Best Jobs For Former Forklift Operators [2023]

It’s tough to be a forklift operator nowadays, and more and more of them are losing confidence in their own profession.

While the amount of people majoring in courses preparing people for a job as a forklift operator isn’t necessarily dropping, fewer and fewer people are applying to become forklift operators in the first place and the workforce itself is looking grim.

With so many forklift operators no longer sticking around, this begs the question:

What are they all doing now?

We were curious, so we looked through the resumes of former forklift operators to see what kind of jobs they were moving into after leaving the field. There were thousands of answers, so we made the cutoff at the top 100 jobs.

But given that there are some very surprising and interesting items on this list, we’ve decided to highlight a few of those instead.

Best Jobs For Former FORKLIFT OPERATORS

Some of these items are admittedly more attractive than one another as far as actually working the job goes, but one way or another, you’ve got to admit they’re eye-catching.

The full list of those jobs can be found below.

Detailed Ranking of the Most Common Jobs of Former FORKLIFT OPERATORS

Rank	Job Title	%
1	Machine Operator	4.48%
2	Material Handler	3.17%
3	Warehouse Associate	1.4%
4	Warehouse Worker	1.37%
5	Driver	1.26%
6	Order Selector	1.22%
7	Truck Driver	1.17%
8	Welder	1.12%
9	Customer Service Representative	0.97%
10	Maintenance Technician	0.93%
11	Operator	0.89%
12	Delivery Driver	0.88%
13	Forklift Driver	0.82%
14	Security Officer	0.78%
15	Technician	0.76%
16	Sales Associate	0.71%
17	Supervisor	0.63%
18	Production Worker	0.56%
19	Assembler	0.52%
20	Lift Operator	0.52%
21	Order Picker	0.52%
22	Equipment Operator	0.5%
23	Material Handler/forklift Operator	0.46%
24	Heavy Equipment Operator	0.43%
25	Shipping And Receiving Clerk	0.43%
26	Dock Worker	0.4%
27	Press Operator	0.4%
28	Warehouse Manager	0.37%
29	Service Technician	0.37%
30	Cashier	0.36%
31	Forklift Operator And Receiver	0.36%
32	Installer	0.36%
33	Team Leader	0.35%
34	Mechanic	0.34%
35	Picker	0.34%
36	Sales Representative	0.33%
37	Cook	0.33%
38	Owner	0.32%
39	Warehouse Lead	0.32%
40	Maintenance Worker	0.31%
41	Associate	0.31%
42	Assistant Manager	0.31%
43	Numerical Control Operator	0.31%
44	Crane Operator	0.3%
45	Machine Operator/forklift Operator	0.29%
46	Cherry Picker Operator	0.29%
47	Warehouse Supervisor	0.28%
48	Shipping Clerk	0.28%
49	Carpenter	0.28%
50	Manager	0.27%
51	Loader/unloader	0.27%
52	Crew Member	0.27%
53	Forklift	0.26%
54	Quality Control Inspector	0.25%
55	Painter	0.25%
56	Shipping And Receiving Coordinator	0.25%
57	Foreman	0.24%
58	Customer Service Trainer	0.23%
59	Computer Numerical Controller Machinist	0.23%
60	Receiving Clerk	0.23%
61	Reach Truck Operator	0.22%
62	Picker And Packer	0.22%
63	Electrician	0.22%
64	Operations Manager	0.22%
65	Sorter	0.22%
66	Owner/operator	0.21%
67	Lead Forklift Operator	0.21%
68	Helper/driver	0.21%
69	Installation Technician	0.2%
70	Ship Worker	0.2%
71	Cleaner	0.2%
72	Security Guard	0.2%
73	Package Handler	0.2%
74	Sheet Metal Mechanic	0.19%
75	Machinist	0.19%
76	Warehouseman	0.18%
77	Stocker	0.18%
78	Route Driver	0.18%
79	Manufacturing Technician	0.18%
80	Assembly Line Worker	0.18%
81	Quality Inspector	0.17%
82	Certified Forklift Operator	0.17%
83	Inventory Control Specialist	0.17%
84	Crew Leader	0.17%
85	Administrative Assistant	0.17%
86	Production Operator	0.17%
87	Loader	0.16%
88	Custodian	0.16%
89	Floor Hand	0.16%
90	Farm Hand	0.16%
91	Correction Officer	0.16%
92	Specialist	0.16%
93	Warehouse Machine Operator	0.16%
94	Shipper Receiver	0.16%
95	Packer	0.16%
96	Janitor	0.16%
97	Pallet Jack Operator	0.15%
98	Floor Technician	0.15%
99	Field Technician	0.15%
100	Order Filler	0.15%

Most Common Jobs For Former FORKLIFT OPERATORS

These are all good jobs, all of them either utilizing some skill that a forklift operator would have or being a stepping stone to a different career.

Here’s the thing about these jobs though — they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect a lot of former forklift operators to do.

How We Determined the Best Jobs of Former FORKLIFT OPERATORS

Using resume information from our database of over 7 million resumes, we looked at all resumes that listed forklift operator under their work history. Then we looked at which jobs showed up on their work histories following their stints as a forklift operator, sorting them by their most frequent.

That’s how we made the initial ranked list.

To make our list of most interesting jobs, we looked through the ranked list to see if any positions:

Showed up in fewer than 1% of all new jobs
And, were not part of the 100 most common jobs in our database

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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