Outside plant engineer vs certified medical technician

The differences between outside plant engineers and certified medical technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become an outside plant engineer, becoming a certified medical technician takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, an outside plant engineer has an average salary of $85,603, which is higher than the $38,859 average annual salary of a certified medical technician.

The top three skills for an outside plant engineer include CAD, outside plant and OSP. The most important skills for a certified medical technician are patients, vital signs, and CPR.

Outside plant engineer vs certified medical technician overview

	Outside Plant Engineer	Certified Medical Technician
Yearly salary	$85,603	$38,859
Hourly rate	$41.16	$18.68
Growth rate	3%	5%
Number of jobs	34,742	164,424
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 70%	Bachelor's Degree, 28%
Average age	45	44
Years of experience	2	12

What does an outside plant engineer do?

The job of an outside plant engineer revolves around design, constructing, and maintaining plant infrastructure, engineering, and conducting route analysis of aerial and underground fiber-optic installations. Typical day-to-day duties include assisting clients in resolving issues when they arise, developing engineering plans, schedules, and costs relevant to the projects, and providing guidance on telecommunication issues. As an outside plant engineer, you need to ensure the proper installation of the infrastructure and the availability of fiber cable storage, access, and termination equipment.

What does a certified medical technician do?

Certified Medical Technicians are specialists in medical diagnoses by performing laboratory testing and analysis for hospitals and physicians. Their duties include lab sanitization to prepare for testing and collection, recording medical samples for testing, specimen preparation, blood drawing for donation and testing, and assisting physicians with sample collection as well as equipment handling in surgical rooms. They must also understand how to use complex and sensitive testing equipment such as cell counters, analyzers, microscopes, and centrifuges.

Outside plant engineer vs certified medical technician salary

Outside plant engineers and certified medical technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Outside Plant Engineer	Certified Medical Technician
Average salary	$85,603	$38,859
Salary range	Between $62,000 And $117,000	Between $28,000 And $53,000
Highest paying City	-	Denton, TX
Highest paying state	-	Alaska
Best paying company	-	Favorite Healthcare Staffing
Best paying industry	-	Health Care

Differences between outside plant engineer and certified medical technician education

There are a few differences between an outside plant engineer and a certified medical technician in terms of educational background:

	Outside Plant Engineer	Certified Medical Technician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 70%	Bachelor's Degree, 28%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Nursing
Most common college	Stanford University	University of Connecticut

Outside plant engineer vs certified medical technician demographics

Here are the differences between outside plant engineers' and certified medical technicians' demographics:

	Outside Plant Engineer	Certified Medical Technician
Average age	45	44
Gender ratio	Male, 85.5% Female, 14.5%	Male, 20.4% Female, 79.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.1% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 15.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 10.0% White, 53.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage	6%	8%

Differences between outside plant engineer and certified medical technician duties and responsibilities

Outside plant engineer example responsibilities.

Manage many key projects providing DS1, DS3 and SONET facilities for customers.
Train new techs on how to pull, repair and manage new and existing copper and fiber cabling systems.
Manage and provide training to a multicultural maintenance team using TPM principles and following standards such as AIB and BRC.
Determine and upgrade MDF and IDF layout in communications cabinets.
Cost estimates, design packages, GIS design, site walks and quality control.
Install new copper and fiber optic infrastructure to facilitate network expansion.

Certified medical technician example responsibilities.

Maintain the cleanliness of storage areas, trays, centrifuges, refrigerators, freezers and work area.
Administer medications to patients according to their medication record as scheduled, as needed according to physician orders.
Perform laboratory test and procedures in areas including chemistry, hematology, urinalysis, coagulation, serology, and bacteriology.
Perform first aid and apply CPR when necessary.
Perform first aid or CPR during medical emergencies until paramedics arrive.
Assist the residents in their ADL needs and prepare their meals.

Outside plant engineer vs certified medical technician skills

Common outside plant engineer skills

CAD, 15%
Outside Plant, 11%
OSP, 10%
Fiber Optic, 7%
Plant Engineering, 5%
GIS, 5%

Common certified medical technician skills

Patients, 17%
Vital Signs, 12%
CPR, 8%
Administer Medications, 7%
Resident Care, 6%
HIPAA, 6%

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Outside Plant Engineer vs Certified Medical Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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