago. I feel extremely fortunate to have worked with essentially the same group of 12 pipeline welders from day one. I took it upon myself to shadow these guys and learn their vocabulary and benefit from their expertise. I was familiar with defect terms but learning potential reasons why they occurred was invaluable..."Tommy we got IP...'yeah, the fit up was tight there and I was afraid I didn't get my rod in.' Jack we got porosity...'I was afraid of that, I was running up hill on a low hydrogen cap and should have used a 3/32 instead of a 3/8 and I think the wind might have affected my puddle. The point I'm trying to make is that I have embraced the industry and am thinking about the future. I have spoken with my boss about pursuing a CWI certification. He informed me to find out what the seminar/test schedule is and offered help with the application(he being a CWI himself). At this point in my career would this seem like a logical pursuit? I have a lot to learn in the industry but I'm not convinced that I want to tote a heavy camera down a string of pipe 60 foot at a time the rest of my life.
Thanks for your time and input.
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