FlightWay / Careers / Foresters
Engineering & Science
Foresters
Manage public and private forested lands for economic, recreational, and conservation purposes.
- Sector: Engineering & Science
- Preparation: Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed
- O*NET code: 19-1032.00
What you'll actually do
The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.
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Making Decisions and Solving Problems
central to the job — rated 87/100 for importance.
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Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
a major part of the work — rated 84/100 for importance.
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Communicating with People Outside the Organization
a major part of the work — rated 84/100 for importance.
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Documenting/Recording Information
a major part of the work — rated 83/100 for importance.
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Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings
a major part of the work — rated 81/100 for importance.
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Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards
a major part of the work — rated 81/100 for importance.
Manage public and private forested lands for economic, recreational, and conservation purposes. May inventory the type, amount, and location of standing timber, appraise the timber's worth, negotiate the purchase, and draw up contracts for procurement. May determine how to conserve wildlife habitats, creek beds, water quality, and soil stability, and how best to comply with environmental regulations.
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
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Active Listening
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
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Complex Problem Solving
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
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Critical Thinking
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
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Reading Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
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Speaking
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Knowledge
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Customer and Personal Service
Needed at a high level (72/100), and rated 73/100 for importance.
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English Language
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 70/100 for importance.
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Administration and Management
Needed at a high level (63/100), and rated 70/100 for importance.
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Biology
Needed at a high level (62/100), and rated 68/100 for importance.
Abilities
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Oral Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
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Oral Expression
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
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Written Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
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Category Flexibility
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
How people get in
O*NET places this occupation in Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.
Education
A four-year bachelor's degree is the usual entry ticket.
Experience
Two to four years of related work, internships or research on top of the degree.
Training
Most of the learning happens before you are hired, not after.
What it pays
These are typical science compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Foresters specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.
Pfizer · Nat"l Labs · MIT
$110k – $200k
Biotech & Pharma Mid
$90k – $160k
Startups & Academia
$65k – $110k
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.
- Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”
- The work is physical — you are on your feet and handling things, not sitting still.From “Performing General Physical Activities”
- You are in front of the public, so the job is partly performance.From “Performing for or Working Directly with the Public”
- 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”
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 Foresters. 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 Engineering & Science
See your fit for Foresters
Ten questions, about 90 seconds. You get your match against Foresters and 782+ other real careers — with the reasoning shown.
Take the quiz Open in FlightWayOccupational 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.