Is Electric Utilities A Good Career Path? [Roles, Salaries, & More]

If you’ve landed on this article, you probably have tons of questions about working in the electric utilities industry and are wondering if this is a career path worth pursuing.

Good news – you have come to the right place! Whether you're an entry-level professional or well-established in another industry and looking for a career change, this article is for you!

In this article, we’ll be covering the following topics:

What Is The Electric Utilities Industry?
What Companies Are In The Electric Utilities Field?
What Are The Job Options In ElectricUtilities?
What Are The Skills Needed For Electric Utilities?
What Do Electric Utilities Jobs Pay?
Is Electric Utilities A Good Career Path? (Our Verdict)
How To Build A Job-Winning Electric Utilities Resume

Let’s dig in!

What Is The Electric Utilities Industry?

The electric utilities industry involves the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity to homes, businesses, and industries.

Companies in the electric utilities field are responsible for managing energy infrastructure and ensuring a reliable supply of electricity.

What Companies Are In The Electric Utilities Field?

Many companies operate in the electric utilities industry. Here are some examples from different areas:

Power Generation: Companies like Duke Energy, NextEra Energy, and Dominion Energy are leaders in generating electricity from various sources such as natural gas, coal, nuclear, and renewable energy.
Transmission and Distribution: Firms like National Grid, Southern Company, and Consolidated Edison focus on delivering electricity to customers through transmission and distribution networks.
Renewable Energy: Companies such as First Solar and Vestas lead in producing renewable energy, specifically in solar and wind power generation.

These companies work together to provide reliable and efficient electricity, maintain grid infrastructure, and innovate in energy storage and renewable energy sources.

What Are The Job Options In Electric Utilities?

When looking for jobs in the electric utilities industry, you can either work in roles within the sector – for example, taking an Engineering position at a power generation company – or take a position that directly contributes to grid management, operations, or customer service.

In this section, we’ll cover the most common jobs in the field.

Jobs In Power Generation

Power generation roles focus on producing electricity through various means such as fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and renewables. The most common roles in this area are:

Power Plant Operator: Manages and operates machinery that generates electricity.
Electrical Engineer: Designs and maintains electrical systems in power generation facilities.
Environmental Compliance Specialist: Ensures that power generation meets environmental regulations and sustainability goals.

Jobs In Grid Operations

Roles in grid operations ensure that electricity is distributed efficiently and reliably. The most common roles in this area are:

Power Line Technician: Installs and maintains the high-voltage lines that carry electricity from power plants to consumers.
Grid Operator: Monitors the electrical grid to ensure stability and prevent outages.
Substation Technician: Manages and maintains substations that adjust voltage levels for safe distribution of electricity.

Jobs In Customer Service & Support

Customer service and support roles ensure that customers have access to reliable power and receive assistance with any service issues. The most common roles in this area are:

Customer Service Representative: Assists customers with billing, service inquiries, and outage reports.
Energy Efficiency Specialist: Advises customers on how to reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency.
Smart Grid Analyst: Works with new technologies that help modernize the grid and improve service delivery.

What Are The Skills Needed For Electric Utilities?

Learning the skills required for each position is very important. You might have to address some skill gaps or you may already have well-developed skills that you can leverage as you seek a new role.

Here are the required skills for the most common roles in the electric utilities industry:

Entry-Level Roles:

Technical Skills: Familiarity with electrical systems, machinery, and safety protocols is essential for most roles in power generation and grid operations.
Problem-Solving: The ability to troubleshoot and resolve electrical issues quickly and efficiently.
Attention to Detail: Precision is critical in maintaining safety standards and ensuring the grid runs smoothly.

Mid-Senior Manager Roles:

Leadership: The ability to manage and motivate teams in the fast-paced, high-stakes environment of electric utilities.
Strategic Planning: Developing strategies for infrastructure upgrades, renewable energy integration, and grid reliability.
Risk Management: Identifying and mitigating risks to ensure reliable power supply and environmental compliance.

Mid-Senior Technical Roles:

Electrical Engineering Expertise: In-depth knowledge of electrical systems, including design, maintenance, and repair.
Data Analysis: Using data to monitor grid performance, predict outages, and improve efficiency.
Project Management: Leading large-scale infrastructure projects, from grid expansion to renewable energy integration.

Finding Your Fit With Electric Utilities Roles

Want to find out if you are the right fit for a role in the electric utilities industry?

We've got you covered.

Here's a simple, step-by-step guide to find out if you have the skills to take a new position in the electric utilities industry!

Head over to LinkedIn and search for electrica utilities industry roles.
Copy the job description of the role that sparked your interest.
Head over to ResyMatch.io (or use our shortcut below)
Grab a copy of your most updated resume.
Upload your resume on the left side.
Paste the job description on the right side.
Hit “Start Resume Scan.”

Boom! ResyMatch will compare and score your resume versus the job description and identify skill gaps.

ResyMatch will also provide best practices you can use to improve your resume and will ensure that your resume is ATS compliant (ATS is a software that recruiters use to track candidates through their hiring process).

Use our shortcut below to get started:

What Do Electrica Utilities Jobs Pay?

Now that we’ve covered the most common jobs in the electric utilities industry, you might be wondering how much these roles pay.

To answer this question, let’s head over to one of our favorite tools for salary research: Glassdoor.

Glassdoor is one of the world’s top job and recruiting websites where users can anonymously provide information about their companies – including their current salary. Glassdoor provides an average salary range for various roles based on the information sent by its users.

According to Glassdoor, the base salary for the most common electrica utilities industry jobs in 2024 are:

Power Plant Operator: $58K – $87K / year base pay (USD)
Electrical Engineer: $84K – $135K / year base pay (USD)
Environmental Compliance Specialist: $66K – $114K / year base pay (USD)
Power Line Technician: $40K – $58K / year base pay (USD)
Grid Operator: $34K – $47K / year base pay (USD)
Substation Technician: $47K – $70K / year base pay (USD)
Customer Service Representative: $40K – $65K / year base pay (USD)
Energy Efficiency Specialist: $75K – $100K / year base pay (USD)
Smart Grid Analyst: $44K – $74K / year base pay (USD)

Best Paying Jobs In Electrica Utilities Compared To The Average U.S. Salary In 2024

Now, let's check what that looks like compared to the average U.S. salary.

According to the Social Security Administration, the average salary in the U.S. is $63,795.

This is what the best-paying jobs in the electric utilities industry look like when we put them in perspective:

Smart Grid Analyst, Environmental Compliance Specialist, and Electrical Engineer are the highest-paying roles in the electrica utilities industry, with an earning potential of up to 111% higher than the U.S. average.

Now that we've covered the important basics of the electrica utilities industry, we can finally answer the biggest question many job seekers have when considering a new industry:

Is Electric Utilities A Good Career Path? (Our Verdict)

Electric Utilities is a good career path for people who have an interest in power generation, grid management, and customer service.

Companies like Duke Energy, NextEra Energy, and National Grid are leaders in the field.

If you feel like this might be the career path for you, then be sure to dive into the next section where we will cover the best strategies to help you land a job in the field:

How To Build A Job-Winning Electric Utilities Resume

Here's a fact most people don't usually realize: you don't need traditional experience to take on a new role.

You can leverage your unique background, experiences, and skills for nearly any position, as long as you sell it.

Think about your resume as an advertisement for yourself. Like any ad, you want it to be compelling and visually attractive, right?

That's exactly what you will do with your resume!

You will start by:

1. Leveraging The Best Keywords For Your Target Role

Remember ResyMatch.io, that resume and job description scanner tool we mentioned earlier in this article?

We first showed you how you can scan and compare your resume with your target job description to find out how your skills match the role.

However, if you don't have a resume yet, you can still get great insight from this tool by running a job description scan.

Here's How: head over to ResyMatch.io and, in “Scan Type,” select “Job Description Scanner.” Then, copy the job description for your target role and paste it into the box on the left.

ResyMatch.io will provide a list of hard and soft skills that apply to the role. You can use these skills as keywords when building your resume.

Skim through the list to get ideas for keywords you can leverage on your resume.

For example, let's say you are an innovative and analytical individual. Are there any previous experiences, personal projects, or even academic achievements that you can showcase in your resume to highlight these skills?

If yes, then make sure to include those on your resume and then move on to the next step:

2. Writing Compelling Resume Bullets

This is where you'll start crafting a resume that sells!

You'll want your resume bullets to have just the right amount of hard and soft skills, action words, measurable results, and common words.

This means a compelling electric utilities industry resume bullet for someone applying for an Electrical Engineer role might look something like this:

Designed and implemented electrical systems for a new power plant, improving efficiency by 15% and reducing downtime by 10%.

This bullet focuses on specific hard and soft skills that apply to an Electrical Engineer, while also showcasing measurable results!

To help you write the perfect resume bullet, we've created ResyBullet.io, a free resume bullet analyzer that helps you write your resume in a way that grabs attention and illustrates value. Simply copy and paste your resume bullet below to begin your analysis:

ResyBullet will analyze and score your resume bullet and give you actionable insights for improvement.

Here's how our electrica utilities industry resume bullet scored on ResyBullet:

If you're a visual learner, check out our video that walks you through the step-by-step of writing a crazy-effective resume bullet:

3. Make Your Resume Visually Appealing

The last step is to take all of your content and apply it to a layout that is both easy to read and visually appealing. We recommend using a resume template so you can save the time you would normally spend designing your resume and instead allocate it to other high-value activities in your job search (like interview prep and networking).

You can use ResyBuild.io, a free resume builder, to easily build and customize your resume in no time. Just pick one of the templates below and get started:

Free Job-Winning Resume Templates, Build Yours In No Time.

Choose a resume template below to get started:

Choose from 8 proven templates and easily create, edit, and customize your resume. ResyBuild's AI assistant also helps you craft personalized, job-winning bullets in a single click. Simply add your experience, hit “Optimize”, and watch the magic happen.

Ready To Pursue An Electric Utilities Career Path?

If you feel ready to pursue a career in the electric utilities industry, then check out our No Experience, No Problem course and access a proven framework for building the skills and results you need to break into a new industry (even if you have absolutely no relevant experience right now)!