While Inside Wiremen install conduit, electrical wiring, fixtures, and electrical apparatus, Outside Linemen are often observed climbing poles or in bucket trucks, installing or repairing electrical power lines outdoors. Major duties of the Outside Linemen include:

• Planning and Initiating Projects
• Establishing OSHA and Customer Safety Requirements
• Setting Towers and Poles and Constructing Other Devices to Support Transmission/Distribution Cables
• Establishing Work Positions for Maintaining and Repairing Overhead Distribution or Transmission Lines
• Stringing New Wire or Maintaining Old Wire
• Installing and Maintaining Insulators
• Installing and Maintaining Transformers and Other Equipment

In performing these duties, Outside Linemen use climbing tools, hand tools, and heavy equipment on a daily basis.

A few of the more important ones are knowledge of:
• How to Work With Energized Circuits
• How to Perform an Emergency Rescue
• First Aid
• Connections to Be Made For Various Transformers
• What Makes a Wooden Pole Unsafe to Climb
• Delta and Wye Transformer Connections
• Specific Job Safety Rules
• Appropriate Hand Signals to Use with Ground Crew or Equipment Operators
• The Proper Knot to Tie in Different Circumstances
• Blueprints, Including Symbols Used

Some of the most important skills to be learned are:

• Skill at Working on High Voltage Lines While Wearing Protective Equipment Such As Rubber Gloves
• Skill at Performing CPR
• Skill at Rigging Equipment
• Skill at Tying Knots
• Skill at Operating a Bucket Truck
• Skill at Splicing High Voltage Cable
• Skill at Splicing Aluminum or Copper Cable
• Skill at Driving a Truck