The primary role of a laboratory specialist is to support laboratory capacity-building tasks. The duties vary from one employer to another. As a laboratory specialist, you'll be responsible for improving the detection and identification of diseases of public health importance. You'll improve the quality of surveillance systems for pathogens of the highest public health concern. Also, you'll provide technical assistance and training to laboratories to support overall capacity building and continuous improvement schemes. Additionally, you'll help laboratories in the management and sharing of data.
Most employers prefer applicants with a bachelor's degree in life sciences or a related field. Applicants must have prior work experience. You must be conversant with laboratory diagnosis and biosafety regulations. You must also be proficient in basic computer software. Having good communication, interpersonal, organization, problem-solving, and presentation skills is essential. Laboratory specialists earn an average gross salary of $43,994, which ranges from $31,000 to $62,000.
What is a Laboratory Specialist?
What Does a Laboratory Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many laboratory specialists 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 customer-service skills, listening skills and problem-solving skills.
How To Become a Laboratory Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a laboratory specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 53.2% of laboratory specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 8.9% of laboratory specialists have master's degrees. Even though most laboratory specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Laboratory Specialist Career Paths
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 assistant manager you might progress to a role such as store manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title center manager.
Average Salary for a Laboratory Specialist
What Am I Worth?
States With The Most Laboratory Specialist Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active laboratory specialist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where laboratory specialists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Laboratory Specialist Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 4,657 | $57,305 |
| 2 | Florida | 3,997 | $38,709 |
| 3 | Texas | 3,713 | $48,432 |
| 4 | New York | 3,405 | $58,549 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | 2,530 | $44,265 |
| 6 | Illinois | 2,156 | $39,840 |
| 7 | Ohio | 2,126 | $51,558 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | 2,052 | $62,191 |
| 9 | North Carolina | 1,927 | $43,824 |
| 10 | Michigan | 1,874 | $48,877 |
| 11 | Georgia | 1,811 | $44,482 |
| 12 | New Jersey | 1,728 | $61,178 |
| 13 | Virginia | 1,452 | $44,165 |
| 14 | Indiana | 1,380 | $39,456 |
| 15 | Tennessee | 1,286 | $50,150 |
| 16 | Washington | 1,285 | $58,871 |
| 17 | Arizona | 1,273 | $56,682 |
| 18 | Minnesota | 1,234 | $47,477 |
| 19 | Maryland | 1,210 | $51,724 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 1,077 | $50,276 |
| 21 | Missouri | 992 | $42,191 |
| 22 | Colorado | 962 | $53,313 |
| 23 | Iowa | 912 | $45,744 |
| 24 | South Carolina | 900 | $38,442 |
| 25 | Alabama | 764 | $49,776 |
| 26 | Oregon | 732 | $61,099 |
| 27 | Louisiana | 678 | $45,627 |
| 28 | Kentucky | 658 | $44,221 |
| 29 | Connecticut | 633 | $59,465 |
| 30 | Kansas | 562 | $45,367 |
| 31 | Oklahoma | 525 | $40,745 |
| 32 | Utah | 517 | $48,377 |
| 33 | New Hampshire | 452 | $56,253 |
| 34 | Arkansas | 441 | $46,064 |
| 35 | Nevada | 426 | $60,743 |
| 36 | Mississippi | 373 | $44,583 |
| 37 | Nebraska | 368 | $47,196 |
| 38 | Maine | 358 | $53,560 |
| 39 | New Mexico | 335 | $50,183 |
| 40 | West Virginia | 313 | $45,502 |
| 41 | Idaho | 293 | $51,727 |
| 42 | South Dakota | 247 | $43,850 |
| 43 | Rhode Island | 229 | $52,643 |
| 44 | Delaware | 220 | $52,883 |
| 45 | Montana | 213 | $52,078 |
| 46 | Vermont | 205 | $55,073 |
| 47 | North Dakota | 184 | $49,116 |
| 48 | Hawaii | 179 | $65,347 |
| 49 | Alaska | 174 | $64,920 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 116 | $51,455 |
Top Colleges for Laboratory Specialists
1. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
3. New York University
New York, NY • Private
4. University of South Florida
Tampa, FL • Private
5. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
6. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
7. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
8. Ohio State University
Columbus, OH • Private
9. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
10. Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, PA • Private
Top Skills For a Laboratory Specialist
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, 10.4% of laboratory specialists listed chemistry on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and listening skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Laboratory Specialist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Laboratory Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Laboratory Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Laboratory Specialist Demographics
Laboratory Specialist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among laboratory specialists, 52.7% of them are women, while 47.3% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among laboratory specialists is White, which makes up 56.9% of all laboratory specialists.
- The most common foreign language among laboratory specialists is Spanish at 60.1%.
Online Courses For Laboratory Specialist That You May Like
This course is developed to improve the effectiveness of laboratory classes in higher education. It aims to support teachers to improve their teaching skills for active learning in university science laboratory courses. It will show you how laboratory sessions can differ with respect to their aim and expected learning outcomes, how to engage students for learning and how to cope with their different levels of pre-knowledge and experience and probe their understanding. Last but not least it will...
Impress management or get that job with you your ability to display life and dollar saving work place safety practices...
Learn the requirements and standards associated with OSHA and workplace safety. Safety best practices for the workplace...
Best States For a Laboratory Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a laboratory specialist. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Alaska, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Laboratory specialists make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $65,347. Whereas in Alaska and Massachusetts, they would average $64,920 and $62,191, respectively. While laboratory specialists would only make an average of $61,178 in New Jersey, 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. Massachusetts
$62,191
Avg. Salary
2. New Hampshire
$56,253
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
$60,743
Avg. Salary
How Do Laboratory Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Laboratory Specialist Employers
Most Common Employers For Laboratory Specialist
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IBM | $69,538 | $33.43 | 33 |
| 2 | University of Southern California | $58,749 | $28.24 | 41 |
| 3 | Accenture | $58,114 | $27.94 | 26 |
| 4 | St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | $58,010 | $27.89 | 105 |
| 5 | Delaware Technical Community College | $53,915 | $25.92 | 18 |
| 6 | Chamberlain University | $51,820 | $24.91 | 16 |
| 7 | University of Michigan | $51,065 | $24.55 | 462 |
| 8 | United Allergy Services | $49,483 | $23.79 | 41 |
| 9 | Creative Testing Solutions | $47,515 | $22.84 | 44 |
| 10 | US Air Conditioning Distributors | $47,475 | $22.82 | 32 |
Laboratory Specialist Videos
