Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between field support technicians and certified medical technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a field support technician, becoming a certified medical technician takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a field support technician has an average salary of $42,440, which is higher than the $38,859 average annual salary of a certified medical technician.
The top three skills for a field support technician include customer service, user support and troubleshoot. The most important skills for a certified medical technician are patients, vital signs, and CPR.
| Field Support Technician | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $42,440 | $38,859 |
| Hourly rate | $20.40 | $18.68 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 161,037 | 164,424 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Average age | 42 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 12 |
A field service technician is working on-call to provide emergency services and test equipment devices for safety purposes and quality control. They are responsible for working with clients to prevent, troubleshoot, and repair issues. They help clients on how to install, maintain, and diagnose equipment for repair. They also present to clients how to properly use their equipment. It is also part of their job to provide training to clients in line with safety standards and regulations.
Certified Medical Technicians are specialists in medical diagnoses by performing laboratory testing and analysis for hospitals and physicians. Their duties include lab sanitization to prepare for testing and collection, recording medical samples for testing, specimen preparation, blood drawing for donation and testing, and assisting physicians with sample collection as well as equipment handling in surgical rooms. They must also understand how to use complex and sensitive testing equipment such as cell counters, analyzers, microscopes, and centrifuges.
Field support technicians and certified medical technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Field Support Technician | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average salary | $42,440 | $38,859 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $62,000 | Between $28,000 And $53,000 |
| Highest paying City | Bridgewater, NJ | Denton, TX |
| Highest paying state | Delaware | Alaska |
| Best paying company | HP | Favorite Healthcare Staffing |
| Best paying industry | Pharmaceutical | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a field support technician and a certified medical technician in terms of educational background:
| Field Support Technician | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Most common major | Computer Information Systems | Nursing |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | University of Connecticut |
Here are the differences between field support technicians' and certified medical technicians' demographics:
| Field Support Technician | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.5% Female, 10.5% | Male, 20.4% Female, 79.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.3% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 10.5% White, 55.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 15.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 10.0% White, 53.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 8% |