What is a Station Operator?
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a station operator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.85 an hour? That's $37,124 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -2% and produce -1,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Station Operator Do
There are certain skills that many station operators 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 customer-service skills, hand-eye coordination and hearing ability.
How To Become a Station Operator
If you're interested in becoming a station operator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 33.9% of station operators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.0% of station operators have master's degrees. Even though some station operators have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Station Operator Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of security officer you might progress to a role such as technician eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title service manager.
Average Salary for a Station Operator
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Station Operator
There are several types of station operator, including:
Operator
Role:
Operators often spend their time checking in on equipment and making sure it's properly working. Every problem that is detected, you'll often call upon an operators to come and save the day. They're essentially the superhero in an office setting.
In most cases, operators work full-time, normal hours. But when a client needs help, you'll need to be available. which means that sometimes duty calls at night or on the weekends.
- Average Salary: $37,928
- Degree: High School Diploma
Gas Engineer
Role:
Gas engineering requires a minimum qualification of a bachelor's degree. Most gas engineers have bachelor's degrees in mechanical, petroleum, or civil engineering. You must also be certified under the Gas safe register to work on specific gas appliances. Dealing with gas can lead to catastrophic events if not handled properly; hence, gas engineers are taken very seriously. This explains why they earn an average of $70,616 per year.
- Average Salary: $94,427
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
States With The Most Station Operator Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active station operator jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where station operators earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Station Operator Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | 1,227 | $37,374 |
| 2 | New Jersey | 886 | $43,052 |
| 3 | Rhode Island | 150 | $37,741 |
| 4 | Alaska | 100 | $42,583 |
| 5 | Hawaii | 100 | $39,062 |
| 6 | Texas | 57 | $38,804 |
| 7 | Washington | 39 | $43,391 |
| 8 | New York | 37 | $42,988 |
| 9 | Michigan | 30 | $41,510 |
| 10 | Indiana | 24 | $40,245 |
| 11 | Florida | 23 | $37,785 |
| 12 | Illinois | 19 | $42,184 |
| 13 | Ohio | 19 | $37,372 |
| 14 | Pennsylvania | 18 | $41,486 |
| 15 | California | 17 | $43,188 |
| 16 | Minnesota | 13 | $41,924 |
| 17 | Iowa | 12 | $41,858 |
| 18 | Georgia | 12 | $37,984 |
| 19 | Missouri | 12 | $35,748 |
| 20 | Arizona | 11 | $40,250 |
| 21 | Tennessee | 11 | $38,440 |
| 22 | Nevada | 9 | $37,980 |
| 23 | North Carolina | 9 | $38,522 |
| 24 | Virginia | 8 | $40,148 |
| 25 | Oklahoma | 7 | $38,631 |
| 26 | Connecticut | 7 | $37,981 |
| 27 | Wisconsin | 6 | $41,489 |
| 28 | Kansas | 6 | $40,468 |
| 29 | Alabama | 6 | $38,069 |
| 30 | Kentucky | 6 | $35,997 |
| 31 | Maryland | 6 | $37,785 |
| 32 | Colorado | 6 | $36,339 |
| 33 | Oregon | 5 | $43,180 |
| 34 | Nebraska | 5 | $36,449 |
| 35 | Montana | 4 | $38,701 |
| 36 | Mississippi | 4 | $34,902 |
| 37 | South Carolina | 4 | $34,950 |
| 38 | West Virginia | 3 | $36,901 |
| 39 | Utah | 3 | $37,226 |
| 40 | Maine | 2 | $40,252 |
| 41 | South Dakota | 2 | $37,717 |
| 42 | Arkansas | 2 | $38,365 |
| 43 | Vermont | 2 | $37,161 |
| 44 | Louisiana | 2 | $35,343 |
| 45 | Idaho | 1 | $41,954 |
| 46 | New Mexico | 1 | $39,458 |
| 47 | Wyoming | 0 | $40,494 |
| 48 | North Dakota | 0 | $38,949 |
| 49 | Delaware | 0 | $38,032 |
| 50 | New Hampshire | 0 | $37,186 |
Top Skills For a Station Operator
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, 10.6% of station operators listed routine maintenance on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and hand-eye coordination are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Station Operator Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Station Operator templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Station Operator resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Station Operator Demographics
Station Operator Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among station operators, 17.5% of them are women, while 82.5% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among station operators is White, which makes up 59.0% of all station operators.
- The most common foreign language among station operators is Spanish at 70.0%.
Online Courses For Station Operator That You May Like
1. Introduction to Operating Systems
This specialization is intended for people with some programming experience who seek an approachable introduction to how operating systems work on a fundamental level. This course will equip learners with foundational knowledge of operating systems suitable for any developer roles. In these four courses, you will cover everything from the basics of a C program to distributed systems. These topics will help prepare you to optimize the performance of the programs you write...
See More on Coursera2. Introduction to Hardware and Operating Systems
If you're ready to enter the world of Information Technology (IT), you need job-ready skills. This course enables you to develop the skills to work with computer hardware and operating systems, and is your first step to prepare for all types of tech related careers that require IT Fundamental skills. First, learn about the essential software brain of a computer—its operating system software when you explore Microsoft Windows. Next, discover internal key hardware computer components, including...
See More on Coursera3. Junos Routing, Operations, and Maintenance
In this course, we will explain basic routing concepts including routing policy, routing and forwarding tables, routing instances, and Junos OS routing configuration basics. This course will also explain the concepts and configuration basics of user authentication, the various types of interfaces found on network devices, archiving configurations, configuring and analyzing system logging and tracing, and configuring SNMP for collecting and organizing information about managed devices. Other...
See More on CourseraBest States For a Station Operator
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a station operator. The best states for people in this position are Washington, California, Oregon, and New Jersey. Station operators make the most in Washington with an average salary of $43,391. Whereas in California and Oregon, they would average $43,188 and $43,180, respectively. While station operators would only make an average of $43,052 in New Jersey, 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. Iowa
$41,858
Avg. Salary
2. Michigan
$41,510
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$43,391
Avg. Salary
How Do Station Operator Rate Their Jobs?
Top Station Operator Employers
Most Common Employers For Station Operator
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IBM | $79,613 | $38.28 | 6 |
| 2 | Basin Electric Power Cooperative | $51,412 | $24.72 | 2 |
| 3 | Nebraska Public Power District | $49,715 | $23.90 | 6 |
| 4 | City of Los Angeles | $47,704 | $22.93 | 7 |
| 5 | Church & Dwight Co. | $47,415 | $22.80 | 11 |
| 6 | Duke Energy | $40,470 | $19.46 | 7 |
| 7 | Nature's Path Foods | $39,947 | $19.21 | 3 |
| 8 | Boise Cascade | $38,630 | $18.57 | 4 |
| 9 | Badger Daylighting | $38,621 | $18.57 | 3 |
| 10 | United States Marine Corps | $37,425 | $17.99 | 3 |