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Job Truth / Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
What does a Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tender
actually do all day?
top skill Operation and Controlcore tasks 6median pay $45,760AI exposure 0/100
Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is moderately paced, on your feet, some people contact work.
What this job actually does all day
The representative tasks O*NET analysts recorded for this role — not a glossy job ad, the real work.
- Adjust machine components to regulate speeds, pressures, and temperatures, and amounts, dimensions, and flow of materials or ingredients.
- Press control buttons to activate machinery and equipment.
- Examine, measure, and weigh materials or products to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as templates, micrometers, or scales.
- Monitor machine operations and observe lights and gauges to detect malfunctions.
- Clear jams, and remove defective or substandard materials or products.
- Notify supervisors when extruded filaments fail to meet standards.
Skills & environment
Bars are O*NET importance/intensity ratings, scaled 0–100 so you can compare at a glance.
The skills it demands most
What the environment feels like
Deadline pressure: constant deadline pressureConflict & friction: moderateNeed to be exact: precision is criticalTime spent sitting: mostly on your feet / movingContact with people: constantly dealing with people
Go deeper on this role
How this is built. Tasks, skills, and work-environment ratings come from the
U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET occupational analysis — job analysts survey real workers, so this is the
closest thing to "what the job is actually like" in public data. Skill scores are O*NET Importance
ratings (0–5) and environment measures are Context ratings (0–5), both rescaled to 0–100 here for
easy reading. This task-and-skill detail comes straight from the O*NET database — it's
pulled straight from the survey, not invented. Figures describe the typical role, not any one person's job.
