Tradie reveals $178,000 job with ‘heaps’ of work on offer: ‘Money to be made’

An Aussie tradie earning a six-figure salary said his industry was “screaming out” for more workers. He encouraged other young people to “give trades a go”.

The Gold Coast man was stopped on the street and revealed he was earning $178,000 a year as an instrumentation electrician in the oil and gas industry. Instrumental electricians are responsible for installing and maintaining equipment and repairing faults.

The tradie shared he started off doing an electrical apprenticeship before getting further qualifications.

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“I started off just as a normal sparky and then after that got my instrumentation ticket license,” he told jobs platform GetAhead.

The Gold Coast man said you could get a Certificate III or Certificate IV to get into the job, depending on “how far you wanna go with it”. He said there were “heaps” of jobs available.

“They’re always screaming out for instrumentation electricians,” he said.

The man said if he wasn’t working as an instrumental electrician, he would still be working in another trade. For young people working out what to do after school, he said it was worth considering a trade.

“I would say for myself, give trades a go. I think there’s definitely money to be made in trades and you don’t necessarily have to go to university or anything like that to make a good career,” he said.

Workers can earn ‘much more’

The average salary for instrumentation technician jobs is $109,600, according to Talent. Entry-level positions can start at $93,500 per year, while more experienced workers can make up to $159,019 per year.

Meanwhile, the average electrician salary is $93,862 per year, with entry-level positions starting off at $78,968 per year and more experienced workers raking in $134,816 per year on average.

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Some Aussies said in their experience instrumentation electricians could make “much more” than the Gold Coast man’s $178,000 wage.

“My husband does the same job and could easily pull higher than this with overtime rates,” one wrote.

“Yeah oil and gas sparky on $178,000 seems low especially if it’s offshore,” another wrote.

“$300,000 easy for him with nightshift and overtime,” another claimed.

How do I become an instrumentation technician?

You need to become a licensed electrician to work as an instrumentation technician and this will usually require completing an apprenticeship.

According to SEEK, you’ll need to get your Certificate III in Electrotechnology to become a qualified electrician. This takes around four years and includes on-the-job training and theoretical learning.

You’ll then need to apply for your electrician’s license and consider completing a Certificate IV in Instrumentation and Control.

You would then need to get your construction induction card (white card) and other necessary licenses or tickets.

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