Line work hires veterans well, and the reasons are the same ones foremen give in every trade: you show up, you work in weather, and you don't argue about safety procedure.
What follows is what the job actually is and how people get into it. Not a recruiting pitch. If it's not for you, better to know that now than eighteen months in.
Building and maintaining the electrical distribution and transmission system. Setting poles, framing, pulling and terminating conductor, working energized or de-energized depending on the job, and restoring service after storms.
And it isn't one job. Transmission, distribution, trouble work, local or on the road, co-op or utility — each one has its own strengths and its own kind of day. Where you land inside the trade matters as much as getting into it.
The honest parts: it's outdoors in whatever the weather is doing. Storm work means getting called out at 2 a.m. and being gone for days or weeks. The hazard is real and it's managed through procedure, not luck — which is exactly why this trade cares so much about people who follow procedure without being watched.
Overtime isn't occasional. In most line work it's a standing part of the income rather than a bonus, and any honest look at the pay has to account for that in both directions — the money is real, and so is the time away.
My biggest storm check was $17,000 gross over two weeks — and I never left town for it. That was running outages local. Guys who travel for storm work can do better than that. More on how storm pay actually works.
One thing I'll be straight about up front: I've only ever worked utility, in a metro area. That's my seat. When I talk about co-op or traveling contractor work below, I'm passing on what I know of it, not what I've lived. Weigh it accordingly.
Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee programs run several years of combined on-the-job hours and classroom instruction, with wage steps as you progress. Competitive to get into, and intakes run on a schedule. This is the route Helmets to Hardhats feeds into, and it's where GI Bill benefits work as a housing supplement on top of your wages.
Many utilities and line contractors hire groundmen and apprentices directly and train in-house. This route gets missed because it's posted as a job rather than advertised as a program. Pay and progression are comparable — the old assumption that one side of the industry pays meaningfully better than the other doesn't hold up well.
Short programs, often several weeks to a few months, teaching climbing, basic framing, and safety before you apply. They don't make you a lineman, and a good one will tell you so up front. What they do is make you a more credible applicant and let you find out whether you can climb before anyone's paying you to.
A lot of these programs are run as non-credit workforce training through community colleges, which means they don't show up in the college search tools most people get pointed at. If a database says your state has nothing, call the college's workforce development office directly before you believe it.
Directly: any prime power, electrical, or generator work. Heavy equipment operation. Anything where you held a license and moved a large vehicle. Look your MOS or rating up in COOL to see what the service says it maps to.
Indirectly, and this matters more than people expect: working in a crew where the plan gets briefed and followed, tolerating discomfort without making it everyone's problem, and being somewhere at 5 a.m. without being reminded. Apprenticeship coordinators lose people over those things far more often than over technical ability.
This trade is not for everyone and there's no shame in deciding it isn't for you. The weather is genuinely miserable some days. Storm season will take you away from home on no notice. Training is years, not weeks, and the first year is the hardest on your body and your household.
What's on the other side is a skill that doesn't offshore, work that exists in every state, and a wage that supports a family without a degree. For a lot of people coming out of the service, that's a trade worth making.
The reason I'm still in it isn't the money, though. It's that I've never had the same day twice. There's always something different, always a new problem to figure out. Seven years in and it still hasn't gotten repetitive. If you came out of the service dreading a desk, that's the part worth knowing.
Pre-apprenticeships and programs listed with clock hours and format. Free to use, nothing gated.
Browse Lineman ProgramsThree common routes: a JATC apprenticeship, direct hire as a groundman or apprentice with a utility or contractor that trains in-house, or a short pre-apprenticeship that teaches climbing before you apply. Helmets to Hardhats feeds veterans into apprenticeships at no cost.
In most cases yes, because crews move heavy equipment. Service members and recent veterans may qualify for a military skills test waiver in their state, which waives the skills test but not the knowledge test.
If the apprenticeship is VA-approved, yes — as a monthly housing allowance on top of your apprentice wages, not as tuition. Full breakdown here.
Most lineworker training is delivered as non-credit workforce development rather than a degree or certificate. Federal education data tracks credit-bearing awards, so non-credit programs are largely invisible in the college search tools built on it. Call the workforce development office directly.
About this guide: Written by a journeyman distribution lineman with 7 years in the field — IBEW, Class A CDL. CDL military skills test waiver rules vary by state. This page reflects trade practice, not the policy of any employer, utility, or labor organization. If something's off or you'd add something, let us know.
Keep reading: GI Bill for Trade Training · Getting Into the Trades After the Military · How to Become a Lineman · Veteran-preferred schools & employers
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