How To Become A Hand Picker: What It Is and Career Path

What is a hand picker 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 hand picker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.67 an hour? That's $36,747 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 358,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreHand PickerUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $36,747

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.2

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 7.85%

Black or African American 12.97%

Hispanic or Latino 20.30%

Unknown 3.68%

White 54.54%

Gender

female 32.11%

male 67.89%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.9

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.7

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a hand picker

Explore hand picker education requirements

Most common hand picker degrees

Bachelor's

41.5 %

High School Diploma

27.4 %

Associate

17.1 %

Start to develop specific hand picker skills

Skills	Percentages
RF	29.25%
Logistics	25.17%
Customer Orders	24.18%
Management System	10.92%
Label Containers	10.48%

Complete relevant hand picker training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New hand pickers 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 hand picker based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real hand picker resumes.

Research hand picker duties and responsibilities

Warehouse packer, warehouse picker shipping and receiving forklift driver palatalizing pallets web orders and sorter
Operate WMS shipping system efficiently and accurately.

Prepare your hand picker resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your hand picker 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 hand picker resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable hand picker resume templates

Build a professional hand picker 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 hand picker resume.