Construction Wireman
The civilian and federal jobs that hire Marines Construction Wiremans — with real salaries and the resume that gets callbacks.
Every 0613 has more options than a Google search will tell you. Below: career paths, BLS salary data, federal GS series, certifications by target career, and how to translate your experience without losing what made you valuable to the Marines in the first place.
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After the Navy I got hired into 6 federal career fields and tech sales, and sat on federal hiring panels along the way. I spent the last 2 years rebuilding everything I learned into BMR, tuned for how AI actually screens resumes today. This is the system I wish I'd had on day one.
Military Role Overview
If you held MOS 0613, you ran the physical backbone of Marine Corps communications. Construction Wiremen in the 06 Communications field install and maintain the commercial cable and telephone infrastructure that everything else rides on. You pulled and terminated underground and aerial cable, set poles with pole-line trucks and series ditchers, placed conduit systems, mounted commercial hardware, and tied tactical telephone systems into host-nation networks. This is structural electrical and signal-cabling work, not radio operating. You worked with energized circuits, grounding and bonding, and the kind of field installation that has to be right the first time because a base loses comms when it is wrong.
The training pipeline runs through the Marine Corps Communication-Electronics School (MCCES) at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, where the cable and wire courses cover splicing, terminations, pole-line construction, and conduit work. After school, 0613s land at communication battalions, MEF headquarters groups, and base communications shops, where the job is half construction and half electrical trade. You read wiring diagrams, you work at height and in trenches, and you manage the safety risk of high-voltage and signal circuits side by side.
Civilian employers value this background because it is a licensed-trade skill set that transfers without much translation. Electrical contractors, telecom and broadband carriers, data-center builders, and federal facilities shops all need people who can pull cable, terminate it cleanly, ground a system correctly, and follow code. The work you did under field conditions maps directly to the electrician, low-voltage, and telecom-cabling trades. If you want to explore how your wiring background lines up across the services, the military career crosswalk tool is a good starting point, and the related Marine 1141 Electrician and 2841 Ground Radio Repairer pages cover adjacent comm and electrical paths. For turning your cable-and-wire experience into resume language, the military-to-electrician licensing guide walks through how service hours count toward a journeyman card.
I spent years in federal environmental and engineering work after the Navy, and the construction-wireman skill set is one of the cleaner trade translations I have seen. Pulling cable, terminating it, grounding a panel, and passing inspection is the same job whether the building is a barracks or a hospital, and a federal facilities shop will recognize that experience the moment you describe it correctly. The work already counts, you just have to write it in code language a licensing board and a hiring manager both read the same way. — Brad Tachi, Navy Diver veteran & BMR founder
Pay Reality Check
The number that matters when you're deciding what's next: how does civilian pay compare to what you make now?
Military comp is approximate (varies by location/dependents). Civilian is BLS median. Federal includes locality pay. Your real number depends on duty station, family status, GS step, and overtime.
Private Sector Career Paths
The civilian electrical and cabling trades are hiring, and the 0613 background lands in the strongest part of that market. The most direct path is the Electrician trade. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS, May 2024) puts the median wage for electricians at $62,350, and the Occupational Outlook Handbook projects 9 percent growth from 2024 to 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 81,000 openings each year. Your field hours pulling and terminating cable and working energized circuits count toward the on-the-job-training side of most state apprenticeships, which shortens the road to a journeyman license.
If you lean toward the signal and data side rather than power, the cabling trades are a close fit. Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers earned a median of $64,310 (BLS OEWS, May 2024), and electrical and electronics installers and repairers earned $71,270. These are the structured-cabling, fiber, and low-voltage roles at carriers, integrators, and data-center contractors, where your conduit, splicing, and termination work is exactly what the job asks for. If you chase the highest-paid line work, electrical power-line installers and repairers earned a median of $92,560, though that role trades indoor cabling for energized high-voltage line work and storm-restoration travel.
Be honest with yourself about the market. Construction electrical work is cyclical and tied to building starts, so it runs hotter in growth metros and slower where construction stalls. Data-center and grid-modernization spending has kept demand high in much of the country, but the work follows the projects, which can mean travel or relocation early on. Marines who share these civilian paths come from other branches too. The Navy CE Construction Electrician and Air Force 3E0X1 Electrical Systems pages cover nearly identical electrician paths, and the Air Force 1D7X3 Cable and Antenna page covers the cabling side. For the broader trade picture, the military-to-trade-careers guide compares electrical against the other building trades, and you can build your resume now once you know which lane you want.
Civilian Job Title Translations
| Civilian Job Title | Industry | BLS Median Salary | Outlook | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Electrician O*NET: 47-2111.00 | Electrical Trades | $62,350 | 9% (Much faster than average) | strong |
Telecommunications Equipment Installer and Repairer O*NET: 49-2022.00 | Telecommunications | $64,310 | 2% (Slower than average) | strong |
Electrical and Electronics Installer and Repairer O*NET: 49-2094.00 | Industrial / Commercial | $71,270 | 1% (Little or no change) | strong |
Electrical Power-Line Installer and Repairer O*NET: 49-9051.00 | Utilities | $92,560 | 8% (Faster than average) | moderate |
Telecommunications Line Installer and Repairer O*NET: 49-9052.00 | Telecommunications | $66,070 | 3% (Slower than average) | strong |
Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installer O*NET: 49-2098.00 | Low-Voltage Systems | $59,710 | 5% (Faster than average) | moderate |
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technician O*NET: 17-3023.00 | Engineering Support | $77,180 | 1% (Little or no change) | moderate |
Companies That Hire This Background
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Federal Career Paths
Federal hands-on electrical work mostly lives in the Wage Grade (WG) trades, not the General Schedule, and that is good news for a 0613. The WG-2805 Electrician series is the direct federal match. It covers installing, maintaining, and repairing building and facility electrical systems on military installations, VA medical centers, and agency campuses, and a base electrical shop will read your cable-and-wire experience as the trade work it is. WG trades pay on a locality wage-survey scale rather than GS grades, and your apprenticeship-equivalent service hours help you qualify.
On the General Schedule side, the technical and oversight series open up as you add certifications or a two-year degree. GS-0802 Engineering Technician covers field inspection and technical support on construction and facilities projects, where reading electrical drawings and verifying installed work is the daily job. GS-1601 General Facilities and Equipment manages the operation and upkeep of building systems, including electrical distribution. GS-1910 Quality Assurance inspects contractor electrical and cabling work against specification, which rewards a tradesperson who knows what a correct termination and a proper ground actually look like. If you went into the comm-cabling lane, GS-0391 Telecommunications covers the planning and management of cabling and communications infrastructure for an agency.
Veterans' Preference adds 5 or 10 points to your competitive-service rating, and for the WG trades it can move you up the referral list for a journeyman opening. Federal electrical and facilities jobs cluster around large installations and agency campuses, so search USAJobs by series code rather than title to find them. The find-your-job-series guide shows how to map your MOS to the right codes, and the 10 federal series every veteran should search covers the trade and technical lanes. Pages that share these targets include the Navy EM Electrician's Mate path. When you are ready, you can start your federal resume.
GS Series & Position Matches
| GS Series | Federal Job Title | Typical Grades | Match | Explore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS-0391 | Telecommunications | GS-7, GS-9, GS-11 | View Details → | |
| GS-2805 | Electrician | WG-8, WG-10, WG-11 | View Details → | |
| GS-0802 | Engineering Technician | GS-7, GS-9, GS-11 | View Details → | |
| GS-0856 | Electronics Technician | GS-7, GS-9, GS-11 | View Details → | |
| GS-1601 | General Facilities and Equipment | GS-7, GS-9 | View Details → | |
| GS-1910 | Quality Assurance | GS-7, GS-9, GS-11 | View Details → |
Federal resumes follow different rules. We know them.
Federal hiring uses keyword-matching and structured experience. BMR builds federal-format resumes (USAJobs-ready) with the right keywords, hours/week, and supervisor info — for any GS series above.
Free to start · Federal + civilian resume formats included
Want to Change Careers Entirely?
Not everyone wants to stay in a related field. These career paths leverage your transferable skills — leadership, risk management, logistics, project planning — in completely different industries.
Avionics Technician
Avionics work is precision electrical wiring and circuit troubleshooting on aircraft, the same diagram-reading and termination discipline you used on comm cable, applied in a tightly regulated industry.
Elevator and Escalator Installer and Repairer
This trade pays well above field cabling and pulls on the same blueprint-reading, code-compliance, and energized-systems discipline you built, while moving you out of the electrical-cabling lane into building mechanical systems.
Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technician
Automated manufacturing runs on technicians who can wire, troubleshoot, and maintain control systems, which is the electrical-diagnostic core of your comm-wiring work moved into a factory.
Broadcast, Sound, and Video Technician
Broadcast and live-event technical work is signal cabling, patching, and troubleshooting under deadline, the exact skills you used integrating telephone and cable systems, applied to audio and video infrastructure.
Industrial Machinery Mechanic
Plant maintenance rewards a technician who can chase an electrical fault through a machine and fix it, which is the diagnostic instinct you built isolating circuit faults in the field.
Construction and Building Inspector
Inspecting electrical and building work against code rewards a tradesperson who knows what a correct installation looks like, letting you trade the tools for an oversight role.
Pivoting industries? You don't need to start from scratch.
The skills that made you a good Marine, Sailor, Airman, or Soldier transfer further than you think. BMR rewrites your bullets for any of the pivot careers above — without making you sound like you've never done the work.
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Skills Translation Guide
If you are staying in the electrical or cabling trades, your terminology already translates. An electrical contractor, a carrier, or a data-center integrator uses the same words you do for conduit, terminations, grounding, and pulling cable. This section is for Marines targeting careers OUTSIDE the electrical and cabling field, where a hiring manager has never set a pole or pulled romex and needs the work described in plain results.
The pattern is to name the civilian system, the scale, and the outcome instead of the Marine Corps shorthand. A few mappings:
- Pole-line construction and series ditcher becomes outside-plant cable infrastructure installation, describing aerial and underground utility construction in business terms.
- Conduit and commercial hardware emplacement becomes raceway and structured-cabling system installation to building code and specification.
- Integrating tactical telephone with host-nation systems becomes integrating new communications infrastructure with existing carrier networks, a project-coordination point a manager understands.
- Grounding and bonding becomes electrical safety and code-compliant system grounding, which signals risk management to any employer.
Two before-and-after resume bullets aimed at non-trade roles:
Before: "Ran pole-line construction and conduit emplacement for tactical comm cable."
After: "Planned and installed aerial and underground cable infrastructure across a base communications network, coordinating crews and equipment to meet installation deadlines with zero safety incidents."
Before: "Terminated cable and integrated telephone systems with host-nation lines."
After: "Built and tested structured-cabling systems and integrated them with existing carrier networks, troubleshooting circuit faults to restore service under operational time pressure."
For more on rewriting trade and military experience for a civilian audience, the military-terms glossary and the convert-your-eval-to-bullets guide are the two most useful. Our military resume builder handles the translation pattern for you once you have your experience pulled together.
Resume Bullet Examples
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BMR turns your 0613 duties and accomplishments into civilian bullets that match the job you're applying for — no manual translation, no rewriting.
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Certifications by Career Path
Which certifications you need depends on where you're headed. Find your target career path below.
Construction & Trades
Facilities Management
Federal Employment
IT & Networking
Project Management
Quality Assurance
Renewable Energy
Safety & EHS
Telecommunications & RF
Got a cert? Don't bury it. List it the right way.
The wrong placement can sink an otherwise strong application. BMR knows where each cert ranks, what to call it, and how to frame it for ATS keyword matching and hiring manager attention.
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Transition Resources
Staying in the Electrical and Cabling Trades
The fastest path to a journeyman electrician license is a registered apprenticeship, and your 0613 field hours often count toward the on-the-job-training requirement. The IBEW and NECA jointly run apprenticeships through local JATC training centers, and many states accept documented military electrical hours toward the total. Helmets to Hardhats is the direct pipeline from service into the building-trades apprenticeships, including electrical. For the cabling lane, BICSI offers the Installer and Technician credentials that telecom and data-center employers ask for by name, and some Marines may already have informal experience that shortens the study.
- Helmets to Hardhats: trade apprenticeships for veterans
- GI Bill for trade schools: programs, costs, how to apply
- Veteran apprenticeship programs 2026
Careers Outside the Trade
If you want out of field electrical work entirely, your installation, safety, and systems-integration experience opens doors in renewable energy, aviation electrical, manufacturing maintenance, and federal facilities. SkillBridge can place you with an employer in those fields during your last months of service, and the GI Bill covers trade-to-technical bridge programs. American Corporate Partners (ACP) offers free one-on-one veteran mentorship if you want to talk through a pivot before you commit.
- Military to construction management: career guide
- SkillBridge: land a civilian job before you separate
- SFL-TAP transition timeline and checklist
Build Your Resume and Explore Paths
Use the military resume builder for private-sector roles or the federal resume builder for WG and GS positions, and explore adjacent jobs with the career crosswalk tool. When you are ready to apply, get started here.
See also: Navy IC Interior Communications Electrician and Army 25U Signal Support Systems Specialist career paths.
Your 30 / 60 / 90-Day Transition Plan
Most people do this backwards. They wait until terminal leave to start, then panic. Here's the sequence that works. Already out? Same plan, start at day one today.
Set the foundation
- Pull your DD-214 (request from Milconnect if separated)
- List your top 3 civilian roles AND top 3 GS series
- Build your tailored 0613 resume — BMR does it free
- Write 1 strong LinkedIn headline (not "veteran seeking opportunities")
- Pull together your evals/performance reports for accomplishments
Apply with intent
- Apply to 5–10 jobs/week — quality over quantity
- Tailor every resume to the job description (BMR auto-tailors)
- Connect with 5 people/week on LinkedIn (not a spray)
- Set up a USAJobs profile and a saved-search alert for your GS series
- Practice translating your military bullets out loud — explain to a civilian friend
Close the offer
- Track every application — date, status, contact, notes
- Follow up 7–10 days after each application
- Prep for behavioral interviews using the STAR method
- Negotiate salary — don't take the first offer (BLS median is your floor)
- Stay applying even after one offer — leverage = options
Print this. Tape it to your monitor. Veterans who treat the job search like a 90-day op get hired faster than the ones who treat it like an emergency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What civilian jobs can a 0613 Construction Wireman get?
Do my Marine Corps electrical hours count toward an electrician license?
What is the job outlook for electricians?
What if I want to leave the electrical trade entirely?
Are there federal jobs for a Construction Wireman?
How much does Veterans' Preference help for federal trade jobs?
Does this job require a security clearance, and is one worth keeping?
Can I use my GI Bill for electrical or cabling certifications?
What certifications should I get to stand out?
Which geographic markets are strongest for this work?
How do I describe Marine cable and wire work to a non-trade employer?
Translate your 0613 Construction Wireman experience into a resume that gets callbacks
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