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The differences between outside plant engineers and instrumentation 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 engineer. Additionally, an instrumentation engineer has an average salary of $88,783, 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 engineer are PLC, autocad, and analyzers.
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $85,603 | $88,783 |
| Hourly rate | $41.16 | $42.68 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 34,742 | 45,735 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 79% |
| 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 engineer specializes in designing and developing equipment to optimize business processes. Their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis to identify the needs of a company, coordinating with different departments to gather data, devising strategies to create new processes, and preparing reports and presentations for the executives. An instrumentation engineer mostly performs installations and repairs; they also conduct regular maintenance to ensure the efficiency of facilities. Furthermore, they must answer inquiries and resolve issues and concerns, all in adherence to the company's policies and regulations.
Outside plant engineers and instrumentation engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation Engineer | |
| Average salary | $85,603 | $88,783 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $117,000 | Between $65,000 And $119,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Cupertino, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | California |
| Best paying company | - | Apple |
| Best paying industry | - | Government |
There are a few differences between an outside plant engineer and an instrumentation engineer in terms of educational background:
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 70% | Bachelor's Degree, 79% |
| 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 engineers' demographics:
| Outside Plant Engineer | Instrumentation Engineer | |
| Average age | 45 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 85.5% Female, 14.5% | Male, 91.2% Female, 8.8% |
| 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, 4.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 11.5% Asian, 15.5% White, 63.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |