There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a behavior therapist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.9 an hour? That's $37,238 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 22% and produce 12,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many behavior therapists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed speaking skills, physical stamina and patience.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a behavior therapist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 28.0% of behavior therapists included behavior analysis, while 8.7% of resumes included intellectual disabilities, and 7.4% of resumes included aba. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the behavior therapist job title. But what industry to start with? Most behavior therapists actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
If you're interested in becoming a behavior therapist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 49.5% of behavior therapists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 37.6% of behavior therapists have master's degrees. Even though most behavior therapists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a behavior therapist. When we researched the most common majors for a behavior therapist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on behavior therapist resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a behavior therapist. In fact, many behavior therapist jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many behavior therapists also have previous career experience in roles such as volunteer or sales associate.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of tutor you might progress to a role such as team leader eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of social services.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Behavior Therapist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Behavior Therapist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Behavior Therapist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationLong Beach, CA
New York, NY
Chapel Hill, NC
Boston, MA
New York, NY
Evanston, IL
New York, NY
Baltimore, MD
Albany, NY
San Jose, CA
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 28.0% of behavior therapists listed behavior analysis on their resume, but soft skills such as speaking skills and physical stamina are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a behavior therapist. The best states for people in this position are West Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Behavior therapists make the most in West Virginia with an average salary of $37,559. Whereas in Illinois and Pennsylvania, they would average $36,767 and $36,674, respectively. While behavior therapists would only make an average of $36,425 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Pennsylvania
$36,674
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$36,083
Avg. Salary
3. Kentucky
$36,265
Avg. Salary