Career
Earth drillers, except oil and gas
Drill wells and boreholes.
$60,190
Median pay
+3.6%
Job growth, 2025–35
1,400
Openings a year
High school diploma or equivalent
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Operate controls to stabilize machines and to position and align drills.
- Start, stop, and control drilling speed of machines and insertion of casings into holes.
- Regulate air pressure, rotary speed, and downward pressure, according to the type of rock or concrete being drilled.
- Select and attach drill bits and drill rods, adding more rods as hole depths increase, and changing drill bits as needed.
- Drive or guide truck-mounted equipment into position, level and stabilize rigs, and extend telescoping derricks.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Operate controls to stabilize machines and to position and align drills.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Operations Monitoring, Operation and Control, Critical Thinking, Equipment Maintenance.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though long-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $60,190 a year and 1,400 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Well Drilling/DrillerCIP 46.0504
- Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment OperationCIP 49.0202
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas$67,890 · +0.8%
- Helpers--Extraction Workers$47,730 · +1.7%
- Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$49,080 · -9.5%
- Continuous Mining Machine Operators$61,810 · +3.2%
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining$57,430 · +1.0%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.