How To Become A Set-Up Person: What It Is and Career Path

What is a set-up person and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a set-up person. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.11 an hour? That's $31,426 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -5% and produce -45,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSet-Up PersonUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $31,426

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate -5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 8.30%

Black or African American 10.14%

Hispanic or Latino 17.36%

Unknown 3.99%

White 59.49%

Gender

female 12.07%

male 87.93%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

5.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a set-up person

Explore set-up person education requirements

Most common set-up person degrees

High School Diploma

46.0 %

Associate

21.8 %

Diploma

11.9 %

Start to develop specific set-up person skills

Skills	Percentages
CNC Machines	22.78%
Safety Procedures	10.50%
G Code	6.08%
Punch Presses	5.37%
RAN	4.74%

Complete relevant set-up person training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New set-up 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 set-up person based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real set-up person resumes.

Research set-up person duties and responsibilities

Manage daily scheduling of production workload to be setup and run on machinery.
Machine large parts for the mining, aerospace, and power industries.
Coordinate outside services such as heat treating, grinding, EDM, anodize etc.
Used micrometers, calipers, and digital comparators to check parts that are made for the aircraft industry.

Prepare your set-up person resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your set-up 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 set-up 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 set-up person resume templates

Build a professional set-up 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 set-up person resume.