Also called: Heavy Equipment Operator, Operating Engineer
Operates excavators, bulldozers, loaders, and backhoes to dig and move earth.
You dig a 12-foot basement with an excavator, load dirt into trucks, and grade a road bed so precisely that it is within an inch.
Union operators in big cities earn much more.
Apprenticeship, about 3 years after high school. Paid 3-4 year apprenticeship with the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) or a heavy equipment school.
Ways in: Apprenticeship, Trade school, Military. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Operating Engineers Apprenticeship, Heavy Equipment Operation (trade school).
Growing about average (about 4% over 10 years).
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. GPS machine control and autonomous excavators like Built Robotics' handle routine digging; varied sites keep operators.
Classes: Auto or diesel CTE, Geometry, Physics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 47-2073.
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