There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a hand packer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $11.32 an hour? That's $23,536 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 156,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many hand packers 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 customer-service skills, hand–eye coordination and listening skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a hand packer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 11.5% of hand packers included quality standards, while 10.7% of resumes included assembly line, and 8.8% of resumes included safety procedures. 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 hand packer job title. But what industry to start with? Most hand packers actually find jobs in the manufacturing and retail industries.
If you're interested in becoming a hand packer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 7.4% of hand packers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 0.2% of hand packers have master's degrees. Even though some hand packers 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 hand packer. When we researched the most common majors for a hand packer, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on hand packer resumes include diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a hand packer. In fact, many hand packer jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many hand packers also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or machine operator.
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In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of machine operator you might progress to a role such as foreman eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title plant manager.
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Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.5% of hand packers listed quality standards on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and hand–eye coordination are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a hand packer. The best states for people in this position are Iowa, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Vermont. Hand packers make the most in Iowa with an average salary of $30,587. Whereas in Connecticut and Wisconsin, they would average $30,158 and $29,840, respectively. While hand packers would only make an average of $29,727 in Vermont, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Iowa
$30,588
Avg. Salary
2. Vermont
$29,728
Avg. Salary
3. Wisconsin
$29,841
Avg. Salary