How To Become A Clinical Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clinical technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

Clinical Technicians operate medical and laboratory equipment, collect samples from patients, and assist during surgical procedures. They work in doctors' offices, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and other medical fields. If Doctor's are the superheroes, then clinical technicians are their trusty sidekicks.

To become a Clinical Technician, you must earn a two-year associate's degree from an approved program and pass a certification exam, which you can take through certain organizations. A Clinical Technician will be responsible for collecting and analyzing bodily cells and fluids using sophisticated equipment to search for bacteria and parasites, report their analyses to a physician and utilize specialized equipment to perform tasks simultaneously. Excellent communication skills are a must, as they generally work as team members within the lab. Those in this position should also be able to pay great attention to detail and multitask effectively and efficiently.

The average salary of a Clinical Technician is $18.54 per hour. That's $38,569 a year! Although a daunting profession, it is not without its rewards and benefits.

What general advice would you give to a clinical technician?

Eve Leija AAS, NCMA

Medical Assistant Program Director, Website

To maximize salary for a medical assistant obtaining certification from one of the credentialing organizations such as American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) can make a new hire more competitive. Continuing educations along with developing any specialized skills such as phlebotomy. Demonstrating professionalism initiative and reliability, along with gaining a strong reference from previous employers.

ScoreClinical TechnicianUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,760

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.80%

Asian 11.21%

Black or African American 12.83%

Hispanic or Latino 16.47%

Unknown 5.08%

White 53.61%

Gender

female 73.39%

male 26.61%

Age - 44

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 - 44

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.7

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clinical technician

Explore clinical technician education requirements

Most common clinical technician degrees

Bachelor's

40.1 %

Associate

25.9 %

High School Diploma

11.2 %

Start to develop specific clinical technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	26.99%
Vital Signs	7.58%
Phlebotomy	7.36%
Direct Patient Care	6.55%
Customer Service	5.54%

Complete relevant clinical technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clinical technicians 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 clinical technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clinical technician resumes.

Research clinical technician duties and responsibilities

Prepare QC and QA samples for validity testing.
Resolve issues from level 1 EMR support as well as EMR issues transfer from other departments.
Recognize life threatening situations and activate the emergency response system while assisting with CPR and code cart.
Report and document description of patient care information in EMR in accordance with hospital policy and procedure.

Prepare your clinical technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your clinical technician 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 clinical technician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable clinical technician resume templates

Build a professional clinical technician 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 clinical technician resume.

Apply for clinical technician jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a clinical technician 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 clinical technicians rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Clinical technician reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2022

Pros

I like the Patient care part of the job. Seeing the patients get better and go home

Cons

Nothing

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2022