There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a direct support worker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $10.79 an hour? That's $22,434 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 36% and produce 1,185,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many direct support workers 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 detail oriented, integrity and interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a direct support worker, we found that a lot of resumes listed 16.7% of direct support workers included intellectual disabilities, while 13.4% of resumes included personal care, and 9.4% of resumes included daily living activities. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
If you're interested in becoming a direct support worker, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 26.9% of direct support workers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.8% of direct support workers have master's degrees. Even though some direct support workers 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 direct support worker. When we researched the most common majors for a direct support worker, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on direct support worker resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a direct support worker. In fact, many direct support worker jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many direct support workers also have previous career experience in roles such as certified nursing assistant or sales associate.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a direct support worker can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as certified nursing assistant, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title patient care manager.
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.
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, 16.7% of direct support workers listed intellectual disabilities on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and integrity are important as well.