What does this occupation involve?

Use axes or chainsaws to fell trees using knowledge of tree characteristics and cutting techniques to control direction of fall and minimize tree damage. Day to day that includes work like stop saw engines, pull cutting bars from cuts, and run to safety as tree falls and appraise trees for certain characteristics, such as twist, rot, and heavy limb growth, and gauge amount and direction of lean, to determine how to control the direction of a tree's fall with the least damage.

Which skills can support a resume for this occupation?

O*NET rates Operation and Control, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Operations Monitoring, and Judgment and Decision Making among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What other job titles cover this work?

O*NET records 28 titles for this occupation, including Logger, Timber Cutter, Timber Faller, and Tree Faller. Use the relevant alternatives as search terms and check the responsibilities before deciding whether the posting describes the same work.

Which qualifications may be relevant to this occupation?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 56% reported their level of education as "Less than a High School Diploma". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

How do I turn this occupation's duties into resume bullets?

Start with a task you actually did, such as stop saw engines, pull cutting bars from cuts, and run to safety as tree falls. Then answer four questions: what did you personally do, who or what depended on it, which tool or constraint mattered, and what changed or proves the work happened. Write the line from those answers rather than copying the occupation description.

Resume evidence worksheet for Fallers

For the occupation "Fallers", a strong resume should make the core work easy to see: use axes or chainsaws to fell trees using knowledge of tree characteristics and cutting techniques to control direction of fall and minimize tree damage.

Start with work you have actually done:

Stop saw engines, pull cutting bars from cuts, and run to safety as tree falls.
Appraise trees for certain characteristics, such as twist, rot, and heavy limb growth, and gauge amount and direction of lean, to determine how to control the direction of a tree's fall with the least damage.

Then build each line from your evidence. For each line, name what you did, who or what depended on it, the relevant tool or scope, and what proves the work happened.

How do you turn this occupation's work into resume evidence?

Choose one task you actually did. Answer the four questions in plain language before trying to make the sentence sound polished.

Evidence prompt 1
Saw back-cuts, leaving sufficient sound wood to control direction of fall
Evidence prompt 2
Clear brush from work areas and escape routes, and cut saplings and other trees from direction of falls, using axes, chainsaws, or bulldozers
Evidence prompt 3
Measure felled trees and cut them into specified log lengths, using chain saws and axes

Ask these four questions about the task you chose

What did you personally do, rather than what the team or job was responsible for?
Who or what depended on the work?
What tool, system, process, or constraint shaped the work?
What changed, finished, became easier, or proves the work happened?

Build the line: [what you did] + [who or what it served] + [tool, process, or scope] + [what changed or proves it]. Use only the parts your own experience supports.

What should the top third make easy to find?

Do not turn this into a long summary. Use it as a priority check before a reader reaches the rest of the page.

Target: [Use the posting's exact job title]
Show one relevant example: One result, artifact, decision, or responsibility from your own history that answers a worksheet prompt below.

How can you place those answers in a resume?

This is a fillable worksheet, not a finished resume. The role material comes from O*NET; brackets mark the facts and evidence you still need to supply.

Rendered in the Standard template by the same engine that exports your PDF. See all 5 templates, or start this resume free.

What else is this job called?

Use relevant alternatives as search terms, then compare the responsibilities before deciding whether a posting describes the same work.

Logger
Timber Cutter
Timber Faller
Tree Faller
Cutter Operator
Sawyer
Tree Feller
Tree Topper

O*NET records 28 titles for this occupation in total. The eight above are a starting point, not a keyword list to paste into a resume.

Common questions

What does this occupation involve?: Use axes or chainsaws to fell trees using knowledge of tree characteristics and cutting techniques to control direction of fall and minimize tree damage. Day to day that includes work like stop saw engines, pull cutting bars from cuts, and run to safety as tree falls and appraise trees for certain characteristics, such as twist, rot, and heavy limb growth, and gauge amount and direction of lean, to determine how to control the direction of a tree's fall with the least damage.
Which skills can support a resume for this occupation?: O*NET rates Operation and Control, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Operations Monitoring, and Judgment and Decision Making among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What other job titles cover this work?: O*NET records 28 titles for this occupation, including Logger, Timber Cutter, Timber Faller, and Tree Faller. Use the relevant alternatives as search terms and check the responsibilities before deciding whether the posting describes the same work.
Which qualifications may be relevant to this occupation?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 56% reported their level of education as "Less than a High School Diploma". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
How do I turn this occupation's duties into resume bullets?: Start with a task you actually did, such as stop saw engines, pull cutting bars from cuts, and run to safety as tree falls. Then answer four questions: what did you personally do, who or what depended on it, which tool or constraint mattered, and what changed or proves the work happened. Write the line from those answers rather than copying the occupation description.

What jobs are closest to this one?

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

Source and use notes

O*NET describes the occupation. It does not know your experience or set the requirements for a specific employer.
Use only the tasks, skills, tools, and qualifications that your own history supports and the posting actually calls for.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.