Best Jobs For Former Machine Operators [2023]

It’s tough to be a machine 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 machine operator isn’t necessarily dropping, fewer and fewer people are applying to become machine operators in the first place and the workforce itself is looking grim.

With so many machine 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 machine 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 MACHINE 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 MACHINE OPERATORS

Rank	Job Title	%
1	Forklift Operator	2.29%
2	Material Handler	1.91%
3	Customer Service Representative	1.5%
4	Assembler	1.23%
5	Numerical Control Operator	1.16%
6	Maintenance Technician	1.11%
7	Cashier	1.04%
8	Warehouse Associate	0.88%
9	Sales Associate	0.88%
10	Warehouse Worker	0.88%
11	Technician	0.86%
12	Operator	0.82%
13	Machinist	0.82%
14	Driver	0.8%
15	Security Officer	0.74%
16	Welder	0.73%
17	Computer Numerical Controller Machinist	0.73%
18	Truck Driver	0.71%
19	Production Worker	0.65%
20	Press Operator	0.64%
21	Supervisor	0.62%
22	Team Leader	0.55%
23	Quality Control Inspector	0.48%
24	Manager	0.45%
25	Production Supervisor	0.45%
26	Delivery Driver	0.44%
27	Assistant Manager	0.44%
28	Forklift Driver	0.41%
29	Quality Inspector	0.4%
30	Assembly Line Worker	0.38%
31	Crew Member	0.38%
32	Certified Nursing Assistant	0.36%
33	Production Operator	0.35%
34	Customer Service Trainer	0.35%
35	Shipping And Receiving Clerk	0.35%
36	Production Technician	0.34%
37	Packer	0.34%
38	Manufacturing Technician	0.34%
39	Associate	0.34%
40	Machine Operator/forklift Operator	0.32%
41	Order Selector	0.32%
42	Service Technician	0.32%
43	Cook	0.3%
44	Cleaner	0.29%
45	Mechanical Assembler	0.29%
46	Sales Representative	0.28%
47	Inspector	0.28%
48	Picker And Packer	0.28%
49	Mechanic	0.27%
50	Painter	0.27%
51	Picker	0.26%
52	Shipping And Receiving Coordinator	0.25%
53	Installer	0.25%
54	Sorter	0.24%
55	Assembly Technician	0.24%
56	Package Handler	0.24%
57	Electrician	0.23%
58	Administrative Assistant	0.23%
59	Owner	0.23%
60	Sheet Metal Mechanic	0.23%
61	Production Associate	0.22%
62	Laboratory Technician	0.22%
63	Quality Control	0.22%
64	Assembling Machine Operator	0.22%
65	Manufacturing Associate	0.22%
66	Shipping Clerk	0.21%
67	Owner/operator	0.21%
68	Production Assembler	0.21%
69	Line Leader	0.2%
70	Internship	0.2%
71	Server	0.2%
72	Specialist	0.2%
73	Order Picker	0.19%
74	Stocker	0.19%
75	Carpenter	0.18%
76	Pack Machine Operator	0.18%
77	Equipment Operator	0.18%
78	Quality Technician	0.18%
79	Lift Operator	0.18%
80	Home Health Aid	0.17%
81	Ship Worker	0.17%
82	Loader/unloader	0.17%
83	Volunteer	0.17%
84	Dock Worker	0.17%
85	Saw Operator	0.17%
86	Custodian	0.17%
87	Janitor	0.17%
88	Housekeeper	0.16%
89	Farm Hand	0.16%
90	Process Technician	0.16%
91	Office Assistant	0.16%
92	Warehouse Manager	0.16%
93	Maintenance Supervisor	0.16%
94	Field Service Technician	0.16%
95	Store Manager	0.15%
96	Security Guard	0.15%
97	Clerk	0.15%
98	Pharmacist Technician	0.15%
99	Assembly Worker	0.15%
100	Crew Leader	0.15%

Most Common Jobs For Former MACHINE OPERATORS

These are all good jobs, all of them either utilizing some skill that a machine 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 machine operators to do.

How We Determined the Best Jobs of Former MACHINE OPERATORS

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