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

Let’s dig in!

What Is Public Utilities?

Public utilities encompass services that supply water, electricity, natural gas, and sewage treatment to homes and businesses. Government agencies often regulate public utilities to ensure fair access, reliable service, and safety for all customers.

This industry plays an important role in supporting the everyday needs of society, ensuring that people have access to the utilities they depend on.

What Companies Are In The Public Utilities Field?

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

Electric Utilities: Companies like Duke Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and Exelon provide electricity generation and distribution.
Water Utilities: Firms like American Water and Veolia North America manage water supply and sewage services.
Natural Gas: Atmos Energy and Southern Company Gas distribute natural gas to residential and commercial customers.
Waste Management: Waste Management Inc. and Republic Services provide waste collection, recycling, and disposal services.

These companies interact with different aspects of public utility services, providing reliable delivery of essential resources.

What Are The Job Options In Public Utilities?

When looking for jobs in the public utilities industry, you can either work in roles within the sector – for example, taking a Finance position at a company that operates within the industry – or take a position that directly contributes to utility service management.

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

Jobs In Utility Operations

Public utility operations focuses on maintaining and delivering essential services. The most common roles in this area are:

Journeyman Lineman: Installs, repairs, and maintains power lines that distribute electricity to customers.
Water Treatment Plant Operator: Oversees water treatment and ensures the safe distribution of clean water.
Natural Gas Technician: Maintains natural gas pipelines and ensures a safe supply to homes and businesses.

Jobs In Utility Management

Utility management roles focus on overseeing operations and ensuring services meet regulatory standards. The most common roles in this area are:

Utility Manager: Supervises the daily operations of public utility services.
Regulatory Compliance Officer: Ensures the company follows government regulations regarding safety and environmental impact.
Public Utility Analyst: Analyzes utility performance and helps optimize service delivery and cost management.

Jobs In Utility Engineering

Utility engineering roles are critical to designing, maintaining, and improving public utility systems. The most common roles in this area are:

Electrical Engineer: Designs electrical systems for energy generation and distribution.
Civil Engineer: Works on water supply systems and infrastructure development.
Environmental Engineer: Focuses on sustainable practices for water, sewage, and waste management.

What Are The Skills Needed For Public 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 public utilities industry:

Entry-Level Roles:

Technical Knowledge: Understanding of mechanical and electrical systems, especially those related to utility services.
Problem-Solving: The ability to troubleshoot and resolve operational issues efficiently.
Attention to Detail: Ensuring systems are operating safely and effectively requires a high level of precision.
Flexibility: Willingness to work different shifts, including evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Mid-Senior Manager Roles:

Leadership: The ability to lead, motivate, and manage a team.
Strategic Thinking: Developing and implementing strategies that align with the company’s goals.
Project Management: Managing large-scale projects, often involving multiple stakeholders, to completion.
Data Analysis: The ability to analyze performance metrics, utility usage data, and other relevant information to improve efficiency.

Mid-Senior Technical Roles:

Technical Expertise: In-depth knowledge of utility systems, whether in water management or electrical grid operations.
Problem-Solving: Advanced problem-solving skills to address complex technical challenges.
Innovation: The ability to develop new methods or technologies to improve utility service delivery or efficiency.

Companies also value candidates who are environmentally conscious, adaptable, and have strong analytical skills!

Finding Your Fit With Public Utility Roles

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

Head over to LinkedIn and search for public utility 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 Public Utilities Jobs Pay?

Now that we’ve covered the most common jobs in the public 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 public utility industry jobs in 2024 are:

Journeyman Lineman: $65K – $102K / year base pay (USD)
Water Treatment Plant Operator: $51K – $77K / year base pay (USD)
Natural Gas Technician: $48K – $79K / year base pay (USD)
Utility Manager: $53K – $85K / year base pay (USD)
Regulatory Compliance Officer: $77K – $140K / year base pay (USD)
Public Utility Analyst: $42K – $60K / year base pay (USD)
Electrical Engineer: $84K – $135K / year base pay (USD)
Civil Engineer: $71K – $106K / year base pay (USD)
Environmental Engineer: $65K – $108K / year base pay (USD)

Best Paying Jobs In Public 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 public utilities industry look like when we put them in perspective:

Environmental Engineer, Electrical Engineer, and Regulatory Compliance Officer are some of the highest-paying roles in the public utilities industry, with an earning potential of up to 119% higher than the U.S. average.

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

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

The public utilities industry is a good career path for people who have an interest in sustainability, problem-solving, and infrastructure development.

Public utility roles are essential for maintaining the systems that provide water, electricity, and other services to the public. Companies like Duke Energy, American Water Works, and Atmos Energy 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 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 out 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 public utility industry resume bullet for someone applying for a Utility Manager role might look something like this:

Led a team of 15 technicians to implement new maintenance protocols, resulting in a 20% reduction in service outages.

This bullet focuses on specific hard and soft skills that apply to a Utility Manager, 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 public 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 A Public Utilities Career Path?

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)!