Best Jobs For Former Material Handlers [2023]

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

With so many material handlers 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 material handlers 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 MATERIAL HANDLERS

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 MATERIAL HANDLERS

Rank	Job Title	%
1	Machine Operator	3.67%
2	Forklift Operator	2.93%
3	Customer Service Representative	1.85%
4	Warehouse Associate	1.41%
5	Warehouse Worker	1.14%
6	Sales Associate	0.84%
7	Driver	0.78%
8	Technician	0.73%
9	Cashier	0.72%
10	Security Officer	0.71%
11	Material Handler/forklift Operator	0.69%
12	Operator	0.67%
13	Assembler	0.67%
14	Shipping And Receiving Clerk	0.62%
15	Supervisor	0.59%
16	Order Selector	0.59%
17	Maintenance Technician	0.54%
18	Delivery Driver	0.53%
19	Team Leader	0.53%
20	Truck Driver	0.51%
21	Production Worker	0.51%
22	Welder	0.45%
23	Picker And Packer	0.43%
24	Press Operator	0.43%
25	Assistant Manager	0.43%
26	Picker	0.41%
27	Order Picker	0.39%
28	Associate	0.39%
29	Forklift Driver	0.38%
30	Package Handler	0.37%
31	Shipping Clerk	0.37%
32	Quality Control Inspector	0.36%
33	Cook	0.34%
34	Shipping And Receiving Coordinator	0.34%
35	Quality Inspector	0.34%
36	Customer Service Trainer	0.33%
37	Manager	0.32%
38	Sorter	0.32%
39	Numerical Control Operator	0.31%
40	Material Coordinator	0.31%
41	Administrative Assistant	0.31%
42	Inventory Control Specialist	0.3%
43	Warehouse Supervisor	0.3%
44	Service Technician	0.28%
45	Sales Representative	0.28%
46	Production Associate	0.28%
47	Inventory Specialist	0.27%
48	Packer	0.27%
49	Warehouse Manager	0.27%
50	Operations Manager	0.27%
51	Dock Worker	0.26%
52	Production Operator	0.26%
53	Warehouse Lead	0.26%
54	Equipment Operator	0.25%
55	Operation Supervisor	0.25%
56	Manufacturing Technician	0.25%
57	Crew Member	0.25%
58	Receiving Clerk	0.24%
59	Assembly Line Worker	0.24%
60	Security Guard	0.24%
61	Installer	0.24%
62	Production Supervisor	0.24%
63	Internship	0.23%
64	Mail Clerk	0.23%
65	Laboratory Technician	0.22%
66	Certified Nursing Assistant	0.22%
67	Ship Worker	0.21%
68	Owner	0.21%
69	Production Technician	0.2%
70	Cleaner	0.2%
71	Stocker	0.2%
72	Helper/driver	0.2%
73	Specialist	0.2%
74	Supply Technician	0.2%
75	Mechanic	0.19%
76	Machinist	0.19%
77	Inventory Controller	0.19%
78	Loader/unloader	0.18%
79	Custodian	0.18%
80	Computer Numerical Controller Machinist	0.18%
81	Handle Machine Operator	0.18%
82	Clerk	0.18%
83	Janitor	0.18%
84	Data Entry Clerk	0.18%
85	Courier	0.18%
86	Inspector	0.17%
87	Stower	0.17%
88	Substitute Teacher	0.17%
89	Server	0.17%
90	Home Health Aid	0.17%
91	Quality Assurance	0.17%
92	Repair Technician	0.17%
93	Lift Operator	0.16%
94	Owner/operator	0.16%
95	Ramp Agent	0.16%
96	Coordinator	0.16%
97	Medical Assistant	0.16%
98	Quality Control	0.15%
99	Pharmacist Technician	0.15%
100	Order Filler	0.15%

Most Common Jobs For Former MATERIAL HANDLERS

These are all good jobs, all of them either utilizing some skill that a material handler 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 material handlers to do.

How We Determined the Best Jobs of Former MATERIAL HANDLERS

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

Create Resume