Lumber graders work for a whole smorgasbord of industries where they're responsible for looking for knots, holes and splits in lumber. Then they sort this lumber to be dryed, trimmed or manufactured.
Typically, a lumber grader will work at a sawmill, lumber yard or another commercial establishment carrying out these duties. If you pride yourself on how well you can access the wood grain, then maybe this job was made for you!
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lumber grader. For example, did you know that they make an average of $14.32 an hour? That's $29,796 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -14% and produce -7,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many lumber graders 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 communication skills, detail oriented and physical strength.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a lumber grader, we found that a lot of resumes listed 41.2% of lumber graders included tape measure, while 8.2% of resumes included safety meetings, and 7.5% of resumes included hardwood floors. 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 lumber grader job title. But what industry to start with? Most lumber graders actually find jobs in the manufacturing and retail industries.
If you're interested in becoming a lumber grader, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 10.4% of lumber graders have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.2% of lumber graders have master's degrees. Even though some lumber graders 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 lumber grader. When we researched the most common majors for a lumber grader, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on lumber grader resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a lumber grader. In fact, many lumber grader jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many lumber graders also have previous career experience in roles such as assistant manager or customer service representative.