Owns a company with excavators, dozers, and dump trucks that clears and grades land.
You bid site work for a new shopping center, dispatch your machines, and jump on a dozer yourself when a job falls behind.
Equipment is expensive, so profits vary widely.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 10 years after high school. Years as an operator plus contractor license and equipment financing.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Apprenticeship. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Heavy Equipment Operation, Business Administration.
Growing about average. No separate BLS projection for this specialty; rating is an estimate based on industry trends.
Low risk for 10 years. GPS and autonomous machines change how crews dig, but bidding, financing fleets and running jobs stay human.
Classes: Business, Auto or diesel CTE, Algebra.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-9021.
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.