How To Become A Telephone Installer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a telephone installer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Steve Harris

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a telephone installer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.06 an hour? That's $41,716 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 14,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a telephone installer?

Steve Harris

Executive Director of Education and Business Development, SCTE·ISBE

Given connectivity's essential role in our daily lives, telecommunication networks must be extremely reliable, and installers are expected to operate at a higher level than ever before. Installers must be well-trained and have the proper certifications to safely work on telecom networks - to reduce the risk of human error and ensure issues are addressed as efficiently as possible.

ScoreTelephone InstallerUS Average

Salary

3.3

Avg. Salary $41,716

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.63%

Asian 6.22%

Black or African American 12.84%

Hispanic or Latino 17.90%

Unknown 4.74%

White 57.67%

Gender

female 8.44%

male 91.56%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a telephone installer

Explore telephone installer education requirements

Most common telephone installer degrees

High School Diploma

34.1 %

Associate

24.2 %

Bachelor's

18.7 %

Start to develop specific telephone installer skills

Skills	Percentages
Fiber Optic	35.30%
PBX	25.92%
Business Telephone Systems	14.99%
Trouble Shoot	12.91%
Test Equipment	10.88%

Complete relevant telephone installer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New telephone installers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a telephone installer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real telephone installer resumes.

Research telephone installer duties and responsibilities

Install underground cable outdoors to accommodate cable TV installation for commercial and residential facilities.
Define accreditation boundaries for systems submit for DITSCAP.
Configure Cat6 cabling/wall jack terminations, testing voice/data line activity to confirm connections.

Prepare your telephone installer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your telephone installer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a telephone installer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable telephone installer resume templates

Build a professional telephone installer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your telephone installer resume.