Agricultural Equipment Operators

Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste.

Sector: Skilled Trades
Preparation: Zone 2 — some preparation needed
O*NET code: 45-2091.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment

central to the job — rated 86/100 for importance.
Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials

a major part of the work — rated 82/100 for importance.
Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships

a major part of the work — rated 80/100 for importance.
Controlling Machines and Processes

a major part of the work — rated 79/100 for importance.
Handling and Moving Objects

a major part of the work — rated 79/100 for importance.
Processing Information

a major part of the work — rated 78/100 for importance.

Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Operation and Control

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Operations Monitoring

Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Troubleshooting

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 53/100 for importance.
Equipment Maintenance

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.
Repairing

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.

Knowledge

English Language

Needed at a basic working level (41/100), and rated 60/100 for importance.
Mechanical

Needed at a basic working level (40/100), and rated 47/100 for importance.
Public Safety and Security

Needed at a basic working level (37/100), and rated 45/100 for importance.
Mathematics

Needed at a basic working level (35/100), and rated 44/100 for importance.

Abilities

Control Precision

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Multilimb Coordination

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Near Vision

Needed at a solid working level (46/100), and rated 66/100 for importance.
Depth Perception

Needed at a solid working level (46/100), and rated 60/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 2 — some preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

A high-school diploma is the usual starting point.

Experience

Some prior work experience helps but is rarely required.

Training

Expect a few months to a year of on-the-job training.

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

The work is physical — you are on your feet and handling things, not sitting still.From “Performing General Physical Activities”
Long-running relationships carry the work; the same people come back.From “Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships”
Part of the job is other people’s output, not only your own.From “Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others”
You run equipment, and running it well is a skill in itself.From “Controlling Machines and Processes”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Agricultural Equipment Operators. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

More in Skilled Trades

See every Skilled Trades career →

See your fit for Agricultural Equipment Operators

Ten questions, about 90 seconds. You get your match against Agricultural Equipment Operators and 782+ other real careers — with the reasoning shown.

Take the quiz Open in FlightWay

Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.