How To Become A Handy Person: What It Is and Career Path

What is a handy person 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 handy person. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.31 an hour? That's $40,164 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 76,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreHandy PersonUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $40,164

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.6

Growth Rate 5%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.14%

Asian 4.30%

Black or African American 9.56%

Hispanic or Latino 22.69%

Unknown 4.20%

White 58.11%

Gender

female 5.83%

male 94.17%

Age - 49

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 - 49

Stress Level

7.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.3

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.1

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a handy person

Explore handy person education requirements

Most common handy person degrees

High School Diploma

48.3 %

Associate

16.9 %

Bachelor's

14.2 %

Start to develop specific handy person skills

Skills	Percentages
Plumbing	21.43%
Maintenance Tasks	13.84%
Customer Service	13.59%
HVAC	13.58%
Drywall Repair	3.78%

Complete relevant handy person training and internships

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

Research handy person duties and responsibilities

Assist management in achieving and maintaining outstanding interior and exterior restaurant cleanliness and maintaining restaurant equipment.
Perform some carpentry, painting and plastering when need.
plaster sheetrock drywall and paint structures interior and exterior.
Help with mowing lawns and renovations to pond and deck.

Prepare your handy person resume

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

Choose From 10+ Customizable Handy Person Resume templates

Build a professional Handy Person 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 Handy Person resume.

Apply for handy person jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a handy person job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do handy people rate their job?

-/5

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Handy Person reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2021

Pros

Helping people get things figured out that they would not . Some claim to be able to do a job but fake and rig things instead of fixing the underlying issue and repairing it correctly. Most of my people are elderly and I feel its my duty to help .

Cons

fixing others messed up jobs . People that act like im trying to get over on them

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020