Is it worth becoming a cable or satellite technician nowadays

Pere845

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Mar 12, 2018
200
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Boise, Idaho
Ever since I was a kid I always wanted a career in the cable or satellite industry my goal was to become a technician right after high school even considerd the telephone company but seeing where the industry is heading is it even worth becoming a cable or satellite tech now days...
 
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Not much pay in the industry. Installers usually make $13 - $15 an hour. If your lucky you may find an installer contractor that allows you to collect commission for things such as selling customers extra surge protectors.
 
A few years ago when we made some upgrades at work, the Time Warner tech that came out to swap out our media converter looked familiar. As he was leaving I was talking to him in the parking lot about a lot of different things and tuns out he was to my house a few times over the years as he was a normal field tech/installer at one point then moved over to Business Class and then got promoted to a supervisor. He's worked on projects involving everything everything from coax connections at small flower and coffee shops, to fiber at college campuses, large apartment hi rises and cell tower backhaul.

If you want to get into the cable game aim for commercial, there will be no shortage of techs or installers. It's the cable companies that will be powering a good portion of the '5G' revolution with their fiber, it's the cable companies providing SIP trunks and PRI to medium sized-large businesses. Then if you ever wanted to leave field work and become a desk jockey, these companies are offering managed services now like managed firewalls, managed routers, managed wifi.

Sometimes I kick myself about not taking up my friend on his offer on applying to become a field tech. But there is no way I could deal with irate residential customers who don't understand how technology works.

Samething would apply for satellite I would think. There are always going to sports bars and apartment complexes and hospitals who want DirecTV
 
Always a need for saddles and buggy whips too
A few years ago when we made some upgrades at work, the Time Warner tech that came out to swap out our media converter looked familiar. As he was leaving I was talking to him in the parking lot about a lot of different things and tuns out he was to my house a few times over the years as he was a normal field tech/installer at one point then moved over to Business Class and then got promoted to a supervisor. He's worked on projects involving everything everything from coax connections at small flower and coffee shops, to fiber at college campuses, large apartment hi rises and cell tower backhaul.

If you want to get into the cable game aim for commercial, there will be no shortage of techs or installers. It's the cable companies that will be powering a good portion of the '5G' revolution with their fiber, it's the cable companies providing SIP trunks and PRI to medium sized-large businesses. Then if you ever wanted to leave field work and become a desk jockey, these companies are offering managed services now like managed firewalls, managed routers, managed wifi.

Sometimes I kick myself about not taking up my friend on his offer on applying to become a field tech. But there is no way I could deal with irate residential customers who don't understand how technology works.

Samething would apply for satellite I would think. There are always going to sports bars and apartment complexes and hospitals who want DirecTV

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
Always a need for saddles and buggy whips too

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

I assume that's a knock on becoming a installer/service tech for so called 'outdated' technology.

Claude seems to be doing very well catering to commercial DirecTV subscribers. My Spectrum Enterprise rep seems to be doing great as well. When I contacted my HughesNet installer last month, he was telling me about a big install he did on a massive construction site in rural Pennsylvania.
 
Not really a knock.
I assume that's a knock on becoming a installer/service tech for so called 'outdated' technology.

Claude seems to be doing very well catering to commercial DirecTV subscribers. My Spectrum Enterprise rep seems to be doing great as well. When I contacted my HughesNet installer last month, he was telling me about a big install he did on a massive construction site in rural Pennsylvania.

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!
 

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