There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a public works director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $51.72 an hour? That's $107,573 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 150,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many public works directors 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 public works director, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.7% of public works directors included infrastructure, while 6.2% of resumes included general public, and 5.7% of resumes included building maintenance. 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 public works director job title. But what industry to start with? Most public works directors actually find jobs in the government and hospitality industries.
If you're interested in becoming a public works director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 33.3% of public works directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 27.6% of public works directors have master's degrees. Even though most public works directors 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 public works director. When we researched the most common majors for a public works director, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on public works director resumes include high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a public works director. In fact, many public works director jobs require experience in a role such as project manager. Meanwhile, many public works directors also have previous career experience in roles such as project engineer or civil engineer.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
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 public works director can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as director, progress to a title such as vice president and then eventually end up with the title vice president.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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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, 10.7% of public works directors listed infrastructure on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and leadership skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a public works director. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Ohio, California, and Washington. Public works directors make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $154,627. Whereas in Ohio and California, they would average $143,644 and $139,547, respectively. While public works directors would only make an average of $134,693 in Washington, 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. California
$139,548
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$154,628
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$134,694
Avg. Salary