Best Job Opportunities for Drone Operators in 2022

You've learnt about all that is needed to start a drone business, now what?

Well, it's time to pick a niche - an area of interest. But first, you need to know the types of jobs available. And this is the best part about the drone industry; there are numerous opportunities, some of which are;

1. Drone Photography and Filmmaking: This is the most popular field of choice in the drone industry. It is an umbrella term for jobs done in real estate, event coverage, media and politics, advertising and so many other areas. All that you need in this field is photography experience which would be used in taking aerial photos and videos. For filmmaking, drones are used to get aerial footage of chase scenes, fight scenes, and other action sequences that would be difficult to get with a normal camera. While in real estate, drone photography helps to capture cinematic, artistic shots for a better appeal to customers.
2. Property Surveying: Drones are used in the construction industry for aerial site surveys and mapping, construction progress monitoring, safety and quality inspections and field logistics. These tasks are usually done by surveyors and construction workers, but are time-consuming and might contain inaccurate data. With a drone, however, you can provide this service and collect precise information easily and quickly.
3. Agricultural Technology: This is a lucrative job as farmers always want to know the quality of health of their lands and crops. Walking through hectares of land to check each plant is a tedious impossible job for them. With a drone equipped with a multispectral sensor, you make capturing and generating geospatial and multispectral data of a farm possible. This map is then used for crop health management, crop inspection and monitoring, soil health analysis, mapping, and land scouting. With your drone services, farmers would identify core areas in the farm that require attention and easily allocate resources like fertilizers, pesticides or irrigation to these parts.
4. Public Safety: There are different ways you can use a drone for public safety, this can be in search and rescue, firefighting, traffic management or mapping of crime scenes. A drone provides a bird’s eye view of an environment in difficult situations that require search, identification or rescue. You can use drones in the aftermath of natural disasters, such as floods or hurricanes to locate people in need of assistance and access damage.
5. Delivery and Cargo: Your drones can be used to transport supplies, products and equipment from one place to another even faster and more efficiently than humans. This is essentially vital for places with bad road networks or during moments of crisis and wars. There is no case of being stuck in traffic or being unable to access a location.
6. Roofing and Installation: With drone technology, the hard and laborious job of climbing ladders to measure, fix or replace materials on the roofs and sides of buildings is eliminated. You can start a drone service that delivers materials to these high settings, thereby providing a safer and quicker way to transport materials.
7. Drone Flight Instruction: All you need to become a drone flight instructor is to thoroughly know your craft, have enough years of experience and be able to teach and talk to people. Good thing is that at the moment, there are no required certifications to be a drone flight instructor (except specified in your country and state).
8. Drone Repair and Rental: You can also specialise in providing rental and repair services to other drone operators in your locality. Some people would not be able to afford a drone of their own or are unsure of which to buy or they might need a specific drone type for a certain job. They don’t want to buy a drone that’s not going to be put to work regularly so they opt to rent one. That is where you as a rental service provider come in. You can also offer repair services if you have the technical knowledge.

These are just some of the avenues you can venture in as a drone operator. With the rapid growth of the drone industry, it is expected that many more job offers would open up in the coming years. You should be ready for them.

Have any thoughts or questions? I’d love to hear from you. Reach out any time.

Cheers,

Eno.