How To Become A Metal Machinist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a metal machinist 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 metal machinist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.76 an hour? That's $43,189 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 3,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreMetal MachinistUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,189

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.8

Growth rate 1%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.51%

Asian 6.28%

Black or African American 3.92%

Hispanic or Latino 14.48%

Unknown 3.73%

White 71.07%

Gender

female 3.67%

male 96.33%

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

5.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a metal machinist

Explore metal machinist education requirements

Most common metal machinist degrees

High School Diploma

35.0 %

Bachelor's

27.5 %

Associate

22.5 %

Start to develop specific metal machinist skills

Skills	Percentages
Hand Tools	13.53%
CNC	13.48%
CAD	10.74%
Aluminum	10.03%
Solidworks	9.16%

Complete relevant metal machinist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New metal machinists 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 metal machinist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real metal machinist resumes.

Research metal machinist duties and responsibilities

Manage and perform programming of CNC mills, lathes and EDM equipment, instrumentation, data acquisition and control systems.
Set up and operate precision lathe, mills, grinders, hot see, hob machine, and other precision tools.
Used Solidworks and Surfcam to produce upcoming jobs.
Cut aluminum, stainless steel, and steel for pharmaceutical machinery.

Prepare your metal machinist resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable metal machinist resume templates

Build a professional metal machinist 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 metal machinist resume.