Farmers have a really important job. They produce crops, lifestock and dairy products. Sometimes it's just enough to feed their own families, but for career farmers they feed the entire world.
Generally, farmers get by with just a high school diploma, but some get a higher education to learn more about the career. Most of the time farmers are working outside, but there are times where you'll catch them in an office. You can't necessarily coordinate a sale hoeing a row.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a farmer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $14.62 an hour? That's $30,412 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -1% and produce -9,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many farmers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, mechanical skills and physical strength.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a farmer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 19.8% of farmers included farm equipment, while 11.2% of resumes included beef cattle, and 7.3% of resumes included heavy machinery. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the farmer job title. But what industry to start with? Most farmers actually find jobs in the retail and agriculture industries.
If you're interested in becoming a farmer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 30.9% of farmers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.2% of farmers have master's degrees. Even though some farmers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a farmer. When we researched the most common majors for a farmer, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on farmer resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a farmer. In fact, many farmer jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many farmers also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or volunteer.