How To Become A Crane Mechanic: What It Is and Career Path

What is a crane mechanic and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a crane mechanic. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.77 an hour? That's $45,278 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 17,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCrane MechanicUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $45,278

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.2

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 1.70%

Black or African American 4.92%

Hispanic or Latino 17.00%

Unknown 3.77%

White 71.88%

Gender

female 1.19%

male 98.81%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

8.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.5

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a crane mechanic

Explore crane mechanic education requirements

Most common crane mechanic degrees

High School Diploma

46.5 %

Associate

24.8 %

Diploma

12.9 %

Start to develop specific crane mechanic skills

Skills	Percentages
Cranes	33.82%
Certifications	13.29%
Hand Tools	12.88%
Boom Truck	7.63%
Routine Maintenance	3.68%

Complete relevant crane mechanic training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New crane mechanics learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a crane mechanic based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real crane mechanic resumes.

Research crane mechanic duties and responsibilities

Obtain license for booms, slab scissors, rough terrain forklifts, and warehouse forklifts.
Perform work in compliance with SHEA, ANSI, OSHA, and other applicable codes and regulations.
Interact with customers to ensure that annual/ quarterly inspections are complete on time in compliance with OSHA regulations.
Unschedule emergency repairs and breakdowns of cranes and relate equipment to facilitate minimal production delay.

Prepare your crane mechanic resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your crane mechanic resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a crane mechanic resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable crane mechanic resume templates

Build a professional crane mechanic resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your crane mechanic resume.