How long does it take to become a Collector?

It takes 4 years of professional experience to become a collector. That is the time it takes to learn specific collector skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education.

How To Become A Collector: What It Is and Career Path

What is a collector and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Now, we know what you're thinking. Collector is a fun job because you just get to collect things all day. But instead of things, you'll probably be collecting debt that people owe for bills. So sometimes this won't be a fun job.

Collectors call, email, and mail debtors about money that they owe. Those people probably aren't going to be your biggest fan. But sometimes you may be able to offer them assistance. You can help debtors set up a repayment plan and help them figure out how to pay off this debt.

The people that will enjoy your presence are the people who's bills are being paid off. So not everyone will grow a distaste for you. And we're sure you're nothing like the Sheriff of Nottingham from the Legend of Robin Hood.

ScoreCollectorUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,872

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.49%

Asian 3.79%

Black or African American 12.06%

Hispanic or Latino 20.06%

Unknown 4.14%

White 59.46%

Gender

female 64.04%

male 35.96%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.9

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a collector

Explore collector education requirements

Most common collector degrees

Bachelor's

31.0 %

High School Diploma

29.6 %

Associate

22.4 %

Start to develop specific collector skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	14.26%
Customer Service	9.81%
Payment Arrangements	9.74%
Excellent Interpersonal	8.73%
Delinquent Accounts	7.86%

Complete relevant collector training and internships

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

Research collector duties and responsibilities

Manage patient focuse reports, collection modules, provider/facility A/R, collections, patient discharge letters.
Monitor all assign accounts by reviewing the client's aging, manage all potential bad debit, DSO, aging.
Prevent impeding loss and increasing profitability through negotiation and enforcement of schedule collection campaigns, consistently achieving high success standards.
Provide customer service via telephone and correspondence for patients and authorize representatives regarding outstanding patient accounts in accordance with facility protocol.

Prepare your collector resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable collector resume templates

Build a professional collector 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 collector resume.