Where a wastewater treatment operator can go next
5 destinations recorded, ranked by how much of the target role a wastewater treatment operator already meets. The closer to the top of Table 1, the less there is to learn.
Wastewater treatment operators operate equipment used in a water or wastewater plant. They treat and clean drinking water before it is distributed to the consumer and process wastewater to remove harmful substances before returning it to rivers and seas. They take samples and perform tests to analyse the water quality.
Also known as wastewater safety operative, wastewater treatment system worker, wastewater treatment plant operative, drinking water treatment system operative, wastewater quality tester, drinking water treatment system worker, water treatment system operative, drinking water treatment system operator, wastewater treatment plant worker, wastewater quality operative, wastewater safety tester.
Technicians and associate professionals 33 skills on file 5 career moves 2 above 60% overlap Closest: water plant technician, 66%
- 70% and above · short step
- 50 to 70% · real move
- Below 50% · substantial retraining
Table 2 · A bigger jump
Possible, but expect real retraining rather than a sideways step.
Table 3 · What the job itself asks for
A wastewater treatment operator needs 15 required skills and areas of knowledge. These 10 are the ones fewest other jobs share, so they say the most about the work.
- dispose of sewage sludge handling and moving
- operate water purifying equipment working with machinery and specialised equipment
- perform water chemistry analysis information skills
- perform water treatment procedures working with machinery and specialised equipment
- percolation natural sciences, mathematics and statistics
- carry out waste water treatment working with machinery and specialised equipment
- maintain water treatment equipment constructing
- water chemistry analysis natural sciences, mathematics and statistics
- perform water treatments information skills
- interpret scientific data to assess water quality information skills
Table 4 · Jobs that lead here
The reverse view: occupations whose skills already cover much of what a wastewater treatment operator does. The figure is how much of this job each one brings.
- water treatment systems operator 74% covered · difficulty 27
- water plant technician 71% covered · difficulty 31
- wastewater treatment technician 61% covered · difficulty 42.4
- water network operative 46% covered · difficulty 55
- groundwater monitoring technician 44% covered · difficulty 56.2
- water quality analyst 43% covered · difficulty 57.4
- water engineer 41% covered · difficulty 58.7
- water systems engineering technician 33% covered · difficulty 65.1
- aquaculture hatchery technician 28% covered · difficulty 69.7
- water conservation technician 27% covered · difficulty 70.7
Look up another occupation
Wastewater treatment operator is filed under Technicians and associate professionals, ISCO major group 3. The full index lists all ten groups.
How these figures were compiled
Overlap is how much of the target role is already part of a wastewater treatment operator’s work. It is directional: the figure for the reverse move differs. Every entry above opens the full comparison for that move: what carries over, what is missing, and where to start. The full method.