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Lead Operator Must-Have Resume Skills and Keywords

Are you interested in improving your job outlook and increasing your salary? How can you demonstrate that you are the most qualified candidate for a Lead Operator position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as a Lead Operator may be your best qualification, but there are other ways you can also develop your skills, like continuing education or volunteer opportunities. More immediately, however, you can be ready for your next opportunity or promotion by educating yourself about the duties, responsibilities, and required skills of a Lead Operator and making sure your resume reflects your experience properly.

In order to do so, you’ll want to know that employers commonly feature Innovation and Technical as the most prominent terms in their Lead Operator job descriptions, yet those who have held the position of Lead Operator and list it on their resume indicate Troubleshooting and Forklift Experience more predominantly. Do you know what you would list?

We designed the ZipRecruiter Career Keyword Mapper to help you solve this problem and hopefully improve your resume. Using machine learning tools paired with industry research, our Marketplace Research Team helped analyze millions of job postings and resumes to identify the most important keywords related to Lead Operator jobs. Our goal is to help you discover opportunities to improve your resume or to help you understand what skills and qualifications you need to be a Lead Operator or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

Top
10
Job Skills
Employers require a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Lead Operator positions. The top three keywords make up 39.67% of the total set of top terms. Look to the Resume Checklist below to see how Innovation, Technical, and Troubleshooting shares stack up against the share from resumes. Communication Skills, Supervisory Experience and Wastewater Treatment represent an additionally healthy share of the employer Lead Operator job postings with their combined total of 28.83%. At 31.5%, Compliance, Collaboration, Wastewater Management, and Forklift Experience appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Lead Operator skills and requirements according to employers.

Top Skills Mentioned in Resumes

Top
10
Job Skills
Job seeker resumes showcase a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Lead Operator positions. The top three keywords represent 40.42% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how Troubleshooting, Forklift Experience, and Customer Service match up to employer job descriptions. Trucking, Managing Crews, and Technical represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Lead Operator with 28.32% of the total. At 31.25%, Quality Control, Scheduling, Assembly Line, and Communication Skills appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Lead Operator skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be a Lead Operator as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Lead Operator job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Lead Operator on their resumes.
Top Lead Operator Skills
Skills Required by Employers Share
Innovation 14.36%
Technical 13.17%
Troubleshooting 12.14%
Communication Skills 10.35%
Supervisory Experience 9.88%
Wastewater Treatment 8.60%
Compliance 8.26%
Collaboration 7.82%
Wastewater Management 7.73%
Forklift Experience 7.69%
Skills Listed by Employees Share
Troubleshooting 14.77%
Forklift Experience 14.45%
Customer Service 11.20%
Trucking 10.50%
Managing Crews 9.42%
Technical 8.40%
Quality Control 8.15%
Scheduling 8.08%
Assembly Line 8.02%
Communication Skills 7.00%

Lead Operator Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Lead Operator positions. Our algorithm helps isolate phrases and patterns to identify the most frequently recurring and reused keywords from each data source, while correcting for uncommon and outlier results. Various heuristic methodologies are then applied to ultimately create two top 20 lists of the most important and significant skills, certificates and requirements found within Lead Operator job postings and resumes. We then merge the two lists together and use a combination of statistics and rules-based scenarios to create a list that is audited by the Marketplace Research team, and finally turned into the checklist you see below. Our hope is that knowing this information can help you make your best impression with your next potential employer.
Uncommon Keywords on Lead Operator Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Innovation
Wastewater Treatment
Employer job listings frequently list Innovation or Wastewater Treatment as requirements in Lead Operator job descriptions; however, candidates mention them far less frequently on their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Lead Operator position may help you stand out more to hiring managers.
Common Keywords on Lead Operator Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Supervisory Experience
Wastewater Management
Sampling
Mentoring
Collaboration
Technical
Valve
Communication Skills
Compliance
Electricity
Pumping
Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the position of Lead Operator tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Supervisory Experience, Wastewater Management, Sampling, Mentoring, Collaboration, Technical, Valve, Communication Skills, Compliance, Electricity or Pumping in your background and experience, make sure to highlight the term prominently on your resume. As a candidate you’ll be competing with many others who are bound to have as many as you (or more!) of these common resume keywords highlighted in their application for a job as a Lead Operator.
Uncommon Keywords on Lead Operator Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Preventive Maintenance
Detail Oriented
MS Office
Troubleshooting
Managing Crews
Scheduling
OSHA Standards
Customer Service
Quality Control
Forklift Experience
Assembly Line
Employer job listings rarely list Preventive Maintenance, Detail Oriented, MS Office, Troubleshooting, Managing Crews, Scheduling, OSHA Standards, Customer Service, Quality Control, Forklift Experience or Assembly Line as important skills or qualifications in Lead Operator job descriptions. Nevertheless, candidates mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Lead Operator position may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Lead Operator Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Lead Operator job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Supervisory Experience, Wastewater Management, Sampling, Mentoring, Collaboration, Technical and Valve. These skills and requirements are just as likely to be mentioned by employers as well as on resumes of people that held a position as a Lead Operator, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as a Lead Operator. Additionally, employer Lead Operator job descriptions list Innovation as a desirable experience, even though Innovation appears 5.3 times less on resumes, suggesting that it's worth considering including this keyword if you possess the experience.

What are the least important Lead Operator job skills to have on my resume?

Although you'd probably love to load up your resume with every possible keyword you can, employers tend to look for the things they specify in the job description. Our analysis suggests that highlighting too prominently terms like Preventive Maintenance, Detail Oriented, MS Office, Troubleshooting, Managing Crews, Scheduling and OSHA Standards may be something to reconsider. These 7 terms appear 2.09, 2.21, 2.57, 2.59, 2.85, 2.94 and 3.13 times less frequently, respectively, than in job descriptions for a Lead Operator role. This implies that highlighting any of these keywords on your resume may not be a great way to impress a potential employer.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for a Lead Operator position?

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Lead Operator. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:
  • Supervisory Experience
  • Wastewater Management
  • Sampling
  • Mentoring
  • Collaboration
  • Technical
  • Valve
  • Communication Skills
  • Compliance
  • Electricity
  • Pumping
Additionally employers frequently list the following as desirable qualities in a Lead Operator candidate, but they are far less common on most resumes:
  • Innovation
  • Wastewater Treatment
Finally people who held the position of a Lead Operator and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Lead Operator application:
  • Preventive Maintenance
  • Detail Oriented
  • MS Office
  • Troubleshooting
  • Managing Crews
  • Scheduling
  • OSHA Standards
  • Customer Service
  • Quality Control
  • Forklift Experience
  • Assembly Line

Before applying for a Lead Operator job

At ZipRecruiter, we understand better than anyone the importance of using the right keywords to describe your experience — it’s crucial to attracting the right employers! We built our business on the ability to effectively match job seekers with employers using AI-technology that understands your resume and how likely you are to be noticed by a potential future employer. Having a ZipRecruiter profile that showcases your most relevant skills and abilities can help you get recruited into a new role as a Lead Operator. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!