How To Become A Media Center Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a media center specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Steve Boddy

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a media center specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.42 an hour? That's $34,162 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 22,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a media center specialist?

Steve Boddy

Content Director, WorldatWork

Graduates should expect fewer full-time employment opportunities. In some cases these opportunities will be accompanied by enhanced well-being benefits but lower salaries. There may be more contract and seasonal opportunities in the short term, which typically will not offer highly valued benefits like health insurance, retirement, and paid time off.

Full-time employment opportunities and competitive hiring wages are expected in high growth industries like technology, health care, logistics and distribution, and other essential jobs. These are most often accompanied with full benefits, which most recently has included increased offerings in well-being, remote work opportunities, and flexible schedules. However, most other organizations will offer fewer full time employment opportunities and potentially lower wages in job offers (due to supply of jobs and abundance of grads). Other reasons for downward pressure on salaries may include the graduates willingness to accept lower rates in favor of the option to work from home or desired geography. Lastly, more college grads are taking seasonal/contract roles, and may miss out on critical benefit offerings that are reserved for employees only (which often account for ~25 - 35% of their total rewards package).

So why does it matter? In all likelihood, new graduates may not start on the career path they envisioned for themselves, and will likely see slower wage growth over time. According to the WorldatWork 2020-2021 Salary Budget Survey released in August of this year, "The national total salary budget increase average fell this year - dropping to 2.9% - notably sudden, and somewhat expected, due to economic uncertainty. This decline represents a pronounced departure from the anticipated increase to 3.3% projected for 2020 a year ago." This is a tough time to be entering the workforce. The key is to be flexible in their job search. Graduates may have to sacrifice some benefits like healthcare and retirement in order to get "their foot in the door." The current reality is new college graduates are facing the worst job market in over a decade with more competition and lower salaries.

ScoreMedia Center SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,162

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.59%

Asian 5.34%

Black or African American 10.35%

Hispanic or Latino 12.21%

Unknown 5.12%

White 66.39%

Gender

female 66.96%

male 33.04%

Age - 40

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 - 40

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a media center specialist

Explore media center specialist education requirements

Most common media center specialist degrees

Bachelor's

62.8 %

Master's

15.4 %

Associate

15.4 %

Start to develop specific media center specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Computer Lab	42.29%
Library Materials	39.20%
RAN	18.51%

Complete relevant media center specialist training and internships

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

Research media center specialist duties and responsibilities

Participate in brainstorming sessions, proofread and edit marketing materials, manage magazine inventory.
Configure and maintain PCs and A/V equipment throughout the educational facility.
Formulate templates for faculty to make posters and PowerPoint presentations.
Collaborate with teachers, administration and technology support to troubleshoot ongoing problems and foster a highly productive and efficient learning environment.

Prepare your media center specialist resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable media center specialist resume templates

Build a professional media center specialist 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 media center specialist resume.