Also called: Truffle Farmer, Truffière Manager
Plants orchards of oak and hazelnut trees with truffle fungus on their roots and waits years for prized truffles to grow underground.
On a winter morning you walk your orchard in North Carolina with a trained dog. She sniffs, scratches the ground and you gently dig up a knobby black truffle worth hundreds of dollars a pound. Later you test soil acidity and plan next spring's lime.
Orchards take 5-10 years to produce; income is very uncertain.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in horticulture or plant science helps; many are career-changers.
Ways in: 4-year college, Self-taught. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Horticulture, Plant Science, Mycology.
Growing faster than average. A tiny but growing US crop in Oregon, North Carolina, Tennessee and California.
Low risk for 10 years. Growing truffle orchards and hunting with trained dogs stays human work.
Classes: Biology, Chemistry, Business.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-9013.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.