If you are looking for some information about a specific type of job or are just curious about other career paths, review the following positions to help choose the right one for you.
Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
Assemble, fit, fasten, and install parts of airplanes, space vehicles, or missiles, such as tails, wings, fuselage, bulkheads, stabilizers, landing gear, rigging and control equipment, or heating and ventilating systems
Bindery Workers
Set up or operate binding machines that produce books and other printed materials.
Boilermakers
Construct, assemble, maintain, and repair stationary steam boilers and boiler house auxiliaries. Align structures or plate sections to assemble boiler frame tanks or vats, following blueprints. Work involves use of hand and power tools, plumb bobs, levels, wedges, dogs, or turnbuckles. Assist in testing assembled vessels. Direct cleaning of boilers and boiler furnaces. Inspect and repair boiler fittings, such as safety valves, regulators, automatic-control mechanisms, water columns, and auxiliary machines.
Bookbinders
Perform highly skilled hand finishing operations, such as grooving and lettering to bind books.
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters
Cut, shape, and assemble wooden articles or set up and operate a variety of woodworking machines, such as power saws, jointers, and mortisers to surface, cut, or shape lumber or to fabricate parts for wood products.
Cementing and Gluing Machine Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend cementing and gluing machines to join items for further processing or to form a completed product. Processes include joining veneer sheets into plywood; gluing paper; joining rubber and rubberized fabric parts, plastic, simulated leather, or other materials.
Chemical Engineers
Design chemical plant equipment and devise processes for manufacturing chemicals and products, such as gasoline, synthetic rubber, plastics, detergents, cement, paper, and pulp, by applying principles and technology of chemistry, physics, and engineering.
Operate or tend equipment to control chemical changes or reactions in the processing of industrial or consumer products. Equipment used includes devulcanizers, steam-jacketed kettles, and reactor vessels.
Chemical Plant and System Operators
Control or operate an entire chemical process or system of machines.
Conduct chemical and physical laboratory tests to assist scientists in making qualitative and quantitative analyses of solids, liquids, and gaseous materials for purposes, such as research and development of new products or processes, quality control, maintenance of environmental standards, and other work involving experimental, theoretical, or practical application of chemistry and related sciences.
Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend machines to wash or clean products, such as barrels or kegs, glass items, tin plate, food, pulp, coal, plastic, or rubber, to remove impurities.
Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines to coat or paint any of a wide variety of products including food, glassware, cloth, ceramics, metal, plastic, paper, or wood, with lacquer, silver, copper, rubber, varnish, glaze, enamel, oil, or rust-proofing materials.
Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers
Wind wire coils used in electrical components, such as resistors and transformers, and in electrical equipment and instruments, such as field cores, bobbins, armature cores, electrical motors, generators, and control equipment.
Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic
Operate computer-controlled machines or robots to perform one or more machine functions on metal or plastic work pieces.
Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend equipment, such as cooling and freezing units, refrigerators, batch freezers, and freezing tunnels, to cool or freeze products, food, blood plasma, and chemicals.
Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines to crush, grind, or polish materials, such as coal, glass, grain, stone, food, or rubber.
Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
Use hand tools or hand-held power tools to cut and trim a variety of manufactured items, such as carpet, fabric, stone, glass, or rubber.
Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut or slice materials, such as glass, stone, cork, rubber, tobacco, food, paper, or insulating material.
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend machines to saw, cut, shear, slit, punch, crimp, notch, bend, or straighten metal or plastic material.
Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend drilling machines to drill, bore, ream, mill, or countersink metal or plastic work pieces.
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers
Assemble or modify electrical or electronic equipment, such as computers, test equipment telemetering systems, electric motors, and batteries.
Assemble or modify electromechanical equipment or devices, such as servomechanisms, gyros, dynamometers, magnetic drums, tape drives, brakes, control linkage, actuators, and appliances.
Engine and Other Machine Assemblers
Construct, assemble, or rebuild machines, such as engines, turbines, and similar equipment used in such industries as construction, extraction, textiles, and paper manufacturing.
Etchers and Engravers
Engrave or etch metal, wood, rubber, or other materials for identification or decorative purposes. Includes such workers as etcher-circuit processors, pantograph engravers, and silk screen etchers.
Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend machines to extrude or draw thermoplastic or metal materials into tubes, rods, hoses, wire, bars, or structural shapes.
Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers
Set up, operate, or tend machines that extrude and form continuous filaments from synthetic materials, such as liquid polymer, rayon, and fiberglass.
Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines, such as glass forming machines, plodder machines, and tuber machines, to shape and form products, such as glassware, food, rubber, soap, brick, tile, clay, wax, tobacco, or cosmetics.
Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers
Draw and construct sets of precision master fabric patterns or layouts. May also mark and cut fabrics and apparel.
Fabric Menders, Except Garment
Repair tears, holes, and other defects in fabrics, such as draperies, linens, parachutes, and tents.
Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators
Laminate layers of fiberglass on molds to form boat decks and hulls, bodies for golf carts, automobiles, or other products.
Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend food or tobacco roasting, baking, or drying equipment, including hearth ovens, kiln driers, roasters, char kilns, and vacuum drying equipment.
Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.
Food Scientists and Technologists
Use chemistry, microbiology, engineering, and other sciences to study the principles underlying the processing and deterioration of foods; analyze food content to determine levels of vitamins, fat, sugar, and protein; discover new food sources; research ways to make processed foods safe, palatable, and healthful; and apply food science knowledge to determine best ways to process, package, preserve, store, and distribute food.
Serve food to patrons outside of a restaurant environment, such as in hotels, hospital rooms, or cars.
Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend forging machines to taper, shape, or form metal or plastic parts.
Foundry Mold and Coremakers
Make or form wax or sand cores or molds used in the production of metal castings in foundries.
Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend heating equipment other than basic metal, plastic, or food processing equipment. Includes activities, such as annealing glass, drying lumber, curing rubber, removing moisture from materials, or boiling soap.
Furniture Finishers
Shape, finish, and refinish damaged, worn, or used furniture or new high-grade furniture to specified color or finish.
Gas Plant Operators
Distribute or process gas for utility companies and others by controlling compressors to maintain specified pressures on main pipelines.
Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
Grind, sand, or polish, using hand tools or hand-held power tools, a variety of metal, wood, stone, clay, plastic, or glass objects.
Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend grinding and related tools that remove excess material or burrs from surfaces, sharpen edges or corners, or buff, hone, or polish metal or plastic work pieces.
Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend heating equipment, such as heat-treating furnaces, flame-hardening machines, induction machines, soaking pits, or vacuum equipment to temper, harden, anneal, or heat-treat metal or plastic objects.
Helpers--Production Workers
Help production workers by performing duties of lesser skill. Duties include supplying or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
Inspect, test, sort, sample, or weigh nonagricultural raw materials or processed, machined, fabricated, or assembled parts or products for defects, wear, and deviations from specifications. May use precision measuring instruments and complex test equipment.
Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems. Includes diamond polishers and gem cutters and persons who perform precision casting and modeling of molds, casting metal in molds, or setting precious and semi-precious stones for jewelry and related products.
Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend lathe and turning machines to turn, bore, thread, form, or face metal or plastic materials, such as wire, rod, or bar stock.
Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers
Operate or tend washing or dry-cleaning machines to wash or dry-clean industrial or household articles, such as cloth garments, suede, leather, furs, blankets, draperies, fine linens, rugs, and carpets.
Lay out reference points and dimensions on metal or plastic stock or workpieces, such as sheets, plates, tubes, structural shapes, castings, or machine parts, for further processing. Includes shipfitters.
Locksmiths and Safe Repairers
Repair and open locks; make keys; change locks and safe combinations; and install and repair safes.
Set up and operate a variety of machine tools to produce precision parts and instruments. Includes precision instrument makers who fabricate, modify, or repair mechanical instruments. May also fabricate and modify parts to make or repair machine tools or maintain industrial machines, applying knowledge of mechanics, shop mathematics, metal properties, layout, and machining procedures.
Move or install mobile homes or prefabricated buildings.
Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians
Perform routine medical laboratory tests for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. May work under the supervision of a medical technologist.
Provide persons, families, or vulnerable populations with the psychosocial support needed to cope with chronic, acute, or terminal illnesses, such as Alzheimer's, cancer, or AIDS. Services include advising family care givers, providing patient education and counseling, and making necessary referrals for other social services.
Medical Appliance Technicians
Construct, fit, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices, such as braces, artificial limbs, joints, arch supports, and other surgical and medical appliances.
Medical Assistants
Perform administrative and certain clinical duties under the direction of physician. Administrative duties may include scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding for insurance purposes. Clinical duties may include taking and recording vital signs and medical histories, preparing patients for examination, drawing blood, and administering medications as directed by physician.
Prepare, sterilize, install, or clean laboratory or healthcare equipment. May perform routine laboratory tasks and operate or inspect equipment.
Medical Equipment Repairers
Test, adjust, or repair biomedical or electromedical equipment.
Medical Records and Health Information Technicians
Compile, process, and maintain medical records of hospital and clinic patients in a manner consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements of the health care system. Process, maintain, compile, and report patient information for health requirements and standards.
Conduct research dealing with the understanding of human diseases and the improvement of human health. Engage in clinical investigation or other research, production, technical writing, or related activities.
Medical Secretaries
Perform secretarial duties utilizing specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic, or laboratory procedures. Duties include scheduling appointments, billing patients, and compiling and recording medical charts, reports, and correspondence.
Use transcribing machines with headset and foot pedal to listen to recordings by physicians and other healthcare professionals dictating a variety of medical reports, such as emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies, operations, chart reviews, and final summaries. Transcribe dictated reports and translate medical jargon and abbreviations into their expanded forms. Edit as necessary and return reports in either printed or electronic form to the dictator for review and signature, or correction.
Operate or tend furnaces, such as gas, oil, coal, electric-arc or electric induction, open-hearth, or oxygen furnaces, to melt and refine metal before casting or to produce specified types of steel.
Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend milling or planing machines to mill, plane, shape, groove, or profile metal or plastic work pieces.
Millwrights
Install, dismantle, or move machinery and heavy equipment according to layout plans, blueprints, or other drawings.
Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines to mix or blend materials, such as chemicals, tobacco, liquids, color pigments, or explosive ingredients.
Model Makers, Metal and Plastic
Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, milling and engraving machines, and jig borers to make working models of metal or plastic objects.
Model Makers, Wood
Construct full-size and scale wooden precision models of products. Includes wood jig builders and loft workers.
Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
Mold, shape, form, cast, or carve products such as food products, figurines, tile, pipes, and candles consisting of clay, glass, plaster, concrete, stone, or combinations of materials.
Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend metal or plastic molding, casting, or coremaking machines to mold or cast metal or thermoplastic parts or products.
Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend more than one type of cutting or forming machine tool or robot.
Numerical Tool and Process Control Programmers
Develop programs to control machining or processing of parts by automatic machine tools, equipment, or systems.
Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
Cut, grind, and polish eyeglasses, contact lenses, or other precision optical elements. Assemble and mount lenses into frames or process other optical elements.
Operate or tend painting machines to paint surfaces of transportation equipment, such as automobiles, buses, trucks, trains, boats, and airplanes.
Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers
Paint, coat, or decorate articles, such as furniture, glass, plateware, pottery, jewelry, cakes, toys, books, or leather.
Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend paper goods machines that perform a variety of functions, such as converting, sawing, corrugating, banding, wrapping, boxing, stitching, forming, or sealing paper or paperboard sheets into products.
Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
Lay out, machine, fit, and assemble castings and parts to metal or plastic foundry patterns, core boxes, or match plates.
Patternmakers, Wood
Plan, lay out, and construct wooden unit or sectional patterns used in forming sand molds for castings.
Petroleum Engineers
Devise methods to improve oil and gas well production and determine the need for new or modified tool designs. Oversee drilling and offer technical advice to achieve economical and satisfactory progress.
Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers
Control the operation of petroleum refining or processing units. May specialize in controlling manifold and pumping systems, gauging or testing oil in storage tanks, or regulating the flow of oil into pipelines.
Photographic Process Workers
Perform precision work involved in photographic processing, such as editing photographic negatives and prints, using photo-mechanical, chemical, or computerized methods.
Photographic Processing Machine Operators
Operate photographic processing machines, such as photographic printing machines, film developing machines, and mounting presses.
Plating and Coating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend plating or coating machines to coat metal or plastic products with chromium, zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel, or other metal to protect or decorate surfaces. Includes electrolytic processes.
Pourers and Casters, Metal
Operate hand-controlled mechanisms to pour and regulate the flow of molten metal into molds to produce castings or ingots.
Power Plant Operators
Control, operate, or maintain machinery to generate electric power. Includes auxiliary equipment operators.
Prepress Technicians and Workers
Set up and prepare material for printing presses.
Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
Press or shape articles by hand or machine.
Printing Machine Operators
Set up or operate various types of printing machines, such as offset, letterset, intaglio, or gravure presses or screen printers to produce print on paper or other materials.
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks
Coordinate and expedite the flow of work and materials within or between departments of an establishment according to production schedule. Duties include reviewing and distributing production, work, and shipment schedules; conferring with department supervisors to determine progress of work and completion dates; and compiling reports on progress of work, inventory levels, costs, and production problems.
Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate or to flatten, temper, or reduce gauge of material.
Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
Set up, operate, or tend wood sawing machines. Includes head sawyers.
Semiconductor Processors
Perform any or all of the following functions in the manufacture of electronic semiconductors: load semiconductor material into furnace; saw formed ingots into segments; load individual segment into crystal growing chamber and monitor controls; locate crystal axis in ingot using x-ray equipment and saw ingots into wafers; clean, polish, and load wafers into series of special purpose furnaces, chemical baths, and equipment used to form circuitry and change conductive properties.
Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend continuous flow or vat-type equipment; filter presses; shaker screens; centrifuges; condenser tubes; precipitating, fermenting, or evaporating tanks; scrubbing towers; or batch stills. These machines extract, sort, or separate liquids, gases, or solids from other materials to recover a refined product. Includes dairy processing equipment operators.
Sewers, Hand
Sew, join, reinforce, or finish, usually with needle and thread, a variety of manufactured items. Includes weavers and stitchers.
Sewing Machine Operators
Operate or tend sewing machines to join, reinforce, decorate, or perform related sewing operations in the manufacture of garment or nongarment products.
Verify and keep records on incoming and outgoing shipments. Prepare items for shipment. Duties include assembling, addressing, stamping, and shipping merchandise or material; receiving, unpacking, verifying and recording incoming merchandise or material; and arranging for the transportation of products.
Construct, decorate, or repair leather and leather-like products, such as luggage, shoes, and saddles.
Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend a variety of machines to join, decorate, reinforce, or finish shoes and shoe parts.
Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Operate equipment, such as steam engines, generators, motors, turbines, and steam boilers.
Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
Fabricate, lay out, position, align, and fit parts of structural metal products.
Work as part of a team having responsibility for assembling an entire product or component of a product. Team assemblers can perform all tasks conducted by the team in the assembly process and rotate through all or most of them rather than being assigned to a specific task on a permanent basis. May participate in making management decisions affecting the work. Team leaders who work as part of the team should be included.
Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend machines to bleach, shrink, wash, dye, or finish textiles or synthetic or glass fibers.
Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut textiles.
Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines that knit, loop, weave, or draw in textiles.
Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines that wind or twist textiles; or draw out and combine sliver, such as wool, hemp, or synthetic fibers.
Timing Device Assemblers, Adjusters, and Calibrators
Perform precision assembling or adjusting, within narrow tolerances, of timing devices, such as watches, clocks, or chronometers.
Tire Builders
Operate machines to build tires from rubber components.
Tool and Die Makers
Analyze specifications, lay out metal stock, set up and operate machine tools, and fit and assemble parts to make and repair dies, cutting tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges, and machinists' hand tools.
Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping
Weigh, measure, and check materials, supplies, and equipment for the purpose of keeping relevant records. Duties are primarily clerical by nature.
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.
Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend welding, soldering, or brazing machines or robots that weld, braze, solder, or heat treat metal products, components, or assemblies.
Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
Set up, operate, or tend woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, and wood nailing machines.
