The role of a Telecommunication Engineer, who is also known as a telecoms engineer, is to install, maintain, and repair various types of visual, voice, and data communications servers and networks, such as mobile telephone networks, cable, and satellite systems. This means that they are essentially responsible for the GPS and WiFi systems we use in our everyday lives.
Their responsibilities generally include connecting and examining cables and other machinery and hardware, fixing issues as they come up, installing equipment on buildings and other tall structures, and even designing and building equipment and parts used to install the communication systems themselves. Though it might make sense for these Engineers to work at the highest levels of the IT industry, they actually work at various levels and in various industries.
A person looking to work as a Telecommunication Engineer should generally have excellent maths, science, and engineering skills. A higher education diploma is necessary, whether that means an Associate's degree or a Master's is entirely dependent upon the level and the complexity of the position.
How to Become a Telecommunication Engineer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a telecommunication engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $41.77 an hour? That's $86,883 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 8,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Telecommunication Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many telecommunication engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed initiative, math skills and speaking skills.
How To Become a Telecommunication Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a telecommunication engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 60.2% of telecommunication engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.0% of telecommunication engineers have master's degrees. Even though most telecommunication engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a telecommunication engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a telecommunication engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on telecommunication engineer resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a telecommunication engineer. In fact, many telecommunication engineer jobs require experience in a role such as telecommunications technician. Meanwhile, many telecommunication engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as network engineer or telecommunications analyst.
Telecommunication Engineer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a telecommunication engineer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as network engineer, progress to a title such as engineer and then eventually end up with the title engineering director.
Average Salary for a Telecommunication Engineer
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Telecommunication Engineers
1. Northeastern University
Boston, MA • Private
2. Minnesota State University - Mankato
Mankato, MN • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
5. Inter American University of Puerto Rico Bayamon
Bayamon, PR • Private
6. SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Utica, NY • Private
7. Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI • Private
8. Wentworth Institute of Technology
Boston, MA • Private
9. Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY • Private
10. Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK • Private
Top Skills For a Telecommunication Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 8.6% of telecommunication engineers listed hardware on their resume, but soft skills such as initiative and math skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Telecommunication Engineer Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Telecommunication Engineer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Telecommunication Engineer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Telecommunication Engineer Demographics
Telecommunication Engineer Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among telecommunication engineers, 12.3% of them are women, while 87.7% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among telecommunication engineers is White, which makes up 68.6% of all telecommunication engineers.
- The most common foreign language among telecommunication engineers is Spanish at 30.4%.
Online Courses For Telecommunication Engineer That You May Like
Learn Issabel (ex-Elastix) & IP Telephony Server Configurations & Deployment with Practical Examples & Use Cases...
This course will aim to introduce students to the fundamentals of fiber optic communications, which constitute the backbone of the internet. The course will start with a refresher on the operation of key components needed for an effective fiber optic communication system, and then show how these components interact at a system level. Finally, the course will conclude with outlook for future research in extending the capabilities of these networks to higher bandwidths and quantum-secured...
"Introduction to Systems Engineering" uses a structured yet flexible approach to provide a holistic, solid foundation to the successful development of complicated systems. The course takes you step by step through the system life cycle, from design to development, production and management. You will learn how the different components of a system interrelate, and how each contributes to a project's goals and success. The discipline's terminology, which can so often confuse the newcomer, is presen...
Best States For a Telecommunication Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a telecommunication engineer. The best states for people in this position are Arizona, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maryland. Telecommunication engineers make the most in Arizona with an average salary of $101,114. Whereas in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, they would average $99,163 and $96,002, respectively. While telecommunication engineers would only make an average of $93,829 in Maryland, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Arizona
$101,114
Avg. Salary
2. Massachusetts
$96,002
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$93,323
Avg. Salary
How Do Telecommunication Engineer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Telecommunication Engineer Employers
Most Common Employers For Telecommunication Engineer
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple | $106,966 | $51.43 | 11 |
| 2 | Lucent | $100,832 | $48.48 | 14 |
| 3 | Lockheed Martin | $91,912 | $44.19 | 13 |
| 4 | AT&T | $91,766 | $44.12 | 24 |
| 5 | Ericsson | $90,409 | $43.47 | 9 |
| 6 | SAIC | $87,572 | $42.10 | 13 |
| 7 | Nexius | $86,883 | $41.77 | 19 |
| 8 | Tasacom Technologies | $86,883 | $41.77 | 18 |
| 9 | Hytera US | $86,883 | $41.77 | 8 |
| 10 | NCI | $86,813 | $41.74 | 10 |
Telecommunication Engineer Videos
