Electricians
Skills & Knowledge
Most Important Skills for Electricians
- Troubleshooting—Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Installing Equipment or Programs—Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Repairing—Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
- Thinking Critically—Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Controlling Quality—Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Coordinating with Others—Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Monitoring Performance—Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Understanding How People Learn—Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Maintaining Equipment—Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Learning New Things—Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Most Important Knowledge Areas for Electricians
- Building and Construction—Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
- Mechanical—Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
- Mathematics—Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Design—Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
- Customer and Personal Service—Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Physics—Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.
- Public Safety and Security—Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- Administration and Management—Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- English Language—Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Computers and Electronics—Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Interests
Different careers may be a good fit for your personality or interests. This career is:
- Realistic—Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
- Conventional—Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
Learn more about your interests. Take the MnCareers Interest Assessment.
Describe Your Skills
People who have worked in this career typically perform the following tasks.
These statements can help a prospective employer understand what you can do, on a resume or during an interview.
- Identifying information by categorizing, comparing, or detecting changes in circumstances or events.
- Collecting information from different sources.
- Making decisions or solving problems.
- Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to find or fix problems.
- Handling and moving objects.
- Monitoring information from a variety of sources to find problems.
- Keeping up-to-date with new knowledge.
- Organizing, planning, and prioritizing work.
Careers that Use Similar Skills
The following careers use skills, knowledge, and abilities that are similar to those used for Electricians.
View more careers in the Architecture and Construction cluster
View more careers in the Construction pathway
This page includes information from the O*NET 24.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Source: You can learn about our data sources in the About Us section.
