Utility Network Technician CV Examples & Writing Guide

"Utility network technician" is used by electricity, gas, water and telecoms employers for completely different jobs. The reader spends two seconds working out which one you are. Do not make them guess.

• Electricity distribution: poles, overhead conductor, underground cable, transformers, switchgear, service connections. Usually low voltage (400/230 V) up to 33 kV. This page is written around this work, because it is the largest group.
• Gas distribution: mains and services, fusion joints, governors, leak survey, cathodic protection. Say "gas network technician" in your title line and mirror the competence and qualification wording from the advert.
• Water and wastewater networks: mains, valves, hydrants, service connections, leak detection. Different training entirely, starting with a water hygiene card.
• Telecoms and broadband: copper, coax and fibre networks, splicing, overhead and underground installation, cabinet and node work. If this is you, put "fibre" or "coax" in your first line.

Whichever it is, use the exact job title from the advert at the top of your CV. Network operators and their contractors run high volumes of applications through applicant tracking systems, and a mismatch in the title costs you a screen you would otherwise pass.

This sample is for a qualified distribution technician at a network operator's rural depot who came up through an apprenticeship. The name and employers are invented.

The person hiring you is deciding whether to put you in a vehicle with three other people. Four things settle it.

• Where you are in the progression. Labourer, apprentice with year and sign-offs, qualified craftsperson, or team leader. State it plainly and give the year if you are an apprentice: "apprentice, year 2 of 3, overhead construction signed off".
• Voltage and live working. Which voltages have you worked, and are you authorised to work live? A technician who only works on dead equipment is a different hire and needs to say so.
• Licence and plant. Driving licence categories, a current HGV medical if you hold a large-vehicle category, and the plant you operate: insulated MEWP, pole erection vehicle, excavator, cable winch, trencher.
• Safety and driving record. Reportable injuries, preventable vehicle incidents, contact with a live conductor. A clean record stated in one line is a genuine advantage, because the employer's insurance depends on it.

“Three things get read before anything else: licence, hours or qualified card, and whether they work it live. If those are clear in the top inch of the page, we talk. If it takes digging to find them, we move on.”

Twelve to sixteen items, grouped. Everything here is either something you can be tested on or something a supervisor watches you do.

Line and cable work:

• Overhead construction: pole erection, dressing, conductor stringing and sagging, stays and anchors
• Underground: cable pulling, jointing and terminating, separable connectors, link boxes and substation cable work
• Transformers: pole-mounted and ground-mounted installation, connection and change-out; single-phase and three-phase
• Protection and switching: fuses, auto-reclosers, sectionalisers, air-break switches, ring main units
• Services: overhead and underground services, cut-outs, service terminations and new connections
• Fault finding: surge generator (thumper), time domain reflectometer, fault passage indicators, phasing and voltage testing
• Earthing and bonding, including equipotential zones on the work site
• Vegetation clearance awareness and pole inspection

Plant, systems and paperwork:

• Insulated MEWP, pole erection vehicle, excavator or mini digger, trencher, cable winch and drum trailer
• Hot sticks, insulating gloves and sleeves (with the class you are trained to), insulating shrouds, insulated hand tools, hydraulic crimpers
• Switching schedules, safety documents and permits to work, job briefings, isolation and locking off
• Outage management systems, GIS and network records, mobile data terminals
• Work order and asset systems such as SAP Plant Maintenance or Maximo
• Safe digging: utility records, cable avoidance tools (CAT and Genny), trial holes and HSG47 guidance
• SCADA awareness and reporting switching operations to the control centre

Two lines that carry more weight than any skill word: your attendance record and your willingness to take standby and call-outs. Both go under experience, with a number.

There is no single national licence for this work in the UK. Requirements come from the network operator's safety rules, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and, for driving, your licence categories. List what you actually hold, with dates.

• Driving licence: state the categories (C1, C, C+E) and say if it is clean. Mention a current HGV medical if you hold a large-vehicle category.
• Apprenticeship: power network apprenticeships commonly run about three years with block release at a training centre and an end-point assessment, through a network operator, a contractor or their training partner. Give the year you are in, or the year you qualified.
• Safety passport: EUSR SHEA Power is widely asked for on electricity network sites. Employers in this field also work to the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002; naming them shows you know what governs the job.
• Rescue and first aid: First Aid at Work or Emergency First Aid at Work, plus pole-top and MEWP rescue. Rescue training is usually refreshed every year, so put the refresh date, not the first date.
• Street works: an NRSWA operative or supervisor card, needed for excavation in the road, and Chapter 8 traffic management training. List the units and the year.
• Plant: an IPAF card for MEWPs, any pole erection vehicle authorisation your employer issued, plus a CPCS or NPORS card for an excavator or forklift if you hold one.
• Each network operator authorises you under its own safety rules, and an authorisation does not transfer automatically when you change employer. If you are unsure what applies to you, ask the employer rather than guessing on the CV.

Almost everyone starts as a labourer or an apprentice. The CV that wins is not the one with the most experience; it is the one that removes the employer's risk.

• Get a full driving licence first, and Category C if you can. It is the single line that moves an entry-level application up the pile, and many contractors will not consider you without it.
• Put physical and outdoor work at the top: construction, landscaping, tree work, agriculture, forces field roles, oil and gas. Climbing, digging and working in bad weather all count.
• Any electrical exposure at all: electrician's mate, industrial maintenance, data cabling, solar installation, motor rewinding. Name the voltages.
• Say plainly that you can work standby, nights, storms and travel. This is what the trade actually demands and most applicants never mention it.
• List a pre-employment overhead lines course if you have done one, with its length, and note pole climbing separately if it was included.
• Add attendance and reliability with a number, such as "no unplanned absences in 18 months across two winter build seasons".

• One page is enough for anything under ten years. Use two only for a team leader or supervisor with a long project list.
• Put the driving licence, your stage in the trade and your voltage experience in the top three lines. Everything else can be found; those three cannot be guessed.
• Plain single column, no photo, no date of birth, no graphics. Network operators are large employers with applicant tracking systems that read text.
• Match the advert's title exactly, then mirror its wording where true: overhead, underground, jointing, live working, LV, 11 kV, 33 kV, hot stick, switching, safety documents, transformer, auto-recloser, Electricity at Work Regulations, ESQCR, storm restoration.
• Give a safety statement one line of its own. "No reportable injuries and no preventable vehicle incidents in 4 years" is the most valuable sentence on the page.
• Send a PDF named Firstname-Lastname-Utility-Technician-CV.pdf, and expect reference checks, a medical and drug and alcohol screening as part of the process.
• Working abroad: in the US this work is done by lineworkers and utility technicians, the document is called a resume, and the qualifications come through registered apprenticeships and a commercial driver's licence (CDL). The same basics apply there: no photo, no date of birth.