A Planner is a design specialist associated with designing schedule plans on building projects and securing that the task is accomplished efficiently, on time, and under budget. A site-based Planner will typically report to either the Project Manager or Project Director for project execution.
A planner reports departmentally to a pre-building director or plan manager if the company operating on the project has a dedicated planning committee. Although there is no formal prerequisite to pursuing a career in planning, a bachelor's degree in engineering, including building administration, structural engineering, construction design, surveying, and civil engineering, can help; however, this is not the only route of entry.
A typical working week for a planner will be about 40-45 hours per week; but, if there is a rapidly approaching deadline, you will have to work much longer. Because planning is considered one of the most critical roles within construction, salaries can be attractive and due to demand there are outstanding career development opportunities. Working for a company, you are likely to earn more than $14 per hour. Additionally, freelance Planners are constantly in demand and demand excellent rates as well.
Planner Overview
Planner Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a planner. For example, did you know that they make an average of $31.05 an hour? That's $64,578 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 4,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Planner Do
There are certain skills that many planners 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 analytical skills, leadership skills and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a planner, we found that a lot of resumes listed 16.4% of planners included communication, while 12.8% of resumes included procedures, and 8.3% of resumes included emergency. 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 planner job title. But what industry to start with? Most planners actually find jobs in the manufacturing and retail industries.
How To Become a Planner
If you're interested in becoming a planner, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 46.7% of planners have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.9% of planners have master's degrees. Even though most planners 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 planner. When we researched the most common majors for a planner, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on planner resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a planner. In fact, many planner jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many planners also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or buyer.
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Planner Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a planner can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as buyer, progress to a title such as purchasing manager and then eventually end up with the title director of purchasing.
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Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Planner
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
County of Carteret North Carolina Planner Planner | County of Carteret North Carolina County of Carteret North Carolina | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $39,47301/29/2021 $39,473 |
Travis County Texas Planner (Juvenile Justice Statistician) Planner (Juvenile Justice Statistician) | Travis County Texas Travis County Texas | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $51,93401/29/2021 $51,934 |
State of Florida Planner II Planner II | State of Florida State of Florida | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $65,61401/27/2021 $65,614 |
International City Management Planner Planner | International City Management International City Management | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $50,00001/27/2021 $50,000 |
Randstad Transmission Planner Transmission Planner | Randstad Randstad | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $58,43601/27/2021 $58,436 |
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Planner Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Planner. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Planner Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Planner resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Planners
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
3. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
5. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
6. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Public
7. New York University
New York, NY • Private
8. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
9. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
10. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
Top Skills For a Planner
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, 16.4% of planners listed communication on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and leadership skills are important as well.
- Communication, 16.4%
- Procedures, 12.8%
- Emergency, 8.3%
- Customer Service, 7.6%
- Ensure Compliance, 6.7%
- Other Skills, 48.2% See All Planner Skills
Best States For a Planner
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a planner. The best states for people in this position are California, Oregon, North Dakota, and New York. Planners make the most in California with an average salary of $78,835. Whereas in Oregon and North Dakota, they would average $74,956 and $74,164, respectively. While planners would only make an average of $68,879 in New York, 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. District of Columbia
$86,451
Avg. Salary
2. California
$78,835
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$68,544
Avg. Salary
How Do Planner Rate Their Jobs?
Top Planner Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ planners and discovered their number of planner opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that CDM Smith was the best, especially with an average salary of $76,156. Randstad USA follows up with an average salary of $51,903, and then comes Schlumberger with an average of $74,427. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a planner. The employers include Bare Escentuals, UnitedHealth Group, and Covr Financial Technologies
Planner Videos
