How to Become 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 $31.56 an hour? That's $65,642 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.
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 72.5% of medical illustrators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 22.2% 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 bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on medical illustrator resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma 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 internship. Meanwhile, many medical illustrators also have previous career experience in roles such as graphic designer or teaching assistant.
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.
Average Salary for a Medical Illustrator
What Am I Worth?
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 • Private
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 • Private
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.
Medical Illustrator Demographics
Medical Illustrator Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among medical illustrators, 55.0% of them are women, while 45.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among medical illustrators is White, which makes up 73.8% of all medical illustrators.
- The most common foreign language among medical illustrators is French at 40.0%.
Online Courses For Medical Illustrator That You May Like
Introduction to the meaning of various roots, terms and combining forms that are components of medical words...
A practical course discussing the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) in real-world situations...
Your guide to the history, science, math, and economics of medical imaging systems (e.g, X-ray, CT, MRI, Ultrasound)...
How Do Medical Illustrator Rate Their Jobs?
Top Medical Illustrator Employers
Most Common Employers For Medical Illustrator
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Healthwise | $124,634 | $59.92 | 3 |
| 2 | Mayo Clinic | $89,579 | $43.07 | 3 |
| 3 | Atlantic Retail | $87,038 | $41.85 | 2 |
| 4 | Current TV | $83,319 | $40.06 | 1 |
| 5 | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | $80,999 | $38.94 | 2 |
| 6 | On Call International | $77,666 | $37.34 | 1 |
| 7 | Plexus | $74,725 | $35.93 | 1 |
| 8 | University of Nebraska System | $74,185 | $35.67 | 1 |
| 9 | UT Southwestern Medical Center | $74,086 | $35.62 | 2 |
| 10 | CLD | $72,678 | $34.94 | 4 |