How To Become A Barge Captain: What It Is and Career Path

What is a barge captain and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a barge captain. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.71 an hour? That's $55,559 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreBarge CaptainUS Average

Salary

4.3

Avg. Salary $55,559

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.5

Growth Rate 1%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.08%

Asian 3.14%

Black or African American 6.85%

Hispanic or Latino 8.90%

Unknown 4.69%

White 75.34%

Gender

female 1.52%

male 98.48%

Age - 40.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40.5

Stress Level

9.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.7

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

2.6

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a barge captain

Explore barge captain education requirements

Most common barge captain degrees

High School Diploma

28.6 %

Bachelor's

28.6 %

Master's

14.3 %

Start to develop specific barge captain skills

Skills	Percentages
Boats	100.00%

Complete relevant barge captain training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New barge captains learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a barge captain based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real barge captain resumes.

Research barge captain duties and responsibilities

Lead a platoon that earn numerous awards for jamming opposition force artillery nets and conducting counterattacks on opposition electronic warfare platoons.
Bunker various cruise vessels in the Caribbean.
Direct the installation, operation and maintenance of military radio and telecommunications assets for combat infantry units and fix telephone facilities.
Monitor operations to consistently meet BP requirements.

Prepare your barge captain resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your barge captain resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a barge captain resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Barge Captain Resume templates

Build a professional Barge Captain resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Barge Captain resume.

Apply for barge captain jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a barge captain job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do barge captains rate their job?