Medical Illustrator Overview
Working as a Medical Illustrator
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a medical illustrator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $27.18 an hour? That's $56,530 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Medical Illustrator Do
There are certain skills that many medical illustrators 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 dexterity, creativity and business skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a medical illustrator, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.7% of medical illustrators included graphic design, while 16.2% of resumes included adobe creative suite, and 8.9% of resumes included layout. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
How To Become a Medical Illustrator
If you're interested in becoming a medical illustrator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 46.5% of medical illustrators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 47.5% of medical illustrators have master's degrees. Even though most medical illustrators have a college degree, it's impossible 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 medical illustrator. When we researched the most common majors for a medical illustrator, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on medical illustrator resumes include doctoral degree degrees or None degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a medical illustrator. In fact, many medical illustrator jobs require experience in a role such as medical internship. Meanwhile, many medical illustrators also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or graphic designer.
What is the right job for my career path?
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Medical Illustrator 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 artist you might progress to a role such as manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title marketing manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Medical Illustrator
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
University of Texas Medical Branch Medical Illustrator IV-Department of Surgery Medical Illustrator IV-Department of Surgery | University of Texas Medical Branch University of Texas Medical Branch | 12/10/2020 12/10/2020 | $69,00012/10/2020 $69,000 |
University of Texas Medical Branch Medical Illustrator IV-Department of Surgery Medical Illustrator IV-Department of Surgery | University of Texas Medical Branch University of Texas Medical Branch | 11/27/2020 11/27/2020 | $69,00011/27/2020 $69,000 |
Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration Medical Illustrator Medical Illustrator | Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration | 07/24/2019 07/24/2019 | $43,79107/24/2019 $43,791 |
Robert Half Medical Illustrator Medical Illustrator | Robert Half Robert Half | 07/22/2019 07/22/2019 | $66,07407/22/2019 $66,074 |
Emory University Medical Illustrator, SR Medical Illustrator, SR | Emory University Emory University | 08/08/2018 08/08/2018 | $79,37308/08/2018 $79,373 |
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Top Colleges for Medical Illustrators
1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. Northeastern University
Boston, MA • Private
5. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
6. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
7. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
8. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
9. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
10. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
Top Skills For a Medical Illustrator
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, 18.7% of medical illustrators listed graphic design on their resume, but soft skills such as dexterity and creativity are important as well.
- Graphic Design, 18.7%
- Adobe Creative Suite, 16.2%
- Layout, 8.9%
- Physiology, 8.3%
- Surgical Procedures, 7.5%
- Other Skills, 40.4% See All Medical Illustrator Skills