Telecommunications Technician
What the work is
Installs, maintains and repairs telecommunications equipment and appliances such as telephones, mobile telephones, switchboards and data transmission equipment, in homes, businesses, telephone exchanges and other network sites.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Installs telecommunications equipment and appliances in homes, businesses, telephone exchanges and other network sites
- Diagnoses and locates equipment faults, and adjusts, replaces or repairs telecommunications equipment
- Performs routine inspections and preventative maintenance on telecommunications equipment and appliances
- Configures and programs telecommunications equipment and appliances according to specifications
- Provides technical support and assistance to customers and end-users of telecommunications equipment and appliances
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a telecommunications crew installing and repairing phone and internet lines, towers and cabling across a country region. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A farm that has been offline for a week gets its connection back and calls you a legend
- You trace a fault in a pit by the roadside and the whole street's lines come alive
- A building full of neat, labelled cables that anyone could follow in ten years' time
Hard days
- Working on a pole or in a pit in the rain with no signal on your own phone
- Customers who have been disconnected for days and are, quite fairly, furious
- Finding that someone dug through the cable you needed, and did not report it
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 382334, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.