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The differences between outside plant engineers and instrumentation & control engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an outside plant engineer and an instrumentation & control engineer. Additionally, an instrumentation & control engineer has an average salary of $92,464, which is higher than the $85,603 average annual salary of an outside plant engineer.
The top three skills for an outside plant engineer include CAD, outside plant and OSP. The most important skills for an instrumentation & control engineer are PLC, HMI, and SCADA.
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $85,603 | $92,464 |
| Hourly rate | $41.16 | $44.45 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 34,742 | 51,065 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
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.
An instrumentation and control engineer is responsible for installing and designing technical components for engineering systems that would support production and manufacturing processes. Instrumentation and control engineers inspect control systems, modify features and infrastructure, configure controllers, and run multiple quality checks to ensure stability and optimal performance. They must have excellent communication and technical skills, especially in developing system codes and analyzing programming languages to serve control functions and development. An instrumentation and control engineer also resolves system issues and write resolution reports for reference.
Outside plant engineers and instrumentation & control engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Average salary | $85,603 | $92,464 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $117,000 | Between $70,000 And $121,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | - | Washington |
| Best paying company | - | Marathon Petroleum |
| Best paying industry | - | Energy |
There are a few differences between an outside plant engineer and an instrumentation & control engineer in terms of educational background:
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Michigan Technological University |
Here are the differences between outside plant engineers' and instrumentation & control engineers' demographics:
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation & Control Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 85.5% Female, 14.5% | Male, 90.2% Female, 9.8% |
| 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, 4.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.0% Asian, 14.5% White, 64.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |